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Hopwas Hays in 1817

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

HOPWAS and HOPWAS HAYS.

Hopwas is situated on the west bank of the river Tame. In Domesday-book it is thus recorded: "The King holds Opewas; there are three hides; the arable land is six carucates. In demesne there is a mill of thirteen shillings and four-pence rent; and eleven villans and two borders employ five ploughs. Here are thirty acres of meadow, a wood six furlongs in length and three in breadth. The whole was valued aforetime and then at 40s."

Hopwas is a small hamlet situated at the bottom of a hill, the most remarkable object on which is a house on the summit, environed by a wood called Hopwas Hayes.

The turnpike-road from Lichfield to Tamworth passes through Hopwas; and in an opposite direction, the Birmingham and Fazeley canal passes through it, to join the Grand Trunk at Fradley-heath. The old stone-bridge, of sixteen arches, over the Tame at Hopwas, was washed down by the memorable flood in February, 1795, and was again repaired at considerable expense by the county.