Cannock Chase, Staffordshire
Historical Description
Cannock Chase, an ancient forest in Staffordshire, extending from the vicinity of Bednall and Rugeley to Lichfield. It has an area of about 25,000 acres, and was anciently a hunting-ground of the Mercian and the Norman kings. It long was covered with wood, but is now bleak, moorish, and wild, yet is so rich in coal and ironstone as to have been much encroached upon both for mining and for cultivation. Large portions of it present the attractions of a, hill country, and some spots have ancient standing-stones, supposed to be Druidical. Castle Hill in it is crowned by an ancient British double-trenched camp of 8 or 10 acres, and commands a good view. A place called the Old Nunnery, at Radmore, near Castle Hill, was the site of a Cistercian abbey founded in the time of Stephen, and soon transferred to Stoneleigh, in Warwickshire.
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Staffordshire newspapers online: