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Fazeley in 1817

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

FAZELEY.

Fazeley is remarkable for nothing so much in antiquity as being the termination of a very spacious and beautiful part of the Roman street, or Watling-street-road, where it leaves this county, in its way through Warwickshire to London.

On the fine stream of Tame, which runs through this village, stands an ancient corn-mill, and the large cotton-mills of Sir Robert Peel and Co. who accidentally, in digging for other purposes, discovered a large spring of the purest water, which, upon analyzation, was found to be of a much superior quality to any before known in Fazeley or its neighbourhood.

This spring-water has been conveyed in pipes to the works, where it has been used for the purposes of bleaching, printing, etc. and has contributed much to the prosperity of the establishment. Several large factories, and numerous tenements for the accommodation of the workmen and their families, have been erected at Fazeley, and a very considerable increase of population has kept pace with the success of the manufacturers.

The facility of inland navigation from this village to different parts of England, by the canal from Birmingham, which divides into two branches, one uniting with the Trent and Mersey, and the other extending to Coventry and Oxford, has greatly contributed to the prosperity of the place.

According to the population returns in 1811, Fazeley contained 508 males, and 657 females: total, 1165.

Dunstal is a good old farm, situated on the west side of the Tame, between Hopwas and Fazeley. It belongs to the Levett family, of Lichfield.

Biterscote is another small hamlet, in the parish of Tamworth.

Bonehill is another small hamlet, which has passed, with Fazeley and Drayton manor, from the late Marquis of Bath, to Peel, Wilkes, etc. Bonehill is now remarkable for the cotton-factory of Sir Robert Peel and Co. and a neat modern mansion, the residence of . the present minister of Tamworth.