Betley, Staffordshire
Historical Description
Betley, a village and a parish in Staffordshire. The village stands on the verge of the county, 1 mile N of Betley Road station on the L. & N.W.R., 2½ miles NW of Audley station on the North Staffordshire railway, 3¼ NW of Madeley, and 7½ NW by W of Newcastle-under-Lyme. It has a post and money order office under Crewe; telegraph office, Madeley. It was was once a market-town, and consists of one wide street, and is a pleasant, healthy place The parish comprises 1463 acres, including 38 of water; population, 827. Betley Mere, a fine lake near the village, belongs to the Earl of Wilton. Betley Hall, a fine old residence, the seat of the lord of the manor, and Betley Court are the chief residences. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield; net value, £135 with residence. The church is Perpendicular, but the chancel was rebuilt in 1610, and the western tower in 1713; the nave, which was restored in 1872, has four plain pointed arches of wood on each side, resting on pillars formed out of single trunks of trees; the church contains several mural monuments. There is a Wesleyan chapel.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Staffordshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | Betley St. Margaret | |
Hundred | Pirehill | |
Poor Law union | Newcastle-under-Lyme |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1538.
Findmypast, in association with the Staffordshire & Stoke on Trent Archive Service have the Baptisms, Banns, Marriages, and Burials online for Betley
Churches
Church of England
St. Margaret (parish church)
The church of St. Margaret is a building of stone in the Perpendicular style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, north and south porches and a western tower containing 6 bells: the chancel was rebuilt in 1610 and the tower in 1713, but the nave and aisles are ancient and are separated by four plain pointed arches of wood on each side, resting on pillars formed out of single trunks' of trees, no stone whatever being used in the interior of the nave: on the walls of the nave and chancel are monuments to Francis Twemlow, d. 1865; Sir Thomas Fletcher bart. J.P. of Betley Court, d. 1812; Charles Wicksted, of Betley Hall, d. 1870, and Ralph Egerton, d. 1610: the nave was restored in 1842: there are 383 sittings.
Methodist
Wesleyan Methodist Chapel
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Betley from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Betley (St. Margaret))
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Staffordshire is online.
Maps
Online maps of Betley are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Staffordshire newspapers online: