S7 



STAFFORDSHIRE. 



STAFFORDSHIRE. 



853 



and fine cruciform building, chiefly of early English date, with an 

 octagonal tower at tlie interaection. The transept is 100 feet long and 

 25 feet broad. lu 1847 this church was repaired and restored at a 

 cost of about 16,0002. The church of St. Chad has a Norman chancel, 

 with an east window of modern date, a modern nave, and a tower 

 between the nave and chancel, of perpendicular character. In the 

 town is a new district church. The Wesleyan Methodists, Baptists, 

 Independents, Quakers, and Roman Catholics have places of worship. 

 King Edward VL's Free Grammar school, founded in 1556, is free to 

 all; its income for all purposes amounts to 31 2/. a year; it had 

 27 scholars in 1854. There are also National, British, and Ragged 

 schools, a savings bank, a library, and a mechanics institute. 



Stafford has sent members to Parliament since the 23rd Edward I. 

 The assizes, quarter sessions, and a county court are held in the town. 

 The manufacture of shoes, chiefly for the London market or for 

 exportation, employs a considerable number of men. Cutlery is 

 manufactured to a small extent. Tanning is carried on. The market 

 is on Saturday ; and there are five yearly fairs, chiefly for horses and 

 cattle. 



STAFFORDSHIRE, a midland county of England, bounded N.E. 

 by Derbyshire, E. for a very short distance by Leicestershire, S.E. by 

 Warwickshire, S. by Worcestershire, S.W. and W. by Shropshire, and 

 N.W. by Cheshire. It lies between 52 23' and 53 14' N. lat, 1" 36' 

 and 2 27' W. long. The form of the county is irregular : its greatest 

 length is from north to south, from Ax-edge Common, at the junction 

 of Cheshire, Derbyshire, and Staffordshire, to the neighbourhood of 

 Bewdley (Worcestershire), 60 miles ; the greatest breadth, at right 

 angle* to the length, ia from the junction of the Dove with the Trent, 

 below Burton, to the neighbourhood of Market-Drayton (Shropshire), 

 38 miles. The area of the county is 1133 square miles, or 723,468 

 statute acres. The population in 1841 was 5 10,206; in 1851 it was 

 608,599. 



Surface, Geology, and Mineralogy. The northern is the highest 

 part of the county. It consists chiefly of wild moorland.', formed by 

 long ridgen, extending from north-west to south-east, separated from 

 each other by deep dells, or by valleys watered by the tributaries of 

 the Trent, and gradually subsiding towards the banks of that river. 

 The principal summits are Cloud-end, Biddulph Moor, How Cop 

 (1091 feet above the level of the sea), Bunster Hill, High Roches, 

 Moredge, Ecton Hill, Wever Hill (1154 feet), and Swiuccote, or Swin- 

 scoe Hill, in the northern part of the county. On the eastern side, 

 between Abbots Bromley and Burton-upon-Trent, are the high grounds 

 of Needwood Forest ; snd south of the Trent, toward the centre of 

 the county, between Stafford and Lichfield, are the high grounds of 

 Cannock Chate, one part of which (Castle Ring) u 715 feet high. 

 The western side of the county U occupied by a tract of high ground, 

 which separates the waters that flow westward by the Severn into 

 the Atlantic, from those which flow eastward by the Trent and the 

 Humber into the North Sea. 



Nearly the whole of the county is included in the new red-sand- 

 stone district of central England. The northern part is indeed beyond 

 the limit of this formation ; and there are some insulated districts 

 occupied by the coal-measures or other subjacent formations, which 

 rise through the red-sandstone. Gypsum is quarried in Needwood 

 Forest and in the adjacent part of the valley of the Dove. The pure 

 white gypnuni, or that slightly streaked with red, yields plaster of 

 Paris, which in much used in the potteries for moulds ; selected 

 blocks are turned, or otherwise converted into ornamental articles. 

 Limestone is quarried near Newcastle, iu the pottery district. Brine- 

 springs abound near the Trent, particularly at Weston, near Stafford, 

 where salt-works have been established. 



The Dudley, or South Staffordshire, coal-field extends from Crannock 

 Chase to the Worcestershire border near Stourbridge, about 20 miles 

 iu length from north by eat to south by west ; and from King's 

 Swiuford to Solio, near Birmingham, 10 miles in breadth from west 

 to east. The hills south-east of Dudley consist of one mass of basalt 

 and amygdaloid, round which the coal-measures do not crop out, as 

 rimnd the limestone, but preserve their usual level in approaching it 

 The basalt is very pure, and is locally termed Rowley Rag. It is 

 quarried for mending the roads and paving the streets of Birmingham. 

 Trap rock (greenstone) is found in that part of the coal-field which is 

 near Walsalf ; it U apparently part of a thick vertical greenstone dyke, 

 with a wedge-shaped prolongation penetrating the adjacent carbonifer- 

 ous strata. The coal of the southern part of the Dudley field is 

 distinguished by the occurrence of an extensive bed called the Main- 

 coal, 30 feet thick, but this dips to the south, and crops out at 

 n. On the east side of the coal-field, near WaUall, the transi- 

 tion limestone again rises, and the carboniferous beds crop out against 

 it. At Beaudesert, at the northern extremity of the field, cannel coal 

 Is obtained. 



In the northern part of the county another coal-field (the Pottery 

 coal-field) occurs, of triangular form, extending from Lane-End in the 

 ries to Corgleton in Cheshire. Its greatest breadth, which is in 

 the southern part, finning the base of the triangle, is 8 or 10 miles. 

