Place:


Needwood  Staffordshire

 

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Needwood like this:

NEEDWOOD, a quondam royal forest and a chapelry in the E of Stafford. The forest extended along the river Trent, at the boundary with Derbyshire, and thence westward from the neighbourhood of Burton-upon-Trent; measured about 20 miles in circuit; comprised 9, 920 acres of rich soil and fine hilly ground, covered with natural wood; was anciently divided into five wards, called Barton, Marchington, Tutbury, Uttoxeter, and Yoxhall, and included thirteen parks; was used for hunting, first by the kings of Mercia, afterwards by the kings of England, down to the time of Charles I.; wasunder the charge of a lieutenant, deputy-lieutenants, a chief ranger, a surveyor, and other officers; underwent considerable alienation and disafforesting at and after the civil wars of Charles I.; was extra-parochial till 1801; and was then distributed among the parishes of Hanbury, Tatenhill, Tutbury, and Yoxhall; and is now a beautiful tract, chiefly under cultivation, but containing about 1,000 acres of good oak timber, and many mansions withlarge parks. ...


A tree, called the Swilcar oak, is a noble remnant of the forest; measures 21 feet round the trunk, to the height of 5 feet; contains at least 1,000 cubic feet of timber; and is celebrated in Mundy's poem of " Needwood Forest." The chapelry has no definite limits, but seems to be practically conterminate with the quondam forest; lies, averagely, 4¾ miles S by W of Sudbury r.station, and 6½ W of Burton-upon-Trent; and has a post-office under Burton-upon-Trent. The manor belongs to the Duchy of Lancaster. The living is a p.curacy in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £170.* Patron, the Duchy of Lancaster. The church was built in 1809.

Needwood through time

Needwood is now part of East Staffordshire district. Click here for graphs and data of how East Staffordshire has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Needwood itself, go to Units and Statistics.

How to reference this page:

GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Needwood in East Staffordshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.

URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/21555

Date accessed: 28th March 2024


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