Walton-on-the-Hill, Staffordshire

Walton-on-the-Hill is a village in the

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Berkswich, in the

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about south of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Wolverhampton, and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021–2022 United Kingd ...

district, in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

, England. It is about 5 km east of the centre of

, and lies on the A513 road. The population in the 2021 census was included under the Berkswich ward. The Official Population in 2021 was 1,916 compared to the

2011 United Kingdom census A Census in the United Kingdom, census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all countries of the UK on 27 March 2011. It was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Inter ...

which was 2,010. The village amenities include several shops and Walton High School. East of Walton-on-the-Hill are

Shugborough Hall Shugborough Hall is a stately home near Great Haywood, Staffordshire, England. The hall is situated on the edge of Cannock Chase, about east of Stafford and from Rugeley. The estate was owned by the Bishops of Lichfield until the dissol ...

(4 km) and Milford (1 km). There is a local leisure and equestrian hotspot. To the west there is a small shopping centre. Walton-on-the-Hill also features St Thomas Church which was finished and dedicated to St Thomas the Apostle as a chapel of ease in 1842. Although St Thomas’ Church did not have an easy beginning. In 1845 the spire was struck by lightning and part of it destroyed. Windows and part of the roof were damaged. Repairs were completed in 1887 but by 1903, it was considered unsafe. The lead roof was replaced with a lighter one and the heavy weathercock was removed and a less weighty one put in its place The total cost of repairs was £175. Also, on Walton-on-the-Hill there is a pump Halfway between London and Holyhead, the village pump was used to water the mail coach horses as well as providing water for the village until mains water was introduced in the early 1900s. In 1983, when only the top of the pump was visible, residents removed tons of earth and revealed a stone trough. The site, which has been restored, provides a focal point of historical interest for the village. A timber-framed brick-clad building, originally known as Manor Farm, Congreve House was named after Thomas Congreve (1714-1777). His son,

Sir William Congreve, 2nd Baronet Sir William Congreve, 2nd Baronet KCH FRS (20 May 1772 – 16 May 1828) was a British Army officer, Tory politician, publisher and inventor. A pioneer in the field of rocket artillery, he was renowned for his development and use of Congreve r ...

, invented the

Congreve Rocket The Congreve rocket was a type of rocket artillery designed by British inventor Sir William Congreve, 2nd Baronet, Sir William Congreve in 1808. The design was based upon Mysorean rockets, the rockets deployed by the Kingdom of Mysore against ...

. Congreve rockets, being made of iron, were stronger than others available in Europe at this time. The rockets were used effectively during the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

and the war against the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 1814.The use of the rocket inspired the composition of

The Star-Spangled Banner "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written by American lawyer Francis Scott Key on September 14, 1814, after he witnessed the bombardment of Fort ...

, adopted as the national anthem of the

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

Walton-on-the-Hill is home to three schools of all different ages, there is Bright Horizons Nursery and preschool. There is also Berkswich Primary School which is a part of

the Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglican tradition, with foundational doctrines being contained in the '' Thirty-nine Articles'' and ''Th ...

. The last one is

Walton High School, Stafford Walton High School is a large mixed secondary school and sixth form serving a community in the southern part of Stafford, England. There are approximately 1316 students on roll. The school catchment area is in a circumvadic province around th ...

for children from the ages 11-16 but this school does offer a

Sixth Form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

so this school can have children from the age of 11 to 18. {{authority control Villages in Staffordshire Borough of Stafford