Maer in 1817

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

MAER.

Maer, is a parish and village in Pirehill North, situate about mid-way between Newcastle and Drayton, and adjoining the parish of Mucclestone. It probably derives its name from a natural lake or mere (covering about twenty-two acres of land) which is the source of the Team, a stream that falls into the Severn, and divides this county from Shropshire in the neighbourhood of Market Drayton. The parish comprises the townships of Maer and Maer-way-lane. The soil of the inclosed land is a gravelly loam. The manor anciently belonged to William de Maer and Robert de Stafford, from whom it passed through different hands, till it became by purchase the property of Josiah Wedgwood, Esq. of Etruria, in the Potteries. It comprises upwards of 3000 acres of land. 

At the east-end of the lake stands Maer Hall, also the property and till lately the residence of Mr. Wedgwood, who has re-edified and converted it into an elegant modern mansion, and embellished the grounds with plantations, and other spirited improvements. The boggy land has been drained, and the whole of the common called Maer-heath divided and enclosed, and is now in progress of cultivation. 

The Church, which is dedicated to St. Peter, is situated a few yards to the east of Maer Hall, and is a small plain stone building, consisting of a nave, north-aisle, a chancel at the east, and a tower at the west end of the nave: it has also a south porch. The church appears to have been erected or rebuilt in 1610, as that date is inscribed on the south side of the tower. It contains monumental inscriptions of the families of Sir John Bowyer, and Robert Macclesfield, Esq. 

The cloth for the communion-table is an old Turkey carpet of great antiquity, the gift of Margaret Tether, daughter of Thomas Picken, of Maer-heath, and brought by her from Constantinople and given to Maer Church, in 1639. From 1558 to 1803 there were 24 curates in 245 years. 

There are a few benefactions to the poor of this parish. Mr. William Cleyton, Gent, of Radwood, in the parish of Maer, left by his last will and testament, bearing date Nov. 8, 1624, the sum of £100. for certain charitable uses, for a limited time. And his son, John Cleyton, of the same place, on September 18, 1634, gave the sum qf £60. with which sum and his father's legacy, amounting to £160. he purchased from Sir William Bowyer, Knt. of Knipersley, in the county of Stafford, an annual rent of eight pounds, payable every Lady-day and Michaelmas-day, by equal portions, charged upon certain lands, &c. in the parish of Maer. He also appointed trustees to receive the said annual rent, and to pay the yearly sum of four pounds thereof, by two equal portions, to the Minister of Maer, " to encourage him to take pains in preaching, and also in catechizing and instructing the ignorent in the principles of religion." Also, to pay the sum of four pounds, being the residue of the said annual rent of eight pounds, for and towards placing poor children, of the parish of Maer, apprentices in some honest and lawful calling. The interest of the sum of £80. was given by different benefactors to the poor of this parish ; among whom were Mr. Dale, who gave £20,; and Mr, John Cox, mercer, of Drayton, in the county of Salop, who bequeathed in his will, dated April 22, 1691, the sum of £10. The latter (Mr. Cox) bequeathed his charity to the town of Maer, and to be distributed in portions of twelve pence each, a little before Christmas. 

The lady of the present lord of the Manor, Josiah Wedgwood Esq., very laudably supports a Sunday-school for the poor children of the parish. 

The Parish Register commences in January 1558; Extracts from the Parish Register.

Richard Wilson, died December 24, 1693, aged (ut ipse dixit) 138 ! 

Catherine Morgan, died February 6, 1639-40, aged 100. 

Mem. 1775. This year was very remarkable for the wetness of the season, and the lateness of the harvest : corn was not all got in until the middle of November. 

The living is a curacy, endowed with a small parsonage-house, about two acres of glebe, and the great and small tithes of the parish, excepting one or two estates, which are tithe-free. It is in the patronage of Josiah Wedgwood, Esq. : the present incumbent is the Rev. Robert Smith ; and the Rev. William Snape, is curate. 

An annual rent of six shillings and eightpence, called Candlestick money, is charged upon certain lands, &c. near the village of Maer, in the said parish, and is paid to the overseers. 

The parish of Maer contained in 1811, 76 houses, 80 families; 221 males, 233 females : total of inhabitants, 454. 

 About half-a-mile to the north of the village of Maer, is a hill called the Byrth ;* round a great part of the summit of which has been made a foss and rampart, of an irregular form, corresponding with the figure of the hill, which may be nearly a mile in circumference. At the distance of a mile or more from and to the north-
west of the Byrth, is another hill, which is part of Maer-heath, and is called the Camp-hill. Between these are two more hills : the one very near to the Byrth, which is named the Little Byrth ; and the other, which is larger, is called Coplow. Dr. Plot is of opinion, that a battle was fought here, about the year of our Lord 705, between Osrid king of Northumberland and Kenred king of Mercia. He also conjectures Coplow-hill to be the tumulus of Osrid, and the Byrth to be a fortification or ' strong hold that Kenred had raised against him/ His conjectures seem to be grounded chiefly on a quotation from Henry Huntingdon, viz. 
'Osrid vero rex belli infortunio juxta Mere pugnans interfectus est/ In taking a view of the ground on Maer-heath, however, there appears to be nothing artificial, except the two small hills on the Camp-hill, and the foss and rampart round the Byrth. 

" A few years ago, George Tollet, Esq, a gentleman of learning and an antiquary, the Rev. T. Barlow, and Mr. Poole, of Finney Green, and other gentlemen, went to view Maer-heath, for the purpose of ascertaining whether there were any barrows. They dug into those places that had most resemblance to barrows, but found nothing like sepulchral remains. Coplow-hill is evidently the work of Nature ; and as a public road has been made over part of the heath since the time of Dr. Plot, and sections made through some parts of the hills, in which regular strata appear, it is probable that Osrid was slain near some other place called Mere."f This battle, it has been conjectured, might have been fought near Mere or Mere-town, in the parish of Forton, near that fine lake, which ornaments the seat of Sir John Fenton Boughey, Bart, which is called Aqualate Mere, as there is very strong evidence of a battle having formerly been fought there ; and which is noticed under the article ' Forton' 

Maer-heath was formerly a waste or common of several hundred acres, but it has lately been inclosed, allotted to the different proprietors of the estates in its vicinity, and a considerable part of it planted with young trees. Part of the land was drained before it was planted, at the expense of from £5. 14s. to £7. 12s. per acre, 

Above 600,000 trees have been planted by one individual, and this rugged waste promises to become a beautiful woodland. Grass land with good herbage has already been formed upon the more level and sheltered parts of Maer-heath, some of which has been let at two pounds per acre.