Caverswall in 1817

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

CAVERSWALL.

Caverswall is a parish at the western extremity of Totmanslow north. It contains, besides the village of Caverswall, the township of Weston Coyney and Hulme. The village is situated near the source of the river Blithe, and consists of several good houses.

But the most remarkable object in this village is Caverswall Castle, built by Sir William de Caverswell in the reign of Edward II. It is a very strong and stately structure of stone, consisting of the high keep, with an inner court and garden, and four lower towers, one at each angle of the main building. A deep moat, supplied by water from two springs, prevents access. The castle has two fronts: the north-west front towards the village, is concealed by an outer wall, which extends along the side of the street to the church-yard. On entering the outer gate, another strong high wall and gate exclude the intruder, for it is now consecrated ground, being a nunnery.

In the year 1811, a number of nuns, who had emigrated from France, and settled at Preston in Lancashire, removed to Caverswall Castle, as a more secluded place. This castle, which was sold by the Hon. Booth Grey to Mr. Brett, a banker, of Stone, in this county, was taken on lease by Walter Hill Coyney, Esq. of Weston Coyney, for the nuns; and the sisterhood, amounting to sixteen in number, with their confessor, came hither.

This priest, who is a man of very agreeable manners, has taken much pains to convert several of the peasantry of the parish to the principles of Catholicism. His success, however, has not been commensurate to his zeal; when he has any thing to bestow upon them, they are mean and willing enough to receive it; but he has discovered that the majority of his converts come to the chapel in Caverswall Castle more for the hope of gain than the hope of salvation.

In the mean time, the nuns are sufficiently active in the good work of instructing young ladies in the principles of their faith, and they have at present about 30 pupils in progress. Their discipline is sufficiently strict; the pupils wear an uniform of buff-coloured cotton; they are not suffered to ramble beyond the bounds of the gravel-walk which surrounds the moat, and two or three small fields; they walk two and two, like other boarding-school girls, and in their half-hour's exercise along the walk in the garden, are required, as a religious duty, to utter their ave-marias and pater-nosters in a low voice. The nuns themselves may be termed the Black Ladies. Their dress is entirely sable, with long thick black veils thrown over the right shoulder. Their demeanour is grave, and they generally walk with some book in their hands. Their countenances are pleasing and pensive; and if a man approaches them, they turn away as if they feared the imputation of vanity, or were in danger of weakening their principles by gratifying the eye of curiosity.

Weston Coyney, the residence of Walter Hill Coyney, Esq. is about three quarters of a mile distant from the castle. Mr. Coyney was brought up a Protestant, and was introduced to a Miss Coyney, the inheritor of a considerable estate, and an orphan. This lady is a zealous Papist, and Mr. Hill, when he married her, was obliged to adopt her family-name, and agree that if they had any daughters, they should go to mass with their mother, and the sons might go to church with their father. To this agreement they now scrupulously adhere.

The Church, which is near the Castle, is a small Gothic structure of stone, with a low tower. It was built by Matthew Cradock, Esq. about two hundred years ago. The chancel contains monuments of the family of Cradock, and the family-vault of the Parkers, of Park-hall. The late Countess of St. Vincent was buried in this vault in the year 1816, and a splendid monument, emblazoned with the most memorable achievements of Earl St. Vincent, is to be executed by a sculptor in London. It is a vicarage, in the patronage of the Parker family. The Rev. William Eddowes is the present vicar.

The parish of Caverswall, including the township of Weston Coyney and Hulme, contains 170 houses, 171 families; 450 males, 450 females: total of inhabitants 900.