308 A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



Gayton Church is dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and is a 

 curacy : the Rev. Thomas Hilditch is the present minister. 



FRADSWELL is a village to the north-east of Gayton, and in the 

 parish of Colwich. It is a scattered village on a gravelly soil. 

 The whole liberty contains 38 houses, 38 families; 120 males, 126 

 females : total of inhabitants, 246. 



The Church is a chapel of ease to Colwich. It was re-built in 

 1764, the lower part of the nave and tower of stone, and the upper 

 part of brick : the ancient stone chancel remains. It is a curacy, 

 the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield being patrons, and the Rev k 

 Benjamin Johnson, who resides at Weston-on-Trent, is the present 

 minister. 



MILWICH is a large populous parish of Pirehill South, about 

 two miles north-east of Sandon, on a loamy soil. The village of 

 Milwich is in a low situation, a brook passes near it, and the 

 Church, which is a small modern structure of brick with a tower of 

 stone, is situated at a short distance on a gentle eminence. It is 

 dedicated to All Saints, and is a vicarage : the present vicar is 

 the Rev. Rice, and the Rev. John Sell, is curate. 



The parish of Milwich contains 109 houses, 111 families; 290 

 males, 273 females : total of inhabitants 563. 



STOWE is a large parish of Pirehill South, to the north of Col- 

 wich. It includes Chartley Castle, and the villages of Hixon and 

 Haywood. 



Chartley was, at the time of the General Survey, in the hands of 

 the Conqueror, whose successor, William Rufus, gave it to Hugh, 

 Earl of Chester. In this family it continued several successions, 

 and Ranulph, Earl of Chester, built the Castle in the time of Henry 

 III. but dying without heirs, his estate descended to his four sisters, 

 of whom Agnes had this manor, and being then married to William 

 de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, brought it into his family. It is now 

 the property of Earl Ferrers, and is one of the most romantic relics 

 of antiquity in Staffordshire, being an ancient ruin similar to that 

 of Dudley Castle. The site is on the side of a lofty eminence, and 

 the remains of the castle consist of two round towers, partly covered 

 with ivy, rising amid the foliage of nearly one hundred full-grown 

 yew trees, of the age of many centuries. This ancient fortress is 

 surrounded by a deep moat, and doubtless was considered as a 

 place of great strength before the invention of gunpowder. It has 

 long been uninhabited ; and Earl Ferrers, in his annual visits to 



