Place:Brewood, Staffordshire, England

Watchers
NameBrewood
Alt namesChillingtonsource: Family History Library Catalog
White Ladiessource: Family History Library Catalog
TypeVillage, Civil parish
Coordinates52.683°N 2.167°W
Located inStaffordshire, England
See alsoEast Cuttlestone Hundred, Staffordshire, Englandhundred of which the parish was a part
Cannock Rural, Staffordshire, Englandrural district of which it was part 1894-1974
South Staffordshire (district), Staffordshire, Englanddistrict municipality in which it has been located since 1974
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog
source: Family History Library Catalog
the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Brewood refers both to a settlement, which was once a town but is now a village, in South Staffordshire District, Staffordshire, England, and to the civil parish of which it is the centre. Brewood village lies near the River Penk, eight miles north of Wolverhampton city centre and eleven miles south of the county town of Stafford. Some three miles to the west of Brewood is the border with the county of Shropshire.

The current Civil Parish of Brewood and Coven within the South Staffordshire District has a population of around 7,500, mostly grouped in four distinct villages:

  • Brewood
  • Bishop's Wood (redirected here)
  • Coven (redirected here)
  • Coven Heath (redirected here)

Today's civil parish boundaries are based on those of the ancient parish of Brewood, which likewise included Coven and Bishop's Wood, although not Coven Heath. Despite the emergence of distinct civil and eccesiastical parishes under the Victorian Poor Law, the civil parish remained almost identical to the ancient parish for more than a century. To this day, the only change, and a fairly minor one, is the addition of a small corner of neighbouring Bushbury parish, when the latter was absorbed into Wolverhampton in 1934. This brought Coven Heath and Brinsford into the parish.

The entire ecclesiastical parish was served by the church of St Mary and St Chad, probably from Anglo-Saxon times and certainly from the 12th century, until the Victorian period. In 1852, Bishop's Wood, to the west, was given its own chapelry, followed by the eastern hamlet of Coven in 1858. Coven, together with Coven Heath, evolved into and remained a separate ecclesiastical parish, served by St Paul's church. The remainder of the ancient parish is now a single ecclesiastical parish, served by the two churches of St Mary and St Chad, Brewood, and St John the Evangelist, Bishop's Wood.

History

Wikipedia provides a very long history for Brewood starting at Roman times and ending in the 20th century. Mention is made of the Giffard family.

Staffordshire Research Tips

Reminder: Staffordshire today covers a much smaller area than formerly. The West Midlands now governs the southeastern corner of pre-1974 Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, although ceremonially still part of Staffordshire, is a unitary authority covering a large well-populated part of the north of the county.

  • The William Salt Library is the reference library in Stafford and is adjacent to the county archive offices. They have an online catalogue of their holdings.
  • GENUKI lists other large libraries in Staffordshire for Wolverhampton, Burton-upon-Trent, Dudley, Walsall, and Sandwell. The last three of these places are now in the West Midlands and may hold items of local interest which are no longer housed in Staffordshire libraries and archives. For example, The Walsall Archives Centre keeps local census records and local church records.
  • The Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry includes Staffordshire in its remit. It has branches in Stoke-on-Trent, Burton-on-Trent and Wolverhampton. Publications are available through the BMSGH shop. Payments accepted by debit and credit card and by Paypal. Other family history and local history societies situated around Staffordshire are listed by GENUKI.
  • The Midlands Historical Data project produces searchable facsimile copies of old local history books and directories of interest to genealogists. It specialises in the three counties of Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire, working closely with libraries, archives and family history societies in the area. Digital images are made freely available to participating organisations to improve public access. Free search index on its web-site to all its books. In many cases payment will be required to see the extract.
  • GENUKI makes a great many suggestions as to other websites with worthwhile information about Staffordshire as well as leading to a collection of 19th century descriptions of each of the ecclesiastical parishes.
  • The FamilySearch Wiki provides a similar information service to GENUKI which may be more up-to-date. An index of parishes leads to notes and references for each parish. The auxiliary website English Jurisdictions can also be helpful.
  • A Vision of Britain through Time has
  1. organization charts of the hierarchies of parishes within hundreds, registration districts (1837 onwards) and the rural and urban districts of the 20th century. They have just announced (August 2015) a future expansion to their data including 2011 census population data and links to post-1974 county organization.
  2. excerpts from a gazetteer of circa 1870 outlining individual towns and parishes
  3. reviews of population through the time period 1800-1960
  • Brett Langston's list of Staffordshire Registration Districts and parishes within each registration district from 1837 to the present can indicate where to find details of civil registration entries since the process began in England.
  • More local sources can often be found by referring to "What Links Here" in the column on the left.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Brewood. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.