Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for TAMWORTH

TAMWORTH, a town, a township, and a parish in Stafford and Warwick, and a sub-district and a district partly also in Derby, but all registrationally in Stafford. The town stands at the confluence of the rivers Tame and Anker, and on the Trent Valley railway, at the intersection of the line from Burton to Bickenhill, 14½ miles NNE of Birmingham; was known to the Saxons as Taman-weorthege or Tamaweorthige; had a palace and a mint of the Mercian kings; was burnt by the Danes in 911, and rebuilt immediately afterwards by the Princess Ethelfleda; was the death-place and the burial-place of that princess in 920; was also the marriage-place of Athelstan's sister in 924; had a castle which was held at the Norman conquest by R. de Marmion, which passed to the Frevilles, the Ferrerses, and the Comptons, and which still stands in tolerable repair; declined in the 16th century, but began soon afterwards to revive; received a charter of incorporation from Elizabeth; was visited, in 1619, by James I.; gives the title of Viscount to Earl Ferrers; is governed, under the new municipal act, by a mayor, four aldermen, and twelve councillors; has sent two members to parliament from the time of Elizabeth; is a seat of sessions and a polling place; presents a well built and pleasant appearance; and hes a head post-office,‡ a r. station with telegraph, a banking office, four chief inns, a town hall enlarged and beautified in 1812, a public reading room and library, a bronze statue of the late Sir Robert Peel, two bridges, a church of decorated English date, six dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, an endowed grammar-school with £34 a year, another endowed school with £14, alms houses with £191, a workhouse , and general charities £395. A weeky market is held on Saturday; fairs are held on the; last Monday of Jan., the first Monday of March, 5 April, 4 May, 26 July, the first Monday of Sept., 24 Oct., and 15 Dec.; and cotton manufacture, calico-printing, wool-stapling, dyeing, and bleaching are carried on. The municipal borough is conterminate with T. township; but the parliamentary borough includes also 7 other townships and a liberty. The corporation revenne is about £380. Electors in 1833, 586; in 1863, 463. Pop. of the m. borough in 1851, 4,059; in 1861, 4,326. Houses, 923. Pop. of the p. borough in 1851, 8,655: in 1861, 10,192. Houses, 2,103.

The township is partly in Stafford and partly in Warwick. Pop. in 1861, of the S. portion, 1,989; of the W. portion, 2,337.—The parish includes also two other townships and a hamlet in Stafford, and four townships and five liberties in Warwick. Acres, 11,900. Real property, £31,573. Pop. in 1851, 8,649; in 1861, 10,190. Houses, 2,102. Drayton Manor, the fine seat of Sir R. Peel, Bart., is 2 miles SSW of the town. Bricks, tiles, and drain-pipes are extensively made. The living is a vicarage, united with the chapelries of Aming ton and Hopwas, in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £300.* Patron,H. W. Repington, Esq. The p. curacies of Fazeley, Wigginton, and Wilnecote, are separate benefices.—The sub-district excludes part of the parish, but includes 8 other parishes, part of another , and 2 extra-parochial tracts. Acres, 26,176. Pop., 8,647. Houses, 1,853.—The district contains also Fazeley sub-district, and comprises 46,740 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £8,748. Pop. in 1851, 13,996; in 1861, 15,504. Houses, 3,240. Marriages in 1863, 106; births, 514,-of which 47 were illegitimate; deaths, 441,-of which 187 were at ages under 5 years, and 11 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 900; births, 4,733; deaths, 2,917. The places of worship, in 1851, were 21 of the Church of England , with 6,467 sittings; 2 of Independents, with 550 s.; 2 of Baptists, with 215 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 150 s.; 1 of Unitarians, with 160 s.; 6 of Wesleyans, with 921 s.; 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 30 s.; and 3 of Roman Catholics, with 340 s. The schools were 23 public day-schools, witli 1,785 scholars; 24 private day-schools, with 535 s.; and 26 Sunday schools, with 1,977 s.


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

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a township, and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Tamworth AP/Tn/CP       Derbyshire AncC       Staffordshire AncC       Warwickshire AncC
Place names: TAMAN WEORTHEGE     |     TAMAWEORTHIGE     |     TAMWORTH
Place: Tamworth

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