 There are 32 beds of coal in this field, generally from 3 to 10 feet 

 thick. The coal-works of the county are very numerous and import- 

 ant; in the south they supply the iron and other hardware manu- 

 factures of Birmingham, Dudley, Wolverhampton, &c. ; and furnish 



ocoo. Dtr. VOL nr. 



fuel to the neighbouring counties to a considerable distance, and in 

 the north they supply the fuel to the Pottery district. Ironstone is 

 abundant in the Dudley coal-field. 



The high moorlands of the northern part of the county consist 

 partly of millstone-grit and shale ; partly of carboniferous or moun- 

 tain limestone. The millstone grit occupies the central and western 

 portion, cropping out from beneath the Pottery and South Lancashire 

 coal-fields, and overspreading the intervening country. The moun- 

 tain limestone district comprehends the eastern moorlands, and 

 extends across the upper valley of the Dove into Derbyshire. There 

 are several lead-mines and copper-mines in this district. 



Hydrography, Communications, <tc. The county belongs almost 

 entirely to the basin of the Humber. The Trent, the most important 

 tributary of that sostuary, rises from three springs on the northern 

 border of tho county, near Knypersley Hall ; and runs by Trentham, 

 the seat of the Duke of Sutherland, past Stone and Rugeley to Burton, 

 where it becomes navigable ; and 2 or 3 miles below Burton quits the 

 county altogether. [TuEXT.] 



The principal tributaries of the Trent are the Lyme from New- 

 castle-under-Lyme, the Sow, the Blyth, the Tame, the Mease, and the 

 Dove. The Lyme joins the Trent on the right bank, not far from its 

 source. The Mease during a part of its course separates the county 

 from Derbyshire. The Sow rises about 6 miles N.W. from Eccles- 

 hall, near the western border of the county, and after a course of a 

 few miles is joined on the left bank by the AleaK Brook, whicli rises 

 near the Sow, and has a course nearly parallel to it, but of rather 

 greater length. The Sow flows through the town of Stafford to the 

 junction of the Penk. The Penk rises near Wolverhampton, and flows 

 20 miles northward through Penkridge into the Sow, which it joins 

 on the right bank. Four miles below the junction of the Penk, the 

 Sow joins the Trent on the right bank. Its whole course is about 1 9 

 or 20 miles ; it is not navigable. The Blyth rises about 4 miles E. 

 from Hanley in the Potteries, and flows south-south-east 23 miles 

 into the Trent, which it joins on the left bank, 5 miles below Rugeley. 

 The Tame rises in Essington Wood, 4 miles N.W. from Walsall, and 

 flows 15 miles south-east to Aston, a suburb of Birmingham, where it 

 receives on the right bank the Rea brook, which flows through Bir- 

 mingham. From the junction of the Rea the Tame flows eastward, 

 receiving on the right bank the united streams of the Cole and the 

 Blytb, each about 16 miles long ; it then turns northward, and receives 

 at Tamworth the Anker on the right bank, after which it flows into 

 the Trent ; its whole course is about 42 miles, partly in Warwickshire, 

 but chiefly iu Staffordshire. 



The Dove rises ncnr the northern extremity of the county, and flows 

 south-south-east by or near Longnor, Ashboume (Derbyshire), and 

 Uttoxeter, into the Trent below Burton, dividing through nearly its 

 whole course the counties of Derby and Stafford : its length is nearly 

 45 miles. It is not navigable. The upper part of its course is through 

 the beautiful scenery of Dovedale on the border of the Peak. The 

 Manifold, about 9 miles from its source, ginks into the ground, and 

 after a subterraneous course of 4 miles rises again near 11am, and 

 shortly after joins the Dove ; its tributary, the Hamps, sinks iu like 

 manner, and the junction of the two streams takes place underground. 

 The Churnet rises on Biddulph Moor, 5 miles N.W. of Leek, and soon 

 after expands into a sheet of water, or lake, from the lower end of 

 which it continues its course by Leek, Alveton (or Alton), and 

 Rocester, a little way below which it joins the Dove. The western 

 border of the county belongs to the basin of the Severn, which flows 

 for about 2 milea across the south-western corner of the county, near 

 Over Arley. About 14 milea of the course of the Stow (which rises 

 near Hales Owen (Shropshire), and joins the Severn at Stourport) are 

 on or within the southern border of the county. The rivers of 

 Staffordshire abound with flab, such as pike, trout, grayling, chub, 

 perch, &c. Salmon are caught in the Severn, and occasionally iu the 

 Trent. 



The canals of this county are numerous. The most important is 

 the Trent and Mersey, or, as it is sometimes called, the Grand Trunk 

 Canal. This canal, commencing in the Trent at the junction of the 

 Derwent in Derbyshire, enters the county near the junction of the 

 Trent and Dove, and follows the valley of the Trent to Stoke in the 

 Potteries, from whence it continues its course north-west to the 

 Mersey, at Runcorn Gap. About 50 miles of its course belong to 

 Staffordshire. The Birmingham Canal and the Birmingham and 

 Liverpool Junction Canal form another important line, entering the 

 county near Birmingham, and passing through the iron and coal 

 district, by Dudley and Wolverhampton, and then running north-west 

 into Shropshire. The length of this line is about 32 miles. The 

 Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal commences in the Severn at 

 Stourport, and enters Staffordshire near the village of Whittingtou, 

 follows the valleys of the Stour and the Smestow, passes near Wolver- 

 hampton, and joins the Trent and Mersey canals near the junction of 

 the Sow and the Trent. Its length in this county is nearly 40 miles. 

 The Stourbridge Canal commences in the above canal at Stewponey, 

 and extends to the town of Stourport. The Dudley Canal commences 

 in the Birmingham and Worcester Canal (which, though not in this 

 county, is connected with the Birmingham Canal noticed above), and 

 proceeds to Dudley. A part only of the line is in Staffordshire. A 

 cut unites it with the Stourbridge Canal, and consequently with the 



