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Ipstones in 1817

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

IPSTONES.

Ipstones is a parish in an elevated situation, about three miles to the north of Kingsley, and five to the south-east of Leek. It comprises the township of Morredge and Foxt, and contains 248 houses, 250 families; 631 males, 604 females: total of inhabitants 1,235. The cliffs in this parish are high and picturesque.

The village of Ipstones contains several well-built houses, and two large inns. The Church, which is about a mile from the village, is situated on a gentle eminence, and is a neat modern structure of stone, in the Gothic style of architecture, with a square tower, adorned with four pinnacles and vanes. The interior is roomy and clean, and the pews are of fir. This edifice was built in the year 1790.

Every Saturday morning the church-bell is rung at eleven o'clock to summon the out-poor of the parish to attend at church, where they receive their weekly pittance from one of the overseers. Among other instances of longevity recorded in the church-yard, is the following: "Here lie the remains of Robert Clowes, interred Nov. 7, 1771, aged 93 years:" The church is dedicated to St. Leonard. Mr. Littleton is patron, and the Rev. William Carlisle curate.

Belmont, the seat of the late John Sneyd, Esq. is in this parish. It is situated on a gentle eminence facing the south-east, and surrounded by woods of oak, elm, ash, and other trees. The underwood is mountain ash, hazle, alder, and salixes of several species, which are cut once in six years to make crates for the Potteries.