Hanbury

Hanbury.-This is an ancient Saxon village, and its name is said to be derived from the Saxon word hean, high. "It is situated north of Needwood Forest, upon an eminence that commands a very extensive prospect of the fine meadows that ornament the banks of the Dove, and also the Moorlands and Peak Hills."* There was a monastery here, near which, in the year 680, St. Werburgh, daughter of Wulfere, and sister of Ethelred, kings of Mercia, was abbess. She died here and was buried at Chester, where a splendid shrine was erected in honour of her. No vestige of the nunnery is now visible; but human bones have been dug up in the ground upon which it is believed to have stood. A family who took their name from the place were lords of the manor at a very early time. The parish contains the townships of Newborough, Hanbury-Woodend, Coton, Fauld, Marchington, Marchington Woodlands, and Draycott-in-the-Clay, and comprises 12,112 acres, 2605 inhabitants, 555 houses, and real property valued at £6671. The church, which is ancient, was restored in 1849, and in 1862 the chancel was rebuilt, and a memorial window to the late Prince Consort introduced. It also contains some curious puritanical figures of the Agardhs; the man in a cloak and frill, and his wife and daughter in ruffs and broad-brimmed hats. A recumbent figure of Carolus Egerton, ranger in Needwood Forest in the time of the Stewarts, is also in Hanbury church. The living is a vicarage worth £362, in the patronage of the bishop of Lichfield. The perpetual curacies of Newborough, Marchington Woodlands, and Marchington are now separate benefices. There are a national school, an endowed school, and other charities; and the manor now belongs to the bishop of Lichfield. In connection with Hanbury the following extract from the parish register is interesting:- "On Sunday, the fourteenth of September, 1777, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, a smart shock of an earthquake was felt in several places of this neighbourhood (but not in the village); in some places indeed, particularly Cheshire and Lancashire, it was so violent that the people fled out of the churches in great terror." Of the hamlets in the parish of Hanbury we would draw attention to the delightful situation of Fauld; and, indeed, the whole neighbourhood is extremely beautiful; for is it not a part of the scenery of the Dove ?

* West's Picturesque Views of Staffordshire.