38 BETLEY. . (KELLY'S poses; the school charity, consisting of a field here of 1Ravenlfual1 is a hamlet, half a mile south; Bowsey I a. 3r. Iop. let for £3 yearly; .Abnet's charity, a rent- Wood is a hamlet, I mib south-east. charge of 4s. 6d. on a. field at .Audlley and vwrious small , a scattered village, about I mile south-west sums invested in Consols, which bring in £4 I2S. 8d. from