Longdon in 1859

LONGDON (ST. JAMES), a parish, in the union of LICHFIELD, S. division of the hundred of OFFLOW and of the county of STAFFORD, 4 miles (N.W. by N.) from Lichfield; containing 1183 inhabitants. The parish is situated on the road from London to Liverpool, and comprises by admeasurement 4455 acres; the surface is undulated, and the scenery picturesque, being richly ornamented with fine wood. The pastures are of good quality, and the arable lands produce excellent wheat and barley. The Trent and Mersey canal passes about two miles northward of the church.

The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £5.5.; net income, £186; patron and appropriator, Bishop of Lichfield. The appropriate glebe contains 49 acres, and the vicarial nearly 29 acres. The church is an ancient edifice, and contains a beautiful Norman arch. Portions of this parish, and of Cannock, were in 1837 assigned as a district to the chapel at Gentleshaw, in Longdon. There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyans; and the Society of Friends have a very ancient burial-ground at Gentleshaw. A national school has been established. St. Mary's almshouses, ten in number, were founded by Mrs. Jane Cotton. At Castle Ring, a point in the Marquess of Anglesey's park at Beaudesert, are the remains of a British encampment. 

 

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