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Penkridge in 1817

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

PENKRIDGE.

Penkridge is another large parish, containing nine townships, and between 12 and 13,000 acres of land. Penkridge is an ancient market-town, situated on the banks of the river Penk. Camden, our greatest antiquarian, asserts that this town is built on the site of the Roman Pennocrucium. "The military way continues from Wall, very fair and plain, almost without any breach, till it is crossed and interrupted by the river Penk, and hath a stone bridge built over it at Pennocrucium, so called from the river, and standing at the same distance which Antoninus has fixed; which town has not quite lost the name at this day, being for Pennocrucium called Penkridge. At present Penkridge is only a small village, famous for a horse-fair, which Hugh Blount or Flavus, the lord of it, obtained of King Edward the Second."

This town stands six miles south of Stafford, and ten miles north of Wolverhampton; the turnpike-road to those towns runs through it, and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal passes close to it on the east side, thus affording a ready communication with distant places. In 1811, Penkridge contained 196 houses, and 204 families, consisting of 438 males, 485 females: total 923 persons.

Penkridge Church was made collegiate by a charter of King John, who settled the advowson of it upon the Archbishop of Dublin.

The following particulars respecting Penkridge, are extracted from the manuscripts of the late Sir Edward Littleton, Bart, and communicated by the Rev. Richard Slaney, vicar of the church;

SIR EDWARD LITTLETON, BART, to the REV. R. SLANEY, Penkridge.
Teddesley, Nov. 3, 1807.
Sir, By 1st Edward VI. 1547, colleges and chantrys are by Act of Parliament vested in the Crown, which puts an end to the claim of the Archbishop of Dublin's jurisdiction over Penkridge; and it remained in the hands of the Crown till granted out to others. The grant of King John to the Archbishop of Dublin, bears date 13th Sept. 1206, and is done away by the above 1st Edward VI. 1547, by an Act of Parliament. "Edw. LITTLETON."

"King Edward II. in the eleventh year of his reign, declared that the chapel at Pencriz, and others, were his free chapels, and as such, exempt from all ordinary jurisdiction, impositions, exactions, and contributions, and accordingly ordained, that none should presume to incroach upon their immunities."

The Church is a fine Gothic building of stone, with a square tower, and five bells. It is dedicated to St. Michael, being now only a curacy. It is a royal peculiar, having four chapels within its jurisdiction, namely, Dunston, dedicated to St. Leonard; Coppenhall, to St. Lawrence; Shareshill, to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary; and Stretton, to St. John. The official of the peculiar holds visitations, probate courts, and licenses the incumbents to the chapels. In the chancel of the church of Penkridge, there are several monuments of the Littleton family, who are patrons of the church. There is a charity-school in Penkridge for twelve boys and eight girls.

The principal manufacture of Penkridge is iron, which is, however, inconsiderable. From the situation of the town on the low and flat northern bank of the river Penk, it is subject to inundations when that river is swelled by floods. The market is held on Tuesday. Two annual fairs are held in this town; one on the 30th of April, and the other on the 10th of October. These fairs are allowed to be among the first in England for saddle and draught horses.

A very considerable part of the extensive parish of Penkridge is the property of the Littleton family, who have resided for centuries at Pilaton-hall. The present possessor, E. J. Littleton, Esq. has been twice chosen a representative in Parliament for the county of Stafford.

On the accession of the late Sir Edward Littleton to the estate, about the middle of the last century, he found the ancient mansion in a ruinous state. The situation was also repulsive to a man of taste, being low, and without any advantage of prospect. Sir Edward, therefore, resolved to erect a new mansion in Teddesley Park, about three miles from the ancient seat at Pilaton. The parish of Penkridge contains several other townships, villages, and hamlets, particularly Coppenhall, Dunston, Lovedale, and Drayton; Mitton, Otherton, Pilaton, and Water-Eaton; Rodbaston, and Whiston. The total population of the parish in 1811, was 2,243 persons.

Cuttlestone-bridge, over the Penk, about three quarters of a mile south-west of the town on the road to Stafford, gives name to the hundred.

Congreve, a village higher up on the Penk, is said to be the birthplace of Congreve the poet. It was the birth-place of that eminent prelate, Bishop Hurd, who held the spot in some veneration. It was related by the late Sir Edward Littleton, that in one of his visits to the Bishop at Hartlebury, as he was coming away his Lordship called out, "Is the old house at Congreve, where I was born, yet standing!" This village has also produced a still more modern writer, Miss Barker, authoress of an amusing novel, entitled "A Welch Story," in which she has introduced the character of Sir Edward Littleton, her patron, under the name of Sir Edwin. Mr. Barker, her father, was many years a respectable iron-master at Congreve, where he had one forge worked by the waters of the Penk, and another higher up on the stream at Coven.

Winston, Mitton, Preston, and part of Bickford, are townships or hamlets of Penkridge, situated on the western stream which falls into the Penk below Cuttlestone-bridge. Lovedale and Longridge are also arable districts of this parish, on a stronger soil. The heaviest clay soil is to the west of the Penk, that on the east inclining to gravel. Drayton, Woolgarston, Otherton, Rodbaston, Kinvaston, and Water-Eaton, are all hamlets of Penkridge, generally upon a gravelly or light loamy soil. The township of Water-Eaton extends south of Watling-street to the common of Calf-heath, lately enclosed, and the principal part of which is in Penkridge parish.