Colwich (parish)

Last updated

Colwich
Shugborough Hall - geograph.org.uk - 6009763.jpg
Area28.62 km2 (11.05 sq mi)  [1]
Population4,528  [1] (2011 census)
•  Density 158/km2 (410/sq mi)
District
Shire county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town Stafford
Postcode district ST17
Police Staffordshire
Fire Staffordshire
Ambulance West Midlands
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Staffordshire

Colwich [2] is a civil parish in the Borough of Stafford in Staffordshire, England. It is named after the village of of the same name. It covers a wider area of land and includes the villages and hamlets of Bishton, Coley, Colwich, Great Haywood, Little Haywood, Moreton and Wolseley Bridge.

Contents

Landmarks

Shugborough Hall

Shugborough Hall was the ancestral home of the Ansons, earls of Lichfield, four miles (6 km) northwest of Rugeley. The estate was purchased by William Anson in the early 17th century and is now in the care of the National Trust. It is located close to the village of Great Haywood and in the hamlet of Shugborough.

St Michael and All Angels

St. Michael and All Angels, Colwich St. Michael and All Angels, Colwich - geograph.org.uk - 662519.jpg
St. Michael and All Angels, Colwich

St Michael and All Angels serves as the parish church of Colwich and belongs to the Diocese of Lichfield. It is a grade II* listed building and the centre of the old parish of Colwich, which was reduced in size twice when the parish of Hixon was established in 1848 and again when the parish of Great Haywood was formed in 1854. The exact date when the church was first built is unknown, but from the style of the architecture it may have been sometime in the late 14th century. A major renovation was carried out by the Victorians between 1852 and 1857. The church has a fine set of choir stalls [3] and a reredos of angels by local sculptor Samuel Peploe Wood.

Inside the church are many tombs, wall tablets and other memorials connected with the landed gentry in the parish, including the Wolseley Baronets and the Ansons of Shugborough Hall, earls of Lichfield, many of whom are buried in the church. A tablet commemorates Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley, KP, GCB, OM, GCMG, VD, PC (1833–1913), buried in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral, London. The Anson family vault is located underneath the organ loft, formerly the private gallery of the owners of Shugborough Hall. It is accessed through an upright door that is normally concealed behind the panelling of the choir stalls, and neither visible nor accessible to the public. The vault itself is a small, almost square room. Inside there are three niches for coffins opposite the access door, and twelve openings for coffins in each side wall. 15 bodies are currently interred here, including the 1st Earl of Lichfield, Admiral Lord Anson, and his wife. After 1854, when the parish of Great Haywood was formed, the Earls of Lichfield and other Ansons of Shugborough Hall were buried there at St Stephen's Church [4] until the 5th Earl decided to return to the vault at St Michael and All Angels and whose lead-lined coffin was placed there after his death in 2005. [3] [5] In the churchyard is the grave of Adelbert Anson, first Bishop of Qu’Appelle, and also a large and elaborate memorial cross carved in 1866 by Samuel Peploe Wood to his brother, painter Thomas Peploe Wood and other members of his family. [6]

Colwich Abbey

The village of Little Haywood is home to Saint Mary's Abbey, a community of Roman Catholic nuns of the English Benedictine Congregation founded in 1623 at Cambrai in the Spanish Netherlands. In 1836 the community, having been expelled from France during the French Revolution, finally settled at The Mount, Colwich, where they established the present house, raised to the rank of an abbey in 1928.

Wolseley Centre

The Wolseley Centre is located in the village of Wolseley Bridge. The centre is the headquarters of the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. There is a visitor centre, and a nature reserve of 26 acres (11 ha). [7] The site of the nature reserve was formerly the grounds of Wolseley Hall, demolished in 1966. The estate was the home of the Wolseley family from the 11th century. [8]

Bishton Hall

Bishton Hall is an 18th-century Grade II* listed manor house in the hamlet of Bishton. [9] Formerly used as a school, it is now an auction house. [10]

Railways

The Trent Valley Line to Stafford, a part of the West Coast Main Line, runs through the parish; the Stone to Colwich Line, a spur for trains to Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester Piccadilly, diverges at Colwich Junction. The junction was the location of the Colwich rail crash in 1986, where two InterCity services collided.

There were formerly two railway stations in the parish: Colwich, at the location of the junction, and Great Haywood on the line to Stone.

Notable people

In addition to the members of the aristocracy referred to in earlier sections, the following are known to have connections with Colwich:

Twin towns

For over 30 years, Colwich and the Haywoods have been twinned with:

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Colwich (Parish) 2011 Census: Quick Statistics". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  2. ↑ "Home - Colwich Parish Council". www.colwichparishcouncil.gov.uk. Retrieved 16 July 2025.
  3. 1 2 Bristow, Wendy, A guide to the Church of Saint Michael and All Angels Colwich, Colwich 2011
  4. ↑ Memorial Inscriptions of Great Haywood, Staffordshire: St Stephen's Churchyard, accessed 1 October 2012
  5. ↑ "Lichfield funeral date announced". BBC News. 18 November 2005.
  6. ↑ Monument to the Wood family at Colwich Church, on Staffordshire Past Track Archived 2014-07-14 at the Wayback Machine Staffordshire Archives & Heritage. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  7. ↑ "The Wolseley Centre" Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  8. ↑ "Wolseley Hall" Parks & Gardens. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  9. ↑ "Bishton Hall". British Listed Buildings.
  10. ↑ "Georgian mansion Bishton Hall bought by auctioneers". Express and Star.
  11. ↑ Colwich Parish Council website retrieved 8 January 2019

52°47′15″N1°58′50″W / 52.787526°N 1.980608°W / 52.787526; -1.980608

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