HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 239 



The church is dedicated to the Holy Cross, in the patronage of 

 John Port, Esq. The present vicar is the Rev. Burnet Port. 



WATERFALL is a parish in the Moorlands, situated between three 

 and four miles from Ham. Its name originated in the curious phe- 

 nomenon of the river Hamps, which, after having flowed about eight 

 miles from its source, suddenly disappears among the lime-stone 

 rocks in this parish, where it holds a subterranean course to the 

 neighbourhood of Ham, where it rises again and forms a conflu- 

 ence with the Manifold. The village of Waterfall is an obscure 

 and inconsiderable place, of no great antiquity, not being men- 

 tioned in any ancient record. The parish contains 92 houses, 92 

 families ; 231 males, 224 females : total of inhabitants, 455. The 

 principal employment of the men is in agriculture ; some of them 

 work in the copper mines at Ecton. 



The Church, which is dedicated to St. James, is a small fabric : 

 it is a curacy. 



GRINDON is an ancient manor, which was possessed by Robert 

 de Stafford, in the 20th year of the reign of William the Con- 

 queror. In the reign of Henry the Third, it was held, with Blore, 

 by William Audley, of the Baron of Stafford. In the 9th of Ed- 

 ward the Third, Joanna le Strange was lady of this manor ; she 

 was afterwards married to Sir Henry Brailiford, whose daughter 

 and heir, Joan, married Sir John Bassett, descended from the Bas- 

 setts, of Cheadle. In this family it continued till the close of the 

 seventeenth century, when it devolved to Christopher, Duke of 

 Albemarle. 



The parish of Grindon contains 69 houses, 74 families ; 206 

 males, 197 females : total of inhabitants, 403. The village con- 

 sists of a few good farm-houses and smaller tenements. 



The Church is a small modern structure of stone, in the Gothic 

 style of architecture, with a square tower. The free-school is at 

 the east end, where the children of the parishioners are taught to 

 read gratuitously ; but the schoolmaster is paid for instructing 

 them in writing and arithmetic, as he only receives c8. a-year 

 from the funds of the institution. 



Among the monuments in the church-yard, the following are the 

 most remarkable : 



" RICHARD BULLOCK, of Ford, died 21st June, 1740, aged 92." 



" In memory of CHARLES SMITH, who died 25th Jan. 1814, aged 56 years t 



He taught at Grindon school near five and thirty years, 



And it was his desire that his bones might rest here till Christ appears." 



