HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 77 



At the contested election in 1747, ten freeholders voted from 

 this parish. 



HILL RIDWARE is a small village, situated about half a mil* 

 north-east from the church of Mavesyn Ridware. The principal 

 public road in the parish passed through this village : the stocks 

 and whipping-post stand where three roads meet. A may-pole was 

 erected near the cock-pit, at the south end of the village, when 

 George I. was crowned. 



In 1796, the village consisted of 30 houses, containing 143 in- 

 habitants. Here are two day-schools for girls, and one for boys. 



Rake End is situated between Hill Ridware and Blythbury, and 

 almost contiguous to the former, insomuch that it is often reckoned 

 part of it. In this neighbourhood are two of the most pleasant 

 situations in the parish : Cawarden-spring, near a mile to the west, 

 and Bentley, above half a mile to the east. 



Blythbury. This hamlet contains about one-third of the parish, 

 extending from Bentley Pool-bridge to the river Blythe. Here 

 Hugo Malveysin settled in the reign of Henry I. and founded a 

 church and priory on this demesne. 



The priory dedicated to St. Giles was situated on the southern 

 bank of the Blythe, the northern arm of which here bounds the 

 manor, flowing through a pleasant valley. All the wants of the 

 monks were supplied by the fertile tract around them, and the 

 translucent stream. A fruitful garden and orchard, and the river 

 Blythe, which supplied their corn-mill with water and their table 

 with fish, rendered this spot peculiarly agreeable and convenient to 

 a religious confraternity ; and as the priory was in the vicinity of 

 a public road, the monks had frequent opportunities for the exercise 

 of their benevolence, by relieving the poor who made daily applica- 

 tion at their gate, and the weary and houseless traveller. These 

 monks were of the order of St. Benedict, and were commonly called 

 Black monks from the colour of their outer garments. Part of the 

 priory was appropriated to nuns ; but the male and female inha- 

 bitants repaired occasionally to the same church to sing requiem 

 for the dead. 



The old priory has been destroyed ; in 1789 there was a good 

 farm-house on the spot, but scarcely a vestige of antiquity re- 

 mained. It is now a manor-farm, called Blythbury-farm, of about 

 140 acres of land, of which 116 are tithe-free, and it has a fishery 

 in the river Blythe. 

 ARMITAGE, This village is situated on the southern bank of the 



