Shareshill in 1817

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

SHARESHILL.

Shareshill, which includes Saredon Great and Little, Latherford, and Saredon mill, is a small parish in the south-east angle of Cuttlestone hundred.

The village of Shareshill is pleasantly situated on an eminence, on the summit of which stands the church. It contains several well-built houses; some of the families reside in tenements of their own, and others are tenants. The population of the parish in 1811, was 493 persons, who were chiefly employed in agriculture. The land about the village is a good sound loam, well adapted to grain and turnips, as well as pasturage.

The principal land proprietors are Robert Smith, Esq. of Appleby, Leicestershire, who resides on a part of his own estate, and the Rev. J. H. Petit, who resides at Hilton-hall, but who has a good estate here, and is the present minister of the parish. Shareshill Church contains several antique monuments of the Vernon family.

A small rivulet which rises in Essington Wood, runs between Shareshill and Saredon, into the Cannock-heath branch of the Penk, a little above Deepmore Mill. This stream, abounds with excellent trout.

Shareshill is a place of antiquity. In the 1st Henry IV. AD 1399, Sir William de Shareshall, Knt. of Shareshall, was Sheriff of Staffordshire. On the north and south sides of this village, are vestiges of two encampments, supposed from their square form to have been of Roman construction.

Great and Little Saredon are hamlets of Shareshill. The manor, and tithes, and a good estate, belong to the Littleton family; besides which, the Rev. J. H. Petit, Mr. Hordern, banker, of Wolverhampton, Mr. Pratt, of Saredon Mill, and others, possess good estates here. The Cannock-heath branch of the Penk passes near the boundary between Penkridge and Shareshill, and upon it are Saredon and Deepmore Mills, which are very powerful corn-mills.