178 



DEER AND DEER PARKS. 



Cu. VIII. 



founded by the Verdons, the other the 

 castle of the same family and of their de- 

 scendants the FurniTalls and the Talbots. 

 A park ' stored with deer ' is said to be 

 at Wotton, belonging to Mr. Wheler in 



I735-' 



An ancient existing park is to be re- 

 marked at Okeover, the beautiful seat of 

 the venerable family of that name on the 

 banks of the Dove. Its origin is un- 

 known, but it is supposed to be of great 

 antiquity, and has the appearance of 

 genuine forest land. The park, which 

 contains 200 acres and a herd of 150 

 fallow-deer, is remarkable for its fine oak 

 and fir timber. Erdeswick notices ' the 

 fail* old house, park, and goodly demesne ' 

 of this enchanting spot. 



He also records ' the . goodly ancient 

 house and park ' of Blore, nearly adjoining, 

 once the seat of the Bassets of Stafford- 

 shire, and in Degge's time of their descend- 

 ant William Cavendish Marquis and 

 Duke of Newcastle. It was then a park 

 with deer, and remained so till after the 

 -Restoration, and is marked as a park by 

 Plot in his map of the county in 1686, 

 but both house and park have been long 

 destroyed. 



At Throwley, a little to the east, was 

 the house and park of the Cromwells 

 Earls of Ardglass in Ireland, and formerly 

 of the Meverells. It wasan existim park 

 in Plot's time, but has been long dis- 

 parked. 



In the more northern parts of Stafford- 

 shire no ancient parks occur in the Sur- 

 veys of Saxton and Speed, though an 

 existing park at Swythamley, in the to.wn- 



' Shaw's Staffordshire, vol. i. p. xxiv. 

 2 Sleigli's History of Leek, p. 55. 

 = Sir S. Degge's list. 



ship of Heaton, on the borders of Cheshire, 

 may possibly lay claim to antiquity. Swy- 

 thamley was a grange to Dieulacres Ab- 

 bey, and ' the parke-land,' near Swytham- 

 ley Grange, occurs in a lease granted ih 

 the twenty-ninth of Henry VIII.' It is 

 said that deer have been always kept 

 here. There is at present a herd of 150 

 deer of the menil breed. The park con- 

 tains 200 acres of soil of a peaty nature. 



The park of Knypershy, formerly the 

 seat of the Bowyers, is given in Sir Simon 

 Degge's list, as containing deer. It was 

 disparked in 1795, and re-stocked with 

 deer in 1859. The park at present con- 

 tains 120 acres, and about 80 fallow-deer. 

 Returning towards the south we come 

 to Bradwell, the ancient house of the 

 Sneyds, where there were deer at the 

 period of the Civil Wars.' The family 

 afterwards removing to their present seat 

 of Keel, it appears that the deer alsowere 

 removed thither, as they are particularly 

 mentioned in a book of ' Poems on several 

 occasions,' puWished in 1733 ;* but Keel 

 has been long disparked. 



Near Keel is Madehy, ' a goodly manor,' 

 the seat of the family of Crew ; and here 

 there was a park in the time of Degge 

 and Plot. 



Healey Castle, at one time the principal 

 residence of the House of Audley, adjoins 

 Madeley. Here there was a park, for in 

 1223 King Henry III. gave to Henry de 

 Audley twelve hinds to be taken out of 

 the forest of Canoe, to store his park at 

 Hethley.^ No other record of it appears 

 to exist. 



To the east is Trentham, the beautiful 



' Printed for the author at Manchester. 

 ' Dugdale's Baronage, vol. i. p. 746. 



