Places in Armitage in 1868

ARMITAGE

"BRERETON, a village partly in the parishes of Longdon and Armitage, in the hundred of Offlow, and partly in the parish of Rugeley, hundred of Cuttlestone, in the county of Stafford, 1 mile to the S.E. of Rugeley, its post town, and 6 miles N.W. of Lichfield. It is situated close to the London and North-Western railway, which has a station near Rugeley, 1½ mile to the N. of the village. The neighbouring coal-mines, belonging to the Earl of Shrewsbury, and the Marquis of Anglesey, furnish employment to the inhabitants.

Brereton is now a separate parish for ecclesiastical purposes. The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Lichfield, value £166, with 9 acres of glebe, in the patronage of the Vicar of Rugeley. The church, dedicated to St. Michael, is in the early English style, with an ornamental spire. The Wesleyan Methodists have a chapel, and there is a free school, besides National and infant schools. The Earl of Shrewsbury is lord of the manor and chief owner of the soil, which is rich in coal and minerals. A branch line of railway, to connect these collieries with the London and North-Western railway is left incomplete, but there is a tramway to the Trent and Mersey canal."

"HANDSACRE, a hamlet in the parish of Armitage, S. division of the hundred of Offlow, county Stafford, 1 mile E. of Armitage, 3 E. of Rugby, and 4 N.W. of Lichfield. It is situate on the Grand Trunk canal, over which an iron bridge was erected in 1830, in lieu of the old one. It is a fine building, consisting of one arch, 140 feet span, founded in stone piers. Near the S. entrance to the village is the old manor house surrounded by a moat. It is now converted into a farmhouse."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]