Grindon in 1817

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

GRINDON.

Grindon is an ancient manor, which was possessed by Robert de Stafford, in the 20th year of the reign of William the Conqueror. In the reign of Henry the Third, it was held, with Blore, by William Audley, of the Baron of Stafford. In the 9th of Edward the Third, Joanna le Strange was lady of this manor; she was afterwards married to Sir Henry Brailiford, whose daughter and heir, Joan, married Sir John Bassett, descended from the Bassetts, of Cheadle. In this family it continued till the close of the seventeenth century, when it devolved to Christopher, Duke of Albemarle.

The parish of Grindon contains 69 houses, 74 families; 206 males, 197 females: total of inhabitants, 403. The village consists of a few good farm-houses and smaller tenements.

The Church is a small modern structure of stone, in the Gothic style of architecture, with a square tower. The free-school is at the east end, where the children of the parishioners are taught to read gratuitously; but the schoolmaster is paid for instructing them in writing and arithmetic, as he only receives £8 a-year from the funds of the institution.

Among the monuments in the church-yard, the following are the most remarkable:
"Richard Bullock, of Ford, died 21st June, 1740, aged 92."
"In memory of Charles Smith, who died 25th Jan. 1814, aged 56 years,
He taught at Grindon school near five and thirty years,
And it was his desire that his bones might rest here till Christ appears."

The church is dedicated to All Saints, and is a rectory, under the patronage of the Marquis of Stafford. The Rev. James Whitaker, of Alstonefield, is the present incumbent.