Cheadle in 1817

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

CHEADLE.

Cheadle is a market-town in Totmanslow South, situated in a vale near the river Tean, and 145 miles from London. This town was the ancient seat of the Bassets, of Drayton, but it contains no remains of antiquity.

The hills near the town are bleak and barren ; many of them are covered with heath, and have lately been planted with firs and other trees. Cheadle Park, which is three miles in circumference, contains thirty-three inclosures, and has been much improved. Here are some valuable coal-mines; and a high barren hill belonging to it, which rises near the town, is the principal public walk of the inhabitants, as it affords an extensive prospect of the surrounding country. Lichfield Cathedral, which is twenty-seven miles distant, is perceptible on a clear day.

The parish of Cheadle contains 626 houses, 640 families; 1535 males, 1656 females: total inhabitants 3,191. About one-third of the population is employed in the tape-manufactory, and other handicraft arts; and the remainder in agriculture, and as shopkeepers, innkeepers, and various professions connected with mechanical arts. The weekly market is held on Friday, and is plentifully supplied with provisions. There are two annual fairs for horses and cattle; one held on Holy Thursday, and the other on the 21st of August.

There are extensive brass and copper-works, belonging to Messrs. Patten and Co. situated in a valley on the Tean, about half a mile south of Cheadle. Part of the copper is supplied from a mine at Mixon, but the principal part is brought from the great mines at Ecton. The copper and brass are smelted in the furnaces here. The brass is made into ingots for the brass-founders; and copper and brass are rolled into sheets.

Cheadle Church is an ancient Gothic structure of stone, roofed with oak. It is situated on an eminence, and the square stone tower, which contains a clock and six bells, is adorned with four pinnacles and vanes. The interior of the church is neat. The nave is supported by six Gothic arches, and it contains two galleries. When viewed from the chancel, the effect is simple and sublime: the windows "casting a dim religious light," and the large organ at the west end, in a very elevated situation, rising almost to the high roof, gives an air of magnificence to the whole. This church is dedicated to St. Giles, and is a rectory in the patronage of Trinity College, Cambridge. The Rev. Dellaber Pritchett, AM. is rector.

The following epitaph in the church-yard is unique:
"In sixteen hundred and ninety-three,
George Wood, of Cheadle, set this tree;
Which was alive, but now he's dead,
Up to this stone here lies his head.
Be sure you have account to give,
When you are dead, how you did live."
He was buried at the root of a yew-tree of his own planting, which is now rooted-up.

There is a chapel belonging to the Calvinists in Cheadle. A free-school has long been established in this town, endowed with twenty pounds a-year.