58 A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



was afterwards part of the demesne lands appertaining to the 

 honour of Tutbury, given by the Conqueror to Henry de Ferrers, 

 and is thus mentioned in the Survey recorded in Doomsday-book : 

 " Henry holds Merchametone, in which are two hides, and in Ed- 

 garsley one virgat of land. Uluric formerly held it, and was a 

 freeman. The arable land is seven carucates. In demesne there 

 are two, with one servant, eighteen villans, and nine bordars, who 

 have three carucates. There are forty acres of meadow, a wood 

 affording pasture for cattle or deer, three miles in length, and one 

 mile and a half in breadth. The whole was then valued at one 

 hundred shillings. 



Marchington Woodlands is another hamlet in this parish. It 

 consists of a number of scattered houses and farms, on a rising 

 ground, for a mile or two westward of Marchington Chapel. 



Hounhill is a manor in the chapelry of Marchington. It con- 

 sists of about 500 acres of rich pasture-land, mostly of a stiff soil. 

 On the north-west side is a considerable quantity of alabaster. It 

 belongs to Lord Vernon. 



Newborough is another township belonging to the parish of Han- 

 bury, to which, like Marchington, it has a chapel of ease, situated 

 two miles west of the mother church, on a small stream called Swer- 

 bourn, which runs alongside the borders of the forest, through Yoxall 

 into the Trent. This place was first established by Robert, son of 

 Henry de Ferrers, about the commencement of the eleventh century, 

 who granted certain parcels of land and several immunities to 101 

 burgesses. In consequence of these privileges, Newborough was 

 inhabited by handicraftsmen, and soon became a flourishing place. 



The manor of Agardsley, within which this township stands, passed 

 with that of Marchington to the Chetwynd family, and so to the 

 present proprietor, Earl Talbot. Several of the present inhabitants 

 of Newborough are weavers of linen and checks. The chapel is a 

 small modern building, and contains no monuments, for the inha- 

 bitants of the township bury their dead at the mother church in 

 Hanbury. 



Thorney-hill is an ancient hamlet in the chapelry of Newborough. 



YOXALL. This village is situated in a pleasant valley on the 

 south-west border of Needwood Forest, at the distance of seven 

 miles from Lichfield, and four from Burton-upon-Trent. It was 

 formerly a market-town, and was a member of the honour of Tutbury 

 from the time of the Conquest. Yoxall is supplied with water by 

 the rapid stream of Swerbourn, and good turnpike-roads pass 



