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Bradley (Bradeley) in 1817

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

BRADLEY (BRADELEY).

Bradley is a considerable parish of Cuttlestone west, including Billington and Woollaston liberties. According to the population returns in 1811, Bradley contained 106 houses, 106 families, 284 males, 279 females: total, 563. Of these inhabitants 97 families were employed in agriculture, and only nine in handicrafts. This parish is of considerable extent, being four miles in length, and the average breadth full two miles, and it contains 4000 acres of land.

The village of Bradley contains several farm-houses and small tenements. According to an enumeration made in 1800, the parish contained 102 houses, and 620 inhabitants ; so that, notwithstanding the boasted salubrity of this district, there has been a diminution of 57 in the number of the inhabitants in eleven years.

Bradley Church is an ancient fabric of stone, with a tower. It is dedicated to All Saints, and is a curacy.

Billington is a township in this parish, which extends within two miles of Stafford. It contains several tenements and farms, and the vestiges of an ancient fortification, which, from its proximity to Stafford castle, might formerly have had some connection with that fortress.

Shredicote is another division of Bradley parish, and contains several farms.