Some history on Abbot's Bromley in the County of Staffordshire

Abbot's Bromley Pubs

Abbot's Bromley is an ancient decayed market town and parish, on the Lichfield and Uttoxeter road, 11 miles north-north-west from Lichfield, 6 south from Uttoxeter station on the North Staffordshire line, 6 north-north-east from Rugeley on the Trent Valley line of the London and North Western railway, and 13 east from Stafford, in the Burton division of the county, at the east-end of South Pirehill hundred, in the union, petty sessional division and county court district of Uttoxeter, rural deanery of Rugeley, arch-deaconry of Stafford and diocese of Lichfield. The church of St. Nicholas, standing nearly in the centre of the town, is a large and ancient edifice of stone in the Early Decorated style, consisting of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, south porch, and a lofty western tower containing a clock and 5 bells: the tower and spire having fallen in the year 1688, the former was rebuilt in the Italian style : in the north aisle, on a slab of alabaster, is an effigy in brass representing John Draycote, a burgess of Abbot's Bromley, ob. 1463, and in the tower are preserved a stag's horns and a hobby-horse, still occasionally carried in procession at Easter or Whitsuntide; the church was restored in 1855 at a cost of £4,000, when the floor was lowered two feet, and the bases of the columns, previously buried, again disclosed: there are 800 sittings. The register dates from the year 1558. The living is a vicarage, average tithe rent-charge £61, net yearly value £151, including 49 acres of glebe [the greater part of which lies in King's Bromley parish] and residence, in the alternate gift of the Bishop and the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield, and held since 1893 by the Rev. Stuart Berkeley. There are Congregational, Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels. There is an endowed hospital for 7 persons, each of whom has 4s. a week and 50 cwt. of coal yearly, and a coat or cloak once in two years; here also are several benefactions for the poor, amounting to £50 yearly, which sum is distributed in money, clothes and bread. The working men's club and reading room is opened from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.; William Oswald, sec. The ancient market cross still remains, and there are some good specimens of old timbered houses. The Marquess of Anglesey, who is lord of the manor, Lord Bagot and the Earl of Dartmouth are the principal landowners. The soil is marl, clay, sand and gravel; subsoil, chiefly clay. The chief crops are wheat and roots and some pasture land, but a large portion of the land is covered with timber. The parish is divided into Abbot's Bromley, Bromley Hurst and Bagot's Bromley; the two former contain 5,277A. 3R. 35P. and the latter 4,110A. 2E, 8P. of land; rateable value, £10,860; and the population of the whole civil parish in 1891 was 1,411 and of the ecclesiastical 1,257.