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Kings Bromley in 1817

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

KINGS BROMLEY.

Bromley Regis, or King's Bromley.-This village is situated higher up the river Trent than Alrewas. According to Doomsday- book, it belonged to Earl Harold, in the reign of Edward the Confessor. At the Conquest it became the property of the Crown, and continued so till the reign of Henry III, when it passed to the Corbets, several of whom were knights and high sheriffs of the county.

In the sixth year of the reign of Edward the Fourth, this manor was sold by Robert Corbet, Esq. to William Praers ; on his demise, it devolved to Alice, his sister and heir, who was married to Mr. Patriche. It was sold on the 2d of May, 1569, by Edward Patriche, to Francis Agard, of Ireland, for the sum of £1,240.

In 1573, the manor of Bromley Regis comprised 100 messuages, 20 cottages, two water-mills, one dovecote, 1600 acres of arable land, 200 acres of meadow, 200 of pasture, 200 of wood, and 1000 of heath or furze.

This manor continued in the Agard family till the year 167*, when it was sold by the trustees of Charles Agard, Esq. to John Newton, of the Island of Barbadoes, and was bequeathed in 1794 by Sarah Newton to her cousins, John and Thomas Lane, Esqs.

The soil of this parish is of a gravelly and sandy nature. The Grand Trunk Canal passes to the south of the village. The common, comprising about one thousand acres, has lately been inclosed, and is now in cultivation. At the mill, a manufactory of bar-iron, and another of tin, is carried on to a considerable annual amount.

The church, which is built at some distance from the village, is dedicated to All Saints. It is a fine gothic building, with large and beautiful windows, and contains several monuments of the Agards and Newtons.

Among other charitable donations recorded on a large board fixed to the south wall of this church, the following are most memorable:

In 1692, Edward Cross, of this parish, gave £5 a-y ear, charged upon an estate at Bromley-Hurst, in the parish of Abbot's Bromley, to the poor of this parish, to set out an apprentice yearly for ever.

In 1699, the Rev. Richard Cross, Rector of Baggington, Warwick, erected a Free School House (John Newton, Esq. late lord of this manor, contributing an acre of land whereon to build it), and endowed the said school with an estate in Marchington Woodlands, in the parish of Abbots Bromley, valued at £30 per annum, (now £50), the rent to be paid to the master for teaching poor children therein for ever."