Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for BREWOOD

BREWOOD, a small town, a parish, and a subdistrict, in Penkridge district, Stafford. The town stands near Watling-street, the river Penk, and the Birmingham and Liverpool canal, 2 miles WNW of Four Ashes r. station, and 4½ SW by S of Penkridge; and has a post office‡ under Stafford. It formerly had a weekly market; and still has fairs on the third Thursday of March, May, and Nov., and on 19 Sept. Some trade is carried on in malting and lock-making. The parish includes also the liberties of Chillington, Somerford, Engleton, Horsebrook, Coven, Kiddermore-Green, and Huttons and Gunston. Acres, 11,839. Real property, £21,634. Pop., 3,399. Houses, 723. The property is divided among a few. Chillington Hall, a fine mansion, is the seat of the Cliffords. Two nunneries, Cistertian and Benedictine, were founded in the parish, the former in the reign of Richard I., or of John; and came to be known as the White Ladies and the Black Ladies; and they figure under these names in the narrative of Charles II. 's concealment in the neighbouring locality of Boscobel, after the battle of Worcester. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £670.* Patron, the Bishop of Lichfield. The church is later English, with a handsome spire; and was renovated in 1833. The vicarages of Bishopswood and Coven are separate benefices. There are chapels for Independents, Methodists, and Roman Catholics. A grammar school, founded by Dr. Knightley in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and at which Bishop Hurd and Sir E. Littleton were educated, has £412 a year from endowment; and other charities have £47.-The subdistrict contains two parishes and parts of three others. Acres, 20,782. Pop., 5,629. Houses, 1,177.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a small town, a parish, and a subdistrict"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Brewood AP/CP       Brewood SubD       Cannock RegD/PLU       Staffordshire AncC
Place: Brewood

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