Stone, Staffordshire

Historical Description

Stone, a market-town, the head of a poor-law union, petty sessional division, and county court district, and a parish in Staffordshire. The town stands on the river Trent and the Trent and Mersey Canal, 7 miles NNW of Stafford, 7 S of Stoke-upon-Trent, and 137 by railway from London½ It has a head post office and a station on the North Staffordshire railway. The town dates from very ancient times. A house of Secular Canons was founded in 670 by Wulfhere, king of Mercia, and was made a cell in 1260 to Kenilworth, the abbey church existed till 1749, when it fell down, and only a few fragments of the walls of the monastic buildings remain. On Stonefield, now a rising suburb to the NW, the Duke of Cumberland encamped in 1745 when pursuing Prince Charles. Admiral Earl St Vincent was bom at Meaford Hall in the vicinity. Stone is a well-built, busy town, carrying on a large manufacture of boots and shoes, and some mailing, brewing, and tanning. The town-hall was erected in 1860, and includes a large hall used for concerts, &c., and a mechanics' institute and reading-room. The market-hall was erected in 1868 by Lady Forester; the markets are held on Tuesdays. There are two cattle markets, where sales are held weekly and fortnightly. Petty sessions and county courts are held at the police court. The parish church of St Michael's was erected in 1758 near the site of the previous edifice, and was enlarged in 1887. It contains a picture of St Michael binding Satan, presented by Admiral Earl St Vincent, a bust by Chantrey of the Earl, who is buried in the churchyard, and a fine copy of Raphael's "Transfiguration." In the churchyard is the vault of the family of Earl Granville, and a fine altar-tomb with recumbent effigies of Sir Thomas Crompton and wife, removed from the old church. Christchurch is a modern red brick edifice. There are Roman Catholic, Congregational, and Wesleyan chapels, a Dominican convent with attached school and hospital, and a workhouse. The grammar school was founded and endowed in 1558 by the Rev. Thomas Alleyne, and is now situated in buildings erected in 1888. It has eight scholarships, giving free tuition at the school, and an exhibition of £50 to the universities. A weekly newspaper is published, and there are two banks. The town is under the government of an urban district council. The parish is divided into four quarters-Beech, Hilderstone, Ribblestone, and Stone-and contains the townships of Burston, Darlaston, Fulford, Hilderstone, Little Aston, Meaford, Moddershall, Oulton, Walton, Blyth Bridge, and Lightwood. Acreage, 20,509; population, 14,066. It comprises the ecclesiastical parishes of St Michael's Stone, Christchurch Stone, Aston, Fulford, Hilderstone, Oulton, Tittensor, and parts of Blurton and Normacott. The living of St Michael's is a rectory, that of Christchurch a vicarage, in the diocese of Lichfield; net value of St Michael's, £259 with residence; of Christchurch, £300 with residence. Patron of St Michael's, the Bishop of Lichfield; of Christchurch, Simeon's Trustees. Population of St Michael's ecclesiastical parish, 2031; of Christchurch (constituted 1840), 4323.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Church Records

Findmypast, in association with the Staffordshire & Stoke on Trent Archive Service have the Baptisms, Banns, Marriages, and Burials online for Stone

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Stone from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Stone (St. Michael))

Land and Property

A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Staffordshire is online.

Maps

Online maps of Stone 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:

• Staffordshire Advertiser
• Tamworth Herald
• Lichfield Mercury
• Staffordshire Sentinel
• Wolverhampton Chronicle and Staffordshire Advertiser

Villages, Hamlets, &c