Alton in 1817

Description from A Topographical History of Staffordshire by William Pitt (1817)

ALTON (ALVETON).

Alveton is an extensive and populous parish, including the townships of Cotton, Denston, and Farley. The village of Alveton is situated to the north of Bradley, four miles NE of Cheadle. This village is built upon very uneven ground, in a most romantic situation near the river Churnet. It contains several well-built modern houses, and is remarkable for the ruins of an ancient Castle, built and inhabited by Bertram de Verdon, the founder of Croxden Abbey.

After the lapse of several years, this castle devolved by marriage to the Furnivals. It continued two successions in this family, when, falling to Joan, the only heir, who married Thomas Neville, brother to the Earl of Westmoreland, he was in her right created Lord Furnival. He left by her only one daughter, Joan, who having married to John Talbot, afterwards Earl of Shrewsbury, she brought the manor and castle of Alveton into his family, and it is now the property of the present Earl of Shrewsbury.

The site of Alveton Castle is very commanding, and naturally strong, built on a rocky precipice on the south bank of the Churnet, the base being elevated about eighty yards above that river. On this side it was inaccessible, and it was strongly fortified by an entrenchment on the side next the church. The ruins consist of two towers, the most perfect of which is overgrown with ivy, with a small vase in the centre; the other is partly fallen in. A covered archway, and fragments of the thick outer wall, also remain.

Alveton Church, which stands near this Castle, above the village, is an ancient and low Gothic edifice of stone, with a strong square tower: the roof is covered with lead. The interior is heavy, and ill lighted with very small windows: the pews are of oak. It is dedicated to St. Peter, and is a vicarage, in the patronage of R. Williamson, Esq.: the Rev. Thomas Blackey, the present vicar, resides in a neat white mansion near the extremity of the village.

The parish of Alveton contains 357 houses, 358 families; 955 males, 943 females: total of inhabitants 1,898. There is an extensive wire manufactory established at Oakamoor, on the Churnet, and another at the village, near Alveton, by Messrs. Patten and Co. of Cheadle. About 30 workmen are employed at the former, and 50 at the latter place. A cotton manufactory was begun on this river about thirty years ago by a company of adventurers, but it was afterwards relinquished, and the building is now occupied as a corn-mill. There is also a large tan-yard in the village.

There are two places for divine worship in Alveton, namely, the Church, and a chapel for Calvinists. The Rev. Mr. Tallis is minister of the latter. Several Methodists reside here, but they have not yet erected a meeting-house, and they consequently meet at private houses.

Near the north bank of the Churnet, opposite the Castle, stands Alveton Abbey, the summer residence of the Earl of Shrewsbury. His Lordship has made great improvements on his manor, and given employment to masons, bricklayers, labourers, and different artists connected with architecture. He is somewhat fanciful, and has built and pulled down several ornamental temples on his grounds; and he is now engaged in the erection of a tower on the summit of a hill, which will command an extensive prospect of the circumjacent country. Lord Shrewsbury, who is a zealous Catholic, married a Miss Hoey, the daughter of a bookseller in Dublin, who was also a votary of the Holy Mother Church, and a considerable number of Catholics are retained in the family mansion.

Alveton is a constablewick over thirteen townships, the inhabitants of which owe suit and service to Lord Shrewsbury, who holds a court leet and a court baron, with the view of frank pledge, in the Moot-hall belonging to the manor. It is situated opposite the Church, and is occupied as a free-school, with an annuity of £12 for the instruction of twelve boys and girls. A branch of the Grand Trunk and Caldon canal passes through the valley near Alveton, parallel with the river Churnet, and is continued to Uttoxeter.

On Sunday, April 20, 1805, a great shock of an earthquake was felt at Alveton, and the places adjacent, about one o'clock in the morning. During the concussion several chimneys were thrown down, particularly in the hamlet of Prestwood, but the inhabitants received no injury.

August 31st, 1810, Alveton and the neighbourhood was visited with the most dreadful storm of thunder, hail, and rain, that ever was remembered by the oldest inhabitant. Hail-stones of more than five inches in circumference, lay three inches thick upon the ground, and broke many of the windows, which were also forced-in by a violent west wind. Much glass was broken in the hot-houses of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and those of the neighbouring gentlemen, and some damage sustained in the farms and orchards. This storm lasted three quarters of an hour.