Croxall is a hamlet and former

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

in England that was historically in

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, but since 1895 has been part of

Edingale Edingale is a village and civil parish in Lichfield District, Staffordshire, England.OS Explorer Map 245: The National Forest :(1:25 000) :

parish,

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

. The settlement today is mainly the

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

of St John and

Croxall Hall Croxall Hall is a restored and extended 16th century manor house situated in the small village of Croxall, Staffordshire (close to the southeastern border with Derbyshire and historically part of it). It is a Grade II* listed building. The man ...

. Population details for the 2011 census can be found under the civil parish.

History

Domesday book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

, Croxall is mentioned as an outlying farm of

Weston-on-Trent Weston-on-Trent is a village and civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,239. It is to the north of the River Trent and the Trent and Mersey Canal. Nearby places i ...

and listed among the lands given to

Henry de Ferrers Henry de Ferrers (died by 1100), magnate and administrator, was a Norman who after the 1066 Norman conquest was awarded extensive lands in England. Origins He was the eldest son of Vauquelin de Ferrers and in about 1040 inherited his father's ...

''Domesday Book: A Complete Translation''. London: Penguin, 2003. p. 745 by the

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

. The land given to HenryHenry de Ferrers held a considerable number of manors including a massive number in Derbyshire given to him by the

. These included obviously Croxall and

Edingale Edingale is a village and civil parish in Lichfield District, Staffordshire, England.OS Explorer Map 245: The National Forest :(1:25 000) :

which are now in Staffordshire but also

Stretton en le Field Stretton en le Field is a small village and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England, about 7 miles/11 km south-west of Ashby de la Zouch, historically an exclave of Derbyshire. According to the 2001 ...

which is now in Leicestershire. included of pasture that was valued at £4. The lordship of the manor of Croxall was held for several centuries by underlords of the Ferrers, the

Curzon family Curzon may refer to: People Americans * Aria Curzon (born 1987), American actress * Walter de Curzon Poultney (1845–1929), one of Baltimore, Maryland's most colorful and flamboyant high-society members Britons * Christopher Curzon (born 1958), ...

, an early

Anglo-Norman Anglo-Norman may refer to: *Anglo-Normans, the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman conquest of 1066 * Anglo-Norman language **Anglo-Norman literature * Anglo-Norman England, or Norman England, the period in English history from 10 ...

family seated at Derbyshire since the 12th century. A Curzon heiress carried the manor and

to the Sackvilles,

Earls of Dorset Earl of Dorset is a title that has been created at least four times in the Peerage of England. Some of its holders have at various times also held the rank of marquess and, from 1720, duke. A possible first creation is not well documented. Abou ...

, who in turn conveyed the manor to the

Prinsep Prinsep may mean any of several notable members of the British Prinsep family. The family descended from John Prinsep, an 18th-century merchant who was the son of Rev. John Prinsep, rector of Saundby, Nottinghamshire, and Bicester, Oxfordshire. Jo ...

family, heirs of

John Prinsep John Prinsep (23 April 1748 – 30 November 1830) was born the son of a vicar in rural Oxfordshire, England, with limited horizons for advancement. He joined the East India Company as a cadet, travelling to Bombay, and was soon engaged in mer ...

, an early Anglo-Indian merchant and later

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

. On the death in 1849 of Thomas Prinsep,

High Sheriff of Derbyshire High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift t ...

, the manor of Croxall was inherited by his nephew Thomas Levett-Prinsep. St John's parish church contains memorials to all four families, as well as the Horton family of nearby

Catton Hall Catton Hall is a country house near the boundary between Derbyshire and Staffordshire, within the civil parish of Catton. It gives its postal address as Walton-on-Trent although there was a village of Catton at one time. It is a Grade II* listed ...

, a member of whom (Anne Wilmot-Horton) prompted

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

to write his famous poem beginning with the lines: "She walks in beauty, like the night....".Guide to Staffordshire and the Black Country, The Potteries and the Peak, Michael Raven, 2004

References

{{authority control Villages in Staffordshire Lichfield Former civil parishes in Derbyshire

History

See also

References