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A map of the hundreds of Staffordshire from the Victoria County History of Staffordshire, provided by British History Online.
GENUKI provides the following description of Offlow Hundred from William White's History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire of 1870-72:
- "Offlow Hundred is one of the largest and most populous divisions of Staffordshire, forming the south-eastern portion of the county, stretching southwards from the River Dove to the environs of Birmingham, Dudley, Bilston, and Wolverhampton, and having in its centre the city of Lichfield, to the north of which it has an extensive and highly cultivated agricultural district, including Needwood Forest, and to the south it has Walsall, Wednesbury, Tipton, West Bromwich, and many populous parishes engaged in the coal mines and iron manufacture.
- "Its length from north to south is about 30 miles, and its average breadth from eight to twelve miles. It is bounded on the north and north-east by Derbyshire, from which it is separated by the Rivers Dove, Trent, and Mease, on the south east by Warwickshire, on the south by two detached portions of Salop and Worcestershire, and on the west by the other four Hundreds of Staffordshire.
- "It is well watered by rivers and brooks, and intersected by the South & North Staffordshire, the Birmingham & Derby, the Trent Valley, and other Railways, and by the Wyrley & Essington, the Trent & Mersey, and other Canals.
- "It has generally a champaign character, having extensive and highly cultivated plains, broken only by gentle undulations of the earth, except on its southern and western borders, where some of the hills rise rather abruptly.
- "The low lands in the vales of the Trent, Tame, and Dove, are frequently irrigated by the inundations of those rivers, and form rich pastures, celebrated for fat cattle, and the production of cheese.
- "The higher lands produce excellent crops of corn, especially barley, and about Lichfield, immense crops of onions, carrots, and other vegetables, are raised, the soil being a deep red loam, which is very light and friable from Watling Street to the Trent, but assumes a stronger character to the east of the Tame, and between the Trent and Dove.
- "Needwood Forest, and all the commons in this hundred, are now enclosed, except a large tract which forms part of Cannock Chase.
- "The market towns within its limits are Burton-upon-Trent, Tamworth, Walsall, Wednesbury, and Lichfield.
- "Offlow Hundred is divided into North & South Divisions, and the former is in the Northern and the latter in the Southern Parliamentary Division of Staffordshire. The whole hundred contains thirty-eight parishes, seven extra parochial places, and about one hundred townships, villages and hamlets, some of which are chapelries, or new church districts."
North Offlow Parishes
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