MILWICH is situated about 4 miles east of Stone on the road which runs from Stone to Uttoxeter (Click Here for Location Map). It includes the hamlets of Coton and Garshall Green. The name means either ‘mill farm’ or ‘salt-working place’. Milwich Brook runs through the village and later joins Gayton Brook.
In the Domesday Survey of 1086, Milwich is recorded twice: firstly as Mulewiche, held by Robert de Stafford, whose tenant was Osbern. It was valued at 20 shillings and was large enough to support four ploughs. Four are in fact recorded. There was one acre of meadow and a league of woodland. The second entry in Domesday is for Melewich, recorded under the land held by the King and tenanted by Rafwin. This specifies a virgate of land (30 acres). It is unclear if these are duplicated entries.
In the 13th century the manor of Milwich was split between two landowners, Geoffrey, son of Philip de Nugent and Robert de Milwich. This early split in the ownership of the manor may have contributed to the fact that the village was owned over the centuries by more than one main landowner, although by the 20th century, the chief landowner was the Earl of Harrowby. Milwich Hall, a timber-framed house, is built on a moated site which may have been the site of the original manor house of the de Milwichs. The core of the house was possibly built by the Astons of Tixall, who acquired a part of Milwich in 1493. There was also a moated site at Garshall.
In 1666 the Hearth Tax returns recorded 17 householders in Milwich, 17 in Coton and 25 in Garshall Green as being chargeable for the payment of the tax, with a further 27 households certified as not being chargeable. By the time of the 1851 census, the parish had 563 inhabitants.
All Saints, the parish church of Milwich, is particularly notable for possessing the oldest dated bell in Staffordshire and the seventh oldest dated English bell. The treble bell, it was originally cast in 1409 by John of Colsale. The other two bells were cast in 1670 and 1735 respectively. The mediaeval church was rebuilt in brick in 1792, although it retains its original Perpendicular tower. It is said that after the Battle of Hopton Heath in 1643, some defeated Roundheads, on their way back to Derby, broke into the church to try to steal the church plate but were repelled by the churchwardens. The gallery was added in 1837 and the interior of the church paneled in pitch pine in 1888. A more detailed history of the Church can be found here.
The original vicarage was thatched and in 1851 it was described as being old and dilapidated. It was illustrated in a drawing by Edward Thomas, the schoolmaster from Sandon, before it was pulled down in 1853. The new vicarage was built to the design of Henry Ward and Son, architects of Hanley, who were also town surveyors.
There was a Wesleyan chapel at Garshall Green originally built in 1835. It closed in 1981 and the congregation at All Saints is now a joint Anglican/Methodist ecumenical congregation.
The school was built in 1833 as a National School and closed in 1929 when a new school was opened in Coton on the site of the present Green Lea First School..
Farming and agriculturally related trades were the principal occupation here until well into the 20th century and continue to be important to the village.
This page has the following sub pages.
