High Offley in 1817

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

HIGH OFFLEY.

Offley or High Offley, so called from its elevated situation (which commands extensive views from S.E. to N.W.) is a parish of Pirehill North, containing the townships of High Offley and Woodseves, and adjoins on the north the parish of Eccleshall. The village of High Offley contains four large farm-houses and a few smaller tenements. The Church is an ancient Gothic fabric, consisting of a nave and south aisle, divided by five plain round pillars. It is neatly pewed with oak, and has a capital organ, the gift of John Salmon, Esq. of London, a native of the parish. 
In the church are two monuments of the Skrymsher family. The vicarage is in the gift of the Bishop of Lichfield : the Rev. Peter Vaughan, D. D. Warden of Merton College, Oxford, is the present incumbent; and the Rev. Thomas Harding, curate. The great tithes of Offley are attached to the prebend of that name in the Cathedral Church of Lichfield. 

The manor and parish are co-extensive, and contain (according to the survey by the commissioners for enclosure in 1809) 2450 acres. The manor was for many generations held by the Skrymsher family. It is now the property of the Rev. Josiah Hinckes. 

From the foundation of a Roman road (ENE to WSW) traceable on the lands a little northward of the church, and Roman coins in great numbers, flat bricks, armour, fragments of pottery, &c. having been ploughed and dug up on the side of the hill south of the church-yard, it has been conjectured (with great probability) that the Roman station Mediolanum was here situated. Knightley and Drayton-in-Hales, both which have been named by antiquaries as the supposed site of Mediolanum, are within a short distance, but are not known to have any evidences of that kind to corroborate such an opinion. 

The parish of High Offley is in general fertile : the soil consists of an excellent sound loam, adapted to turnips, corn, or grass. The Batchacre estate, (late the residence and property of Richard Whitworth, Esq. whose remains are interred in High Offley church-yard) in this parish, consisting of about 500 acres, has lately been purchased by John Walford, Esq. who has built Hillhall for Ms residence. Mr. Walford is making rapid improvements upon land which had formerly been ranch neglected, by a very extensive system of under-draining-, clearing off rubbish by the irrigation of his meadows, by improved culture on the upland, and by manure. He cultivates the common and Swedish turnip upon the Northumberland system, in small ridges, and horse-hoes between, he has used lime freely, and is making important experiments with peat ashes. The estate abounds with peat, which is dug in squares, laid in heaps, and set on fire when dry, and thus without other fuel burnt to ashes. The ashes can be produced at less than a penny per bushel, and it is supposed that one hundred bushels per acre is equal to a dressing of lime. It may be drilled-in with the seed for any crop, or scattered over grass-land, corn, or any crop, in the manner in which soot is spread, and is of universal application. Large crops of turnips and grain have been thus raised without any other manure. 

This parish contains 100 houses, 100 families ; 297 males, 289 females : total, 586 inhabitants. 

In this parish was a water called Shebben or Shebden-pool, which is noticed by Plot as being in his time the resort of a great number of Pewits.These birds are stated to have changed their settlements from time to time. Their first abode, according to Plot, was at a pool about half a mile s. w. of Norbury church. From whence they removed to Offley-moss, near Woods-eves, to Aqualate, and other neighbouring pools. One while they were settled at the pools about Batchacre, where, according to Mr. Shaw, Mr. Whitworth for many years kept a regular and most entertaining journal of all their singular proceedings until their gradual departure. Plot ascribes some of their transmigrations to the death of the heads of the Skrymsher family, then the chief proprietors of estates about their places of resort, which he terms a "strange quality." The less credulous reader will probably ascribe their removals from and returns to former abodes, to better feeding and more quiet and abundant accommodation for laying their eggs and protecting their young. 

The Shebben and Pewit pools are now drained and enclosed, and of course deserted by their former occupiers. The lands, arable, meadow, and pasture, are mixed in due proportion throughout the parish, and are well cultivated.