Weston is a village and civil parish. 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 ...

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 ...

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 C ...

.OS Explorer Map 244: Cannock Chase & Chasewater: (1:25 000) :Map Details
retrieved 11 April 2013 The parish is in the local authority of Stafford (non-metropolitan district).

Location

The village is north east of the town of

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in th ...

, and south west of

Uttoxeter Uttoxeter ( , ) is a market town in the East Staffordshire district in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is near to the Derbyshire county border. It is situated from Burton upon Trent, from Stafford, from Stoke-on-Trent, from ...

. The village of Gayton is to the north east. The nearest railway station is at

. The nearest main roads are the A51.- Staffordshire A-Z County Atlas: 2011 Edition: Scale:3.8 inches to 1 mile (5.9cm to 1km) which skirts the north eastern boundary of the village.

Population

The 2011 census recorded a population of 965 in 422 Households. The parish comes under the Stafford Non-Metropolitan District.

History

The ancient village and parish of Weston was a forest clearing on the outskirts and was part of the Chartley Estate which was sold off in 1904. The high ground meant that the surrounding land was well drained with a good water supply from the nearby

River Trent The Trent is the third-longest river in the United Kingdom. Its source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midlands. The river is known for dramatic flooding after storms and ...

. This small settlement was also located at the intersection of the London - Lichfield - Chester road and the Shrewsbury - Stafford - Derby road (the current A51 and A518 respectively). The road from Stafford originally forded the Trent. In the late 18th Century a flood washed away the bridge there. It was later replaced by a single arch stone bridge in the 19th century. Weston was a centre of salt production in the 19th century, with saltworks both in the village and at the nearby hamlet of Shirleywich.

Domesday Book

Weston on Trent is mentioned 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 manusc ...

of 1086. In the survey the village is recorded as being as the holding of one of King William's thegn's named Sperri, having previously being held by a Saxon named Wulfhelm. Assets of the village were listed as half a virgāta of land. Land for one plough, one 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 ...

'', 3 acres of meadows. There was one Household in the village and the amount of tax per household was calculated at one-eighth of one 'hide'. The gross taxable value of the village was calculated at 0.1 geld units, with a Value to lord of the manor in 1086 of £0.1.

Saint Andrew's Parish Church

The Parish Church of St. Andrews was restored by

George Gilbert Scott Sir George Gilbert Scott (13 July 1811 – 27 March 1878), known as Sir Gilbert Scott, was a prolific English Gothic Revival architect, chiefly associated with the design, building and renovation of churches and cathedrals, although he started ...

in the 1860s and by

William Butterfield William Butterfield (7 September 1814 – 23 February 1900) was a Gothic Revival architect and associated with the Oxford Movement (or Tractarian Movement). He is noted for his use of polychromy. Biography William Butterfield was born in Lon ...

in the 1870s.Staffordshire (The Buildings of England): Author:

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, '' The Buildings of England'' ...

: Publisher: Pevsner Architectural Guides; 1st edition (27 May 1976): Butterfield's restoration revealed some of the original Norman work. The bell tower dates from the early 13th Century. The tower holds two bells; "Ave Maria" dating from 1402 and "Ann Shaw" dating from 1962. A third bell, "Katerina", dating from 1500, can be found cracked upon the floor. The church also houses a silver communion paten dating from the early 15th Century. The Parish registers, kept by Staffordshire Record Office, date from 1581.

Notable buildings and structures

In the village, the present thatched "Manor House", which has been used as a farm building in the past, dates from the 16th Century. In the mid 19th Century it was used as the national School and school keeper's cottage, then as a Wesleyan Methodist meeting house until the present

Methodist Church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

was built at the start of the 20th Century along the main London - Chester road. The village hall is regularly used by local groups and hosts the monthly Weston & Gayton Parish Council meetings.

References

{{authority control Villages in Staffordshire Civil parishes in Staffordshire Borough of Stafford