Hopton is a village in the civil parish of Hopton and Coton and is within the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

of Staffordshire.OS Explorer Map 244: Cannock Chase & Chasewater: (1:25 000) :Map Details
retrieved 11 April 2013

Location

The village is on the north eastern outskirts of the county town of Stafford and is just from the town centre. The village is south of Stoke on Trent. The nearest railway station is in Stafford. The village is situate a short distance east of the B 5066. The nearest main road are the A513 which passes the village to the west.- Staffordshire A-Z County Atlas: 2011 Edition: Scale:3.8 inches to 1 mile (5.9cm to 1km)

Population

The 2011 census recorded a population for the parish of Hopton and Coton of 1.615 in 301 Households. The parish comes under the Stafford Non-Metropolitan District.

Etymology

The genesis of the village name of Hopton is of Anglo Saxon origin and comes from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

word ''hop'' which means an enclosed area, which sometimes refers to remote places in marsh or moorland, or as in the case of Hopton, an enclosed valley. The second part of the name Hopton comes from ''tun'', which in Old English has the meaning ''farmstead'', so giving the village name the whole meaning of the ''farmstead in the enclosed valley''.Staffordshire Place Names Including The Black Country – Page 133:Author: Anthony Poulton-Smith: Publisher: Countryside Books (1995):

History

1086 The Domesday Book

Hopton is listed in the

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 manus ...

of 1086. In the survey the village has the name ''Hotone'' in the

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

of Pirehill.The Domesday Book, Englands Heritage, Then and Now, Editor: Thomas Hinde, Staffordshire Section, Milwich: In the survey the settlement was described as of a medium size with 12 households. The assets of the village listed include 6 villager or ''

villein A villein, otherwise known as ''cottar'' or '' crofter'', is a serf tied to the land in the feudal system. Villeins had more rights and social status than those in slavery, but were under a number of legal restrictions which differentiated them ...

'', meadow of 4 acres, 2 furlongs by half furlong wide of woodland, 4 smallholders and 2 slaves. There was also 6 ploughlands (land for), 2 lord's plough teams, 3 and half men's plough teams. In 1066 the lord of the manor was held by the free man ''Alward''. In 1086 the lord of the manor was held by ''Gilbert'' of Hopton from Robert of Stafford. The Tenant-in-chief in 1086 was ''Robert'' of Stafford. Taxation figures show the village had a Taxable value 2 geld units with a value to lord in 1086 of £2. The total tax assessment was valued at 2 geld unit. .

Medieval Hopton

Reference is made in a document from 1587 which records annual rent that was due from the Chapel of Saint Peter. The chapel then belonged to Saint Mary's Collegiate Church in Stafford. The annual rent due was for the amount of 20 pennies for the building and its associated chapel yard. The long gone chapel was located just west of the village outskirts north of Hopton Lane in a field still known as ''Church Hill''

1643 Battle of Hopton Heath

The ''Battle of Hopton Heath'' was a fought between Parliamentarian forces led by Sir John Gell and Sir William Brereton and a

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...

force under

Spencer Compton, 2nd Earl of Northampton Spencer Compton, 2nd Earl of Northampton (May 160119 March 1643), styled Lord Compton from 1618 to 1630, was an English soldier and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1621 to 1622. He became a peer by writ of acceleration in 1626 ...

. It took place on Sunday the 19 March 1643. The events leading to this battle centered on the concerns of King

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

over the royalist influence in Staffordshire. The King had ordered the Earl of Northampton to lead a force north from

Banbury Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. It had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshir ...

to secure the town of Stafford. Having secured Stafford, the Earl led his 1,200 troops, mostly cavalry, out to confront a Parliamentarian army of 1,500. The battle took place on Hopton Heath which at the time was a landscape of heathland with birch scrub but with enclosed grazing land around the present-day Heathyards. the battle began in the middle of the afternoon ending just before nightfall. Although the Earl of Northampton was killed in the battle, the Royalists had the better of the encounter and had captured eight Parliamentary guns and claimed victory. The Royalist claim of victory remained a matter of opinion due to the fact that the Parliamentarian Foot were still in position at nightfall when, as the Royalists themselves admitted, they drew back a little; or the fact that next morning the Royalists occupied the field after the Parliamentarians retreated in the night.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopton, Staffordshire Villages in Staffordshire