Dilhorne in 1817

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

DILHORNE.

Dilhorne is a parish of Totmanslow North: it is of considerable extent and population. This parish, including Fosbrook township, contains 242 houses, 249 families; 581 males, 603 females: total of inhabitants, 1,184.

Some of the lands in this parish were greatly improved by the judicious management of the late John Holiday, Esq. of Dilhorne Hall. In 1792, the gold medal given by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures was adjudged to him, for having planted at Dilhorne 113,000 mixed timber trees. Previously to this, his extensive and romantic winding vales and fertilized hills, were adorned with hedge-row elms, oaks, and other trees. There are also excellent coal-mines in this estate. But the most valuable coal-mines hitherto discovered in this parish, are those on the estate of Samuel Bamford, Esq. who has a handsome mansion near the village of Dilhorne, with extensive pleasure-grounds.

The village of Dilhorne is but small. There is a free grammar-school here, endowed by the Huntingdon family, who formerly held property in this parish, which came to them by marriage with one of the co-heiresses of Sir John Port, the founder of a noble institution for the instruction of youth, at Repton, in Derbyshire. The present master of the grammar-school at Dilhorne, is the Rev. John Smith, MA, who resides in the vicarage-house. Another free-school is established at Blithemarsh, in this parish, for the township of Fosbrook; Mr. James Dunn is the present schoolmaster. A school for girls has also been established, by the beneficence of Lady Buller, Mrs. Holiday, widow of John Holiday, Esq. and Mrs. Willatt, who are all residents at Dilhorne Hall. In this school eighteen girls are maintained, clothed, furnished with books, and instructed gratuitously.

Dilhorne Church is an ancient structure of stone, with a very curious octagonal tower, which contains five musical bells. The interior is neat, the pews are of oak, and the roof is supported by eight Gothic arches. The timber of the roof is oak, adorned with curious carved work, and the outside is covered with lead. There are several monuments in the chancel, but none of the inscriptions are remarkable.

The parish registers are entire for about two centuries and a half, and the most curious circumstance recorded in them is, that, during the Protectorate, the banns of marriage between a man and a woman of Dilhorne were published at the market-cross of Cheadle by the town crier, and the parties were afterwards married by a Justice of Peace.

The church is a vicarage, dedicated to All Saints, in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield Cathedral, and the present vicar is the Rev. Henry White.