Cannock, Staffordshire

Historical Description

Cannock, a market-town and the head of a poor law union, and a parish in Staffordshire. The town stands near Watling Street, 8 miles NNW of Walsall, and has a station on the L. & N.W.R., and a post, money order, and telegraph office under Stafford. The town is governed by a local board of 12 members. A fine new hall was erected in 1890 on the site of the old brewery, and includes a recreation room at th& back for young men. It is well supplied with water. The public rooms, erected in 1862, include a large hall for lectures or concerts, a room for magistrates' meetings, and a reading-room. The market hall is a brick building of 1869. The markets are held on Saturdays and fairs on 8 May, 24 August, and 18 October. There is a good bowling green in the centre of the town. There is a cemetery of 4 acres under the control of a burial board. The making of edge-tools is carried on. There are also brick and tile manufactories and some collieries in the neighbourhood. Two weekly newspapers are published. The parish also includes the township of Huntingdon, the hamlet of Leacroft, Hednesford, now a separate ecclesiastical parish, and Bridgetown, practically a suburb of Cannock. Acreage, 9313; population of the civil parish, 20,808, of the ecclesiastical, 11,211. Much of the surface is part of the ancient forest, and partakes its character of moor and mineral The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield; value, £315 with residence, and allowance for two curates. Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield. The church of St Luke's belongs to the Late Perpendicular period, was repaired in 1752 and 1849, and restored in 1882. Dr Sacheverell was for some time curate here. St Chad's Church, Chadmoor, a chapel of ease to St Luke's, was erected in 1891. There are iron and school churches in the parish, also Roman Catholic, Congregational, Wesleyan, Primitive, New Connexion Methodist, and Plymouth Brethren chapels, and a Christadelphian place of worship.

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 Cannock

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Cannock from the following:

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

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Cannock 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