Needwood Forest in 1868

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer (1868)]

"NEEDWOOD FOREST, an ecclesiastical district, and formerly a royal forest, in the hundred of Offlow, county Stafford. It contained, in a circuit of 20 miles, bounded by a bend of the river Trent, about 70,000 acres of hilly ground covered with natural wood. In its ancient state it was divided into five wards, called Barton, Marchington, Tutbury, Uttoxeter, and Yoxall, and included thirteen parks, which were held by the earls of Mercia.

In after times the kings of England often enjoyed the diversion of hunting here, down to the time of Charles I, whose sales and gifts of various parts of it caused a great portion to be disafforested. It continued extra parochial till 1801, when it was wholly enclosed by Act of Parliament, and is now included in the parishes of Hanbury, Tatenhill, Tutbury, and Yoxall. The tract contains many mansions with extensive parks, and the rest is cultivated, producing good crops, except about 1,000 acres of good oak timber, including the Swilcar oak, 21 feet in girth. It belongs to the honour of Tutbury, in the duchy of Lancaster.

The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Lichfield, value £170, in the patronage of the Duchy of Lancaster. The church, called Christ Church, in Needwood, was erected in 1809, and situated at an equal distance from each of the parochial churches. The tithes have been partially commuted for land and a money payment under an Enclosure Act."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]