Colwich, Staffordshire

Historical Description

Colwich, a village and a parish in Staffordshire. The village stands adjacent to the river Trent, and the Trent and Mersey Canal, 3 miles NW of Rugeley, and 6½ ESE of Stafford, is beautifully situated, and has a station at the junction of the L. & N.W.R. and North Staffordshire railway. The parish contains also the villages and hamlets of Fradswell, Bishton, Moreton, Wolseley, and Little Haywood. There are post offices at Great and Little Haywood, and at Wolseley Bridge, all under Stafford; money order and telegraph office, Great Haywood; telegraph office at Wolseley Bridge. Acreage, 7464; population of the civil parish, 1472; of the ecclesiastical, 944. Shugborough Park, a beautiful mansion amid charming grounds, is the seat of the Earl of Lichfield, and was the birthplace of Lord Anson, the great navigator. Bishton Hall and Wolseley Hall are chief residences. There is a Roman Catholic priory at Colwich. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield; net value, £360 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Lichfield. The church is ancient, and contains the tomb of Lord Anson and other monuments. The vicarages of Fradswell and Great Haywood are separate benefices and parishes.

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.

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Colwich from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Colwich (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 Colwich 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