Alrewas in 1817

Description from A Topographical History of Staffordshire by William Pitt (1817)

ALREWAS.

Alrewas is a considerable village, in a low situation on the southern bank of the Trent. It is in the deanery of Tamworth, seven miles from Burton, and five from Lichfield. The Grand Trunk Canal runs through part of this village, which will doubtless obtain many advantages from the facilities thus afforded for a commercial intercourse with other parts of the kingdom.

The parish church of Alrewas existed at an early period in the ninth century, and was one of the prebends instituted by the Bishop of Lichfield, in 822.

In the time of the Saxons this manor belonged to Algar, Earl of Mercia. He left this with his other estates to Edwyn, his eldest son; but, after the Conquest, William I disposed of most of them to his followers and friends, and reserved Alrewas to himself. It seems, as described in Doomsday-book, to have been nearly in the same state at that period as at present; for it had a church, a mill, and twenty-six families of the common people.

"The King," says this ancient and authentic record, "holds Alrewas. Earl Algar formerly held it. The arable land is eight carucates. In demesne there are two; and one bondman, twenty villans, and six borders, with a priest, have six carucates. There are twenty-four acres of meadow, and a fishery that yields a thousand five hundred eels. Also a wood one mile in length, and half a mile in breadth. In the time of King Edward the Confessor, it was worth ten pounds: it is now worth eleven pounds."

Thus at the time of the general survey of the kingdom, Alrewas belonged to the King, and continued demesne of the Crown till the 5th of John, when Roger de Somerville obtained a grant of this manor, to hold it in fee-farm for the old rent and 100 shillings increase. From this period till the time of Charles II, the manor of Alrewas came into the possession of several individuals, and by an indenture, dated January 3, 1660, John Turton and his brother Philip Turton, purchased of Sir Francis Boynton, Bart. the manor of Alrewas, with the appurtenances, for the sum of £3130.

John Turton, gent. who purchased this, and succeeded to the other estates, mentioned as appurtenances, was a Knight, and one of the Barons of the Exchequer, in the reign of William and Mary, and afterwards one of the Justices of the King's Bench. He died in 1707, and was succeeded by his grandson and heir John, who possessed the manor nearly fifty years, and was one of the Justices of the Peace for this county. In this capacity he was distinguished for profound knowledge of the laws of his country, his equal distribution of justice, and his exemplary life. He died August 18, 1771, aged 84.

In 1752, John Turton, Esq. father of John Turton, of Sugnall Esq. sold the manor of Alrewas and Orgreave Hall, with the estates, to George Lord Anson, second and youngest son of William Anson, Esq. of Shugborough, in this county. Lord Anson, so justly celebrated for his nautical skill as a circumnavigator, and his heroism as a warrior, who, to use the energetic language of the poet Thomson, 'bore his country's name "in thunder round the world," after his various toils and perils, naturally wished to enjoy peace and tranquillity in his native county.

On the demise of his Lordship, in 1762, his elder brother Thomas Anson, Esq. who was then one of the representatives in Parliament for the city of Lichfield, succeeded to the handsome house and estate at Shugborough, which the great navigator had so much enriched and adorned by the treasures of his voyage. By his Lordship's will, great part of his fortune devolved to his sister's son, George Adams, Esq. whose son, Thomas Anson, Esq. now Lord Viscount Anson, is proprietor of Alrewas and the estate at Orgreave. These possessions, according to a survey made by Mr. Wyatt, in 1793, consist of 5745 acres, besides the common of 2191 acres and a half. But this is a small part of the property his Lordship possesses in this county. He has lately enlarged the magnificent mansion at Shugborough, where his Lordship at present resides.

The old manor-house at Alrewas is situated a little southwest of the church, near the navigation bridge. At a little distance stands a cotton factory.

The church, the antiquity of which has already been recorded, is a fine specimen of Saxon antiquity. It is built of stone, with a low tower, and adorned with a Saxon arch at the west end. It is a vicarage, dedicated to All Saints, and contains several monumental inscriptions.

Extracts from the Register-book of the Parish of Alrewas:

1577. This year, the 11th of November, appeared a blazing starre, which was seen forty days after.

1585. This year, July 6, the second bell and the greatest bell weare caste at Nottingham, by Henry Oldfield, bell-founder.

1593. This year, in the summer time, there was a great plague in England, in divers cities and townes, as in London their died in one week to the number of 200, and in Lichfield their died to the number of eleven hundred aud odde, and as at this time of wryting not clean ceased, being the 28th of November.

1601. This year, the 1st of July, the bridge upon Tame, called Salter's-bridge, being greatly in decayed and broken down, was of new begonne and made broder by two foote, which cost the workmanship tow hundred poundes, whereof this hundred of Offeley payed one hundred pounds, the other four hundreds payed the rest : the 17th of July the foundation began to be layed.

1613. Robert Nevell the father, and Robert Nevell the son, being in Salter-holme-field the 26th day of June, tending of the towne beastes, in the herdman's walk there, after stony furlonge side, about four o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, their was a mightie great tempest of rayne, lightning, and thunder, and the father and sonne standing under an oke tree, to save themselves from the rayne, weare both of them stricken to death, the barke of the oke tree rent a great length, the leaves of the tree smitten and blowen away the most parte of them. One other young youth of ten years ago, Thomas Francis, being their to fetch or help the herdman, being within the compasse of tenne yeardes of the same place, was saved, and nothing hurt, as the other, the heares of their head singed with the lightning and in some parte of the body, and face blackened.

1614. The mill in Alrewas-hey was reared and settle up the 20th daye of November, but it did not grind until the 21st of December after, being the feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle.

1621. This year the fallow fields of Alderwas were first sowed with pease.

1621. August 21st, King James at Whichhor: the Court held at the hall there.

1643. Upon the 13th of August, being the Lord's-day, there happened in this town of Alrewas a suddaine and fearful fire, In the house of George Thorniwarke, an alehouse near the church, occasioned by shooting off a horne-gun; which, in one hower's tyme, consumed the said house and most of his goods, and the barn and hay of John Fitch, and the house and all the goods of John Francis, and burnt up the trees about them, and had like to endangered the whole towne. God give us grace hereby to amend our lives.

1675. On January 4, between the hours of seven and eight at night, a terrible earthquake was felt at Alrewas.

1711. All the bells at Alrewas church wore re-cast this year.

1793. There has been erected, within a few years past, a cotton manufactory at Alrewas, belonging to which there are 800 persons daily employed; the present proprietors of the said manu- factory are Messrs Dickins and Finloe, of Burton-upon-Trent.

1794. The annals of agriculture for the last century have not exhibited an instance of so heavy a harvest having been housed, in this kingdom, within so short a period as that of the present year; the corn and grain of every kind were housed and completed in the parish of Alrewas by the 16th of August. This year six troops of yeoman cavalry were raised for the use of the county of Stafford, and they were trained and disciplined on Fradley Heath.

1795. On Tuesday, February 10th, a great flood succeeded a sudden thaw: great damage was done by the amazing quantity of ice and waters to several bridges. It is very remarkable, amongst such a variety of damage done to bridges in several parts of England, that Salter's bridge over the river Tame, in the parish of Alrewas, sustained very little damage, which is supposed to be preserved by the extensive breadth of the centre arch, and the great sweep that it commands.

1795. On Thursday, November 5th, about midnight, a violent storm of rain and wind happened in the parish of Alrewas, and places adjacent; during the course of the night, or rather next morning, before day-light, several trees were blown down in the said parish. November 18th. Another violent storm, which was followed by an earthquake.

Among the casualties recorded in the parish register of Alrewas, it appears that no less than fifteen persons were drowned in the Trent, Tame, and Canal, in the course of the eighteenth century.