Audley, Staffordshire
Historical Description
Audley, a town and a parish in Staffordshire. The town lies 5 miles NW by N of Newcastle-under-Lyme. It has a station on the North Staffordshire railway, and a post office under Newcastle-under-Lyme; telegraph office, Bignall End, a mile E. It gives the title of Baron (now in abeyance) to the family of Touchet. Population of the town, 12,631. The parish includes also the townships of Halmer-End, Eardley-End, Knowl-End, Bignall-End, and Park-End, and the township and ecclesiastical parish of Talk-o'-th'-Hill. Area of the parish, 8727 acres; population of the civil parish, 12,936; of the ecclesiastical, 5353. There is a Local Board. Heighleigh Castle in Knowl-End township, now a ruin, was the seat of the Audleys, one of whom fought at Poitiers. Apedale Hall is a fine modern mansion in Halmer-End township. Coal and ironstone are worked. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield; value, £386. The church is an ancient Decorated edifice, with a massive pinnacled tower, a brass, and some ancient monuments; it was restored in 1846 and 1856, and a chancel screen was erected in 1887. There is a chapel of ease at Alsagers Bank, in the township of Halmer-End, and Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist, and New Connection Methodist chapels at Audley, and other dissenting chapels in the district. Vernon's grammar school was founded in 1612; new school buildings were erected in 1876.
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 | Audley St. James | |
| Hundred | Pirehill | |
| Poor Law union | Newcastle-under-Lyme |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The parish 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 Audley
Churches
Church of England
St. James (parish church)
The church of St. James is an ancient structure in the Early Decorated style, probably built in the reign of Edward II. and consists of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles and a massive tower surmounted by eight crocketed pinnacles and containing a clock and 6 bells: in 1897 a new clock was erected and the bells re-hung at a cost of £300, in commemoration of the Diamond Jubilee of Her late Majesty Queen Victoria: the chancel is lofty and was rebuilt in 1846, at a cost of £1,500, raised by subscription: its tile pavement is a reproduction of ancient examples found in Tintern Abbey, Monmouthshire, and there is a chancel screen, put up in 1887: the east window of seven lights has fine tracery: on the south side of the chancel is a brass, with inscription in Norman French, to the memory of Thomas Audley, ob. 1385, brother to James, the great Lord of Audley, one of the most celebrated English warriors of the reign of Edward III. and whose prowess at the battle of Poictiers, Sept. 19, 1356, has been narrated by Froissart; he was slain at the battle of Blore Heath, near Market Drayton, in the Wars of the Roses; on the north side is an alabaster effigy of Delves of Doddington, one of tho four esquires of Lord James Audley at that battle: there is also a marble effigy of Edward Vernon, a former vicar, ob. 1622: the organ was renovated in 1875 at an expense of £300, and was again restored in 1904 at a cost of £300: the nave was restored in 1856, again in 1891 at a cost of about £200, and further in 1904 at a cost of £300: there are 800 sittings, 700 being free.
Methodist
Wesleyan Methodist Chapel
The Wesleyan Methodist chapel is a plain but substantial edifice of red brick, erected in 1875, at a cost of £4,000, and will hold 725 people.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Audley from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Audley (St. James))
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Staffordshire is online.
Maps
Online maps of Audley 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
Bignall EndEardley End
Halmer End
Knowl End
Park End