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Keele in 1859

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Topographical Dictionary of England, Samuel Lewis - 1859

KEELE (ST. MICHAEL), a parish, in the union of Newcastle-under-Lyme, N. division of the hundred of Pirehill and of the county of Stafford, 2 miles (W. by S.) from Newcastle; containing 1194 inhabitants. The parish is intersected by the road from Newcastle to Betlev and Nantwich, and comprises by measurement 
2500 acres, mostly arable and pasture land, but chiefly the latter.

The surface is undulated, and the soil of a stiff nature, generally lying close upon clay, and producing excellent crops of corn; in many places the grounds are well planted. At Silverdale are collieries and ironstone mines, and smelting-furnaces worked by a blast of heated air; which afford employment to upwards of 600 persons.

The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £171, with 23 acres of glebe, and a house at a nominal rent; patron and impropriator, Ralph Sneyd Esq. The church, a neat embattled stone edifice with a tower, on an elevated site at the east end of the village, was built in 1790, principally at the expense of Colonel Sneyd; it contains about 350 sittings. There is a place of worship for Wesleyans; and a school is supported by subscription, aided by a bequest of Mrs. Sneyd's of £5 per annum. 

 

[Description(s) from The Topographical Dictionary of England (1859) by Samuel Lewis - Transcribed by Mike Harbach ©2020]