Keele in 1868

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer (1868)]

"KEELE, a parish in the N. division of the hundred of Pirehill, county Stafford, 2 miles W. of Newcastle-under-Lyme, and 2½ from the Madeley station on the London and North-Western railway. The village is considerable, and the inhabitants are chiefly engaged in the coal and iron works, and in the silk mills.

The surface is undulating, and the land chiefly pasture. The soil is a stiff clay, producing excellent wheat crops. The road from Newcastle to Betley and Nantwich passes through the parish. At Silverdale are ironstone mines and collieries, and smelting furnaces worked by a blast of heated air.

The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Lichfield, value £195. The church, dedicated to St. Michael, has an embattled tower, and was rebuilt in 1790. The parochial charities produce about £17 per annum, of which £5 goes to the support of the National school. The Wesleyans and New Connexion Methodists have each a chapel.

Keele Hall is a stone mansion, situated on rising ground, surrounded by a well-wooded park. It has been the seat of the Sneyd family upwards of two centuries. Ralph Sneyd, Esq., is lord of the manor and sole landowner."

"SILVERDALE, a village in the parish of Keele, county Stafford, 2 miles N.W. of Newcastle-under-Lyne. It is a station on the Silverdale and Longton branch of the North Staffordshire railway."

 

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]