Madeley (All Saints)

MADELEY (All Saints), a parish, in the union of Newcastle-under-Lyme, N. division of the hundred of Pirehill and of the county of Stafford, 5 miles (W. by S.) from Newcastle; containing, with the township of Onneley, 1492 inhabitants. The parish is situated on the roads from Whitchurch and Nantwich to Newcastle, and comprises by estimation 5734a. 24p., of which 2070 acres are arable, 2850 meadow and pasture, 630 woodland, and the remainder waste. Its surface is hilly, and the prevailing timber, oak and ash; the soil is very various, in some parts loam, clay, gravel, and sand, and in others peat-bog. The substratum abounds with coal, which has been raised here for more than a century; several mines are in operation, and the works of Thomas Firmstone, Esq., employ 500 hands. Ironstone is also obtained, and two blast-furnaces for smelting the ore were erected in 1841. The Liverpool and Birmingham railway passes for more than four miles through the parish, and has a station here. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £4. 16., and in the patronage of the Hon. Mrs. Cunliffe Offley, who is also impropriator: the great tithes have been commuted for £333. 8. 5., and the vicarial for £192; the glebe comprises 12 acres. The church is an ancient stone structure, and a fine specimen of the later English style. Free schools for boys and girls were endowed in 1645, with a rent-charge of £60, by Sir John Offley, who in the same year founded almshouses for ten persons, and endowed them with £45 per annum.