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Longdon (St. James)

LONGDON (St. James), a parish, in the union of Lichfield, S. division of the hundred of Offlow and of the county of Stafford, 4 miles (N. W. by N.) from Lichfield; containing 1183 inhabitants. It is situated on the road from London to Liverpool, and comprises by admeasurement 4455 acres. The surface is undulated, and the scenery picturesque, being richly ornamented with wood; the pastures are of good quality, and the arable lands produce excellent wheat and barley. The Trent and Mersey canal passes about two miles northward of the church. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £5. 5.; patron, the Bishop of Lichfield. The great tithes have been commuted for £391, and the small for £136; the impropriate glebe contains 49½ acres, and the vicarial nearly 29 acres. The church is an ancient edifice with a tower, and contains a beautiful Norman arch. Portions of this parish, and of Cannock, were in 1837 assigned as a district to the chapel at Gentleshaw, in Longdon: the chapel is dedicated to Christ; and the living is a perpetual curacy with an income of £100, in the alternate gift of the Bishop and the Dean and Chapter. There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyans; and the Society of Friends have a very ancient burial-ground at Gentleshaw. A national school has been established. St. Mary's almshouses, ten in number, were founded by Mrs. Jane Cotton. At Castle Ring, a point in the Marquess of Anglesey's park at Beaudesert, are the remains of a British or Danish encampment.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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