Norton under Cannock (Norton Canes) in 1872

NORTON-UNDER-CANNOCK, or Norton-Canes, a village and a parish in Penkridge district, Stafford. The village stands adjacent to Watling-street, near the S side of Cannock Chase, 2 miles E by S of Wyrley railway station, 2 NW of the Wyrley and Essington canal, 3 WNW of Brownhills railway station, and 6 N of Walsall, and has a post-office under Stafford. The parish contains also the hamlets of Little Wyrley and Brownhills. Acres, 4,077. Real property, £17,599; of which £10,000 are in mines.

Pop. in 1851, 968; in 1861, 1,628. Houses, 290. The increase of pop. rose from the extension of mining operations. The property is divided among a few. The manor belongs to W. Hanbury and P. F. Hussey, Esqs. Norton Hall and Wyrley Grove are chief residences; and the former belonged to the Bishops of Chester, and passed to the Aston family. Coal and ironstone abound; and the coal is extensively worked around Brownhills.

The living is a rectory in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £330. Patron, the Bishop of Lichfield. The church was rebuilt and enlarged in 1832, at a cost of £1,220; has a pinnacled tower; and contains an ancient font. A section of the parish, containing a pop. of 783 in 1861, is within the chapelry of Ogley-Hay, constituted in 1854. There are a Primitive Methodist chapel, an endowed school with £39 a year, and charities £16.

WYRLEY (Little), a township in Norton-under-Cannock parish, Stafford; 2 miles SE of Great Wyrley. Pop., 61.

[Description(s) from The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72) - Transcribed by Mike Harbach ©2020]