Waterfall in 1868

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

"WATERFALL, a parish in the S. division of Totmonslow hundred, county Stafford, 7 miles S.E. of Leek, its post town, and 6 N.W. of Froghall railway station. The village is situated near the river Hamps, which here flows underground for about three miles to the neighbourhood of Ilam, where it joins the river Manifold. In the parish, which includes the villages of Waterhouses and Winkshill, are an iron foundry, two paper mills, and several corn mills. The soil is clay, upon a substratum of limestone and gritstone.

The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Lichfield, value £60. The church is dedicated to St. James. The parochial charities produce about £7 per annum, which go to the free school. The Wesleyans have a chapel. A wake is held on the nearest Sunday to 10th August."

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