Alstonfield or Alstonefield, Staffordshire
Historical Description
Alstonfield or Alstonefield, a village, a township, and a parish on the NE border of Staffordshire, contiguous to Derbyshire. The village stands on the river Dove, 7 miles NNW of Ashbourne station on the North Staffordshire railway, and has a post office under Ashbourne; telegraph office, Hartington. The township contains the hamlets of Stanshope, Mill Dale, Hope and Narrowdale. Acreage, 2938; population of the civil parish, 476; of the ecclesiastical, 522. The parish contains also the townships of Heathilee, Quarnford, Hollingsclough, Longnor, Fawfieldhead, and Warslow and Elkstone. The scenery is wild and romantic; the neighbouring streams afford good sport to anglers, and it is recorded that Isaak Walton and his friend Cotton fished here. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield; net value, £305. The church is a beautiful structure, with a pinnacled tower, mainly in the Late Tudor style, but with remains belonging to earlier styles; it contains a finely carved oaken pulpit. In the churchyard is an ancient stone font, and a stone coffin. The restoration of the church extended from 1875 to 1886. Quarnford, Longnor, and Warslow and Elkstone are separate benefices.
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 | Alstonfield St. Peter | |
| Hundred | North Totmonslow | |
| Poor Law union | Leek |
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 Alstonfield or Alstonefield
Churches
Church of England
St. Peter (parish church)
The church of St. Peter is a building of stone, with a few Norman remains, but is chiefly of Late Perpendicular date, and consists of chancel, nave, aisles, north and south porches and an embattled western tower with pinnacles containing a clock and 3 bells, the largest of which is dated 1680 and the other two 1677: in the chancel is a mural monument to Roger Farmer A.M. of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, a former vicar, 1682, and on the south side is a double piscina: the stained east window is a memorial to Sir George Harpur Crewe bart. of Calks Abbey, Derby, and Warslow Hall, Stafford, d. January, 1844, and there are two others: in 1908 a memorial was erected to the Rev. William Henry Purchas, vicar 1870-1904, at a cost of about £25, defrayed by the parishioners: the pulpit and reading desk combined are of oak, finely carved, and has the date 1637: in the churchyard is an ancient stone font and a stone coffin, as well as portions of several early crosses, discovered during the restoration: on the outside wall at the east end are two stones with the initials L. B. and date 1590; these were retained from the previous dilapidated chancel, and testify that it had been erected under the care of Lawrence Beresford, who lived here: the church was fully restored between the years 1875-86 at a cost of £1,485, a north porch being added in 1880: there are 242 sittings.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Alstonfield or Alstonefield from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Alstonfield (St. Peter))
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Staffordshire is online.
Maps
Online maps of Alstonfield or Alstonefield 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
Fawfield HeadFlash
Heathylee
Hollinsclough
Stanshope
Upper and Lower Elkstone
Warslow