Bucknall-cum-Bagnall in 1817

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

BUCKNALL-CUM-BAGNALL.

Bagnall is a small village, about two miles to the south of Endon, and six miles to the north-east of Newcastle. The Caldon Canal passes through this parish from the vale of Trent, into the vale of the Churnet, being its highest level, and where it is supplied with water from the reservoir in Rudyard vale.

The manor-house in this village, which belongs to John Sparrow, Esq. of Bishton, is now inhabited by a tenant. It is a good mansion of stone, and appears to be of considerable antiquity.

The Church, which is a most miserable structure of stone, and in a ruinous state, stands on an eminence in a pasture field. It might be mistaken for a small barn but for the wooden belfry, containing one small and solitary bell: the east end is actually propped by a piece of timber. The interior is inconvenient: six small windows admit the light.

It is a chapel of ease to Stoke-upon-Trent, and the Rev. John Smith, who resides at Dilhorne, is minister.