Chetton

is a parish and pleasantly situated village, four miles and a half S.W. of Bridgnorth, partly in the Chelmarsh and partly in the Cleobury divisions of the Hundred of Stottesdon. The parish contains 3291a. 1r. 12p. of land, the gross estimated rental of which is £4,495. 13s. 6d. Rateable value, £4,026. 18s. 0d. In 1841 there were 113 houses and 580 persons in the Chelmarsh division, and 19 houses and 113 persons returned as in the Cleobury division. Population in 1801, 526; in 1831, 627. The principal landowners are Lord Liverpool; John and George Pritchard, Esqrs.; Thomas Pardoe Purton, Esq.; John Baker, Esq.; John Dallewy, Esq.; and George Joseph Dallewy, Esq.; besides whom there are several smaller proprietors. The tithes are commuted at £569. 14s. 9d.

The celebrated Wheatland hounds, belonging to John Baker, Esq., are kennelled in this parish. The country over which they hunt embraces the Wrekin and surrounding district. The hounds have been in the possession of the present proprietor for eight years, and were principally bred from the packs of Lord Yarborough, the Belvoir, the Shropshire, and Mr. Hellier’s. There is a small colliery and also a brick manufactory in this parish.

The Church, dedicated to St. Giles, is a stone structure, with square tower, containing six bells, recast in 1829, at which time the tower was rebuilt. The interior consists of nave, chancel, and gallery, on which is a small organ. The church has a chaste appearance, and has been recently repaired at the joint expense of the parish and the late Venerable Archdeacon Vickers, formerly rector of Chetton. The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s book at £11, in the patronage of T. W. Wylde Browne, Esq., and incumbency of the Rev. Richard Herbert. The National School is a neat brick building, erected in 1820. The average attendance of boys and girls is about forty. Mrs. Ann Adams is schoolmistress. Faintree, Favon-tree, or Fanonia-tree, is a township in Chetton parish, five miles S.W. of Bridgnorth. The name signifies the western town. The township is situated on elevated ground, facing the west, or Favonian wind, and hence its name. This manorial estate was formerly the property of the Briggs family, from whom it was purchased by the ancient family of the Pardoes of Cleeton, in Bitterley parish, whose descendant, Thomas Pardoe, Esq., died, leaving an only child, Esther, with whom this manor passed in marriage to John Purton, Esq., of Eudon Burnall, in whose family it now continues, Thomas Pardoe Purton, Esq., being its present proprietor, who resides at Faintree Hall, a neat brick residence, erected in the year 1802, upon the site of an ancient edifice. Eudon Burnall and Eudon George are small townships situated about a mile from the church.

Charities.—Dorothy Holland, by will, dated 1723, bequeathed to the poor of this parish the sum of £20, in trust, to be placed out at interest, and distributed to twelve poor people of the parish in bread, on Easter days and Christmas days.

Richard Pardoe, by will, dated 1760, bequeathed the sum of £100, to be placed out at interest, which was to be divided into forty parts, one of which should be paid in bread every week to the poor and indigent persons of the parish, in the months of January, February, March, April, May, June, July, November, and December, for ever.

Henry Aston, who died in 1736, bequeathed the sum of £20, the interest thereof to be applied in teaching the poorest children in the parish to read.

Thomas Pardoe, by will proved in 1802, gave the sum of £50, the interest thereof to be applied in the teaching of poor children to read whose parents were not rated either to the church or poor.

Sarah Pardoe also gave the sum of £50 in the year 1805, the interest to be disposed of in the same manner as the preceding charity.

Loughton is a chapelry and village in the parish of Chetton, nine miles north-east from Ludlow, which contains 851a. 3r. 14p. of land, the rateable value of which is £635. 1s. At the census of 1801 there were 130 inhabitants; 1831, 112; and in 1841, 19 houses and a population of 113 souls. The duke of Cleveland and Viscountess Boyne are the principal landowners. The chapel is a small fabric of free stone of unpretending appearance, exhibiting the style of architecture prevalent in the sixteenth century. The living is a curacy, subordinate to the rectory of Chetton.

Adams James, gardener

Adams Ann, schoolmistress

Baker John, Esq., Walsbatch

Broom George, shoemaker, Eudon Gorge

Corfield Cornelius, farmer, Eudon Gorge

Corfield Thomas, farmer and cider shop, Tedstill

Dallewy John, Esq., Lower House

Davies James, farmer, Hollicott and Cockshutt

Edmonds Joseph, farmer, Down House

Farmer Thomas, farmer, Lower Faintree

Fletcher Benjamin, farmer, The Bush

Foxall Harry Smith, farmer, Lower Faintree

Gordon Alexander, farmer, Eudon Burnall

Gratton John, miller, Eudon Gorge

Griffin Geo., relieving officer

Hall Edward, jun., farmer, The Drales

Harley Edw., farmer, Eudon Gorge

Herbert Rev. Richard, rector, The Rectory

Hinsley John, farmer, Little Cockshutt

Jones Thomas, shopkeeper

Jones William, shoemaker and beerseller, Old Field

Porter William, farmer and beerseller, Down

Porter William, wheelwright, Down

Purton Thos. Pardoe, Esq., banker, Faintree Hall

Reece Harriet, farmer, Criddon

Reynolds Wm., shoemaker and vict., Old Inn

Rudd John, farmer, Scotland

Smith James, farm bailiff, Tedstill

Taylor Thomas, farmer, Upper House

Wallace William, farmer, Hill Farm

Wall Thos., farmer, Archley

Walters Thos., miller, Down Mill

Yeardley Wm., blacksmith and farmer, Down

Loughton Directory.

Blakemore Jesse, farmer

Chatham William, farmer

Evans John, shoemaker

Hall Richard, farmer

Kitson Mary, farmer

Lawley John, farmer

Noakes Thomas, shopkeeper