Bushbury in 1817

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

BUSHBURY.

Byshbury, or Bushbury, is a pleasant though retired village, about two miles north-east of Wolverhampton: its ancient name, Biscopesburie, seems to imply that it was once the seat or residence of some of the Mercian Bishops. In the time of William the Conqueror, this manor was held of William Fitz Ansculf, whose posterity assumed the name of Byshbury: it afterwards belonged to the Grosvenors, and the Goughs, ancestors to the well-known antiquary of that name. Peter Tichborne Hinckes, Esq. of Tettenhall, is the present lord, who purchased the estate and mansion in 1790.

The parish of Byshbury is divided into two distinct parts, Byshbury and Essington, each maintaining its own poor, and paying its quota to the church-rates: the liberty of Byshbury, including Moseley, is very extensive, and comprises nearly 6000 acres. At Byshbury-hall is still preserved a chair called the King's chair, in which Charles the Second sat during his concealment in this mansion. In 1770, the skeleton of a man in complete armour, supposed to have been one of Charles the First's cuirassiers, was found by some workmen employed in cleansing a pit in an adjoining field.

The Church, dedicated to the assumption of the Blessed Virgin, is an ancient stone edifice, surmounted by a massy embattled tower. The nave is spacious, and rests upon two pointed arches on short hexagon pillars on the north, and four similar arches on the south side: the chancel, more modern than the rest of the building, is large, lofty, and handsome, particularly the roof, which is constructed of oak, supported by curiously-carved flying buttresses.

This church contains monuments of the families of Moseley, Huntbach, Hellier, Leacroft, Whitgreave, Gough, and others, including that to the memory of Thomas Whitgreave, Esq. the celebrated protector of Charles the Second. About fifty years ago, the monument of Hugh Byshbury was opened, and found to contain a stone coffin with a skeleton, and a silver chalice, now used in the communion service.

On the north side of the chancel is a mural monument erected by Mr. Huskisson MP, to the memory of William Huskisson, Esq, of Oxley, in the parish of Byshbury; Elizabeth, his wife; and Richard, their second son, a naval surgeon, who died at Guadaloupe in the year 1794. It is inscribed as follows:
Brave, sensible, humane, thy mind and heart
Completely fashioned for the healing art,
Led thee, young Huskisson, with guardian care
To rescue valour from perdition's snare,
Teaching the mariner in noxious seas
To foil the hovering harpy of disease,
Thy bolder pity labour'd to sustain
The soldier drooping with contagious pain,
Where death, that Nature to her rage might bend
Robb'd her of thee, her salutary friend.
Humanity and honour join'd in grief,
Where they dejected lost thy dear relief.
Paying to virtue their acknowledged debt,
Gave thee a foreign grave with fond regret.
A brother who in thee could once rejoice,
(His bosom-friend by Nature and by choice,)
Feels and records on this thy vacant tomb,
Pride in thy worth, and anguish in thy doom.

Byshbury is a vicarage in the patronage of some respectable families in the neighbourhood: in the year 1800, it was presented to the Rev. John Clare AM, who is also a Magistrate of the county: the Rev. Gentleman resides in the vicarage-house, erected by himself in a pleasant part of Byshbury-field. This village is sheltered on the east by a lofty hill, covered with a profusion of yew and other trees, over which, tradition asserts, the great London road to Chester once passed: from the summit of this hill (which is 650 feet above the level of the sea), is a very rich and extensive prospect. Byshbury has been much improved of late years: the soil is gravelly, with a dry and pure air.

Byshbury liberty is chiefly occupied by opulent freeholders, who cultivate their own estates, which are in a high state of improvement. Richard Phillips, Esq. has a handsome house and offices on the upper or south part of the hill; Oxley is the property of James Hordern, Esq. who purchased it of the Huskisson family in 1793; Wobaston, which gives name to one of the prebends of Wolverhampton, has been a possession of the Forsters for several generations; Ford-houses, a newly-erected mansion, the residence of the owner, Lewis Clutterbuck, Esq.; and Low-hill, a neat and modern villa, the property and residence of Richard Pountney, Esq. all deserve notice as so many objects of rural beauty, independent of their pre-eminence in agricultural improvement. There are several other ancient seats within the lordship of Byshbury, and amongst them Old-fallings, occasionally occupied by John Gough, Esq.

A great Low or tumulus (says Huntbach) is still visible here; and Plott has fixed another of these places of sepulture (of Roman erection), in a field called Gun-birch, anciently Birchen Leasow, from the circumstance of part of the bolt of a catapulta having been found in its vicinity, before alluded to.

Moseley is a constablewick in the parish of Byshbury, and contains between five and six hundred acres. Here is a neat mansion, the property of Mrs. Horton, who owns part of the estate. The other part of Moseley belongs to T. H. F. Whitgreave, Esq. in whose ancient seat Charles the Second found an asylum after the battle of Worcester: Moseley is still the family-mansion. Mr. Whitgreave retains a domestic chaplain, and a small building is appropriated as a place of worship for the Catholics in the neighbourhood.

Essington: This manor comprehends the north-east part of the parish of Byshbury, and chiefly belongs to the Vernons, of Hilton. Some remains of an ancient residence of the De Essingtons, formerly seated here, may still be traced. Essington-wood and the Snead-commons (about 1000 acres) have been inclosed, and are now under cultivation.

A branch of the Wyrley and Essington canal passes over these commons: a coal-mine has been worked upon the former for time immemorial. The uplands command some good prospects. A very fine species of sand was some years ago discovered upon an estate in this neighbourhood, which possesses some of the qualities of the Lemnian earth. Some curious pebbles have also been found at different times: Dr. Plott describes a "valuable" one picked up on Coven-heath. An attempt to establish here a manufactory of emery from ground pebbles, failed.