Castle-Church (St. Lawrence)

CASTLE-CHURCH (St. Lawrence), a parish, in the E. division of the hundred of Cuttlestone, union, and S. division of the county, of Stafford, 1 mile (S. W.) from Stafford; containing, with the townships of Forebridge, and Rickerscote with Burton, 1484 inhabitants. The parish derives its name from the ancient baronial castle of Stafford, to which its church was originally an appendage; and comprehends a portion of the town of Stafford. It is a fertile district, on the south side of the river Sow, and comprises nearly 4000 acres of land. The Liverpool and Birmingham railway passes through. The living is a perpetual curacy, with a net income of £120; it is in the patronage of the Crown, and Lord Stafford and others are impropriators. The church, of which the nave and chancel were rebuilt in 1845, at a cost of £2000, is in the Norman style. At Forebridge is a separate incumbency; and near the town is a Roman Catholic chapel, built in 1822, by the late Edward Jerningham, Esq.