Brereton is a village 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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

, now in the parish of Brereton and Ravenhill, in the

Cannock Chase Cannock Chase, often referred to locally as The Chase, is a mixed area of countryside in the county of Staffordshire, England. The area has been designated as the Cannock Chase National Landscape, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and muc ...

district, in the county of

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.

History

The village was previously a mining community, with several mines in the Brereton area. The Leahall Mine was the largest and last to close of the local mines, all of which have now ceased to operate. Recently part of the mine area has been redeveloped as the Towers Business Park, set around the Towers Point building. A 2,300-home housing development is now planned for the Leahall site. On the site a new secondary school, commercial facilities, riverside park and sporting facilities are to be included.

In the village

There are several churches within the village. The Brereton Methodist Church, built in 1809, was the first church building in Brereton. There is also the Church of St. Michael's (

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

Civil parish

Brereton was formerly a

chapelry A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century. Status A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...

in the parish of

Rugeley Rugeley ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Cannock Chase District, in Staffordshire, England. It lies on the north-eastern edge of Cannock Chase next to the River Trent; it is north of Lichfield, southeast of Stafford, northeast of ...

, from 1894 Brereton was a civil parish in its own right, on 1 April 1934 the parish was abolished and merged with Rugeley. In 1931 the parish had a population of 3329. On 1 April 1988 a new parish was formed, on 8 September 1988 the new parish was renamed to "Brereton & Ravenhill". At the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 6,524, increasing to 6,538 at the 2011 Census.

Notable people

* Steve Smith (1896–1980), an English footballer who played 227 games * Colonel Maurice Buckmaster OBE (1902 at Ravenhill – 1992) the leader of the French section of Special Operations Executive, awarded the Croix de Guerre.

References

External links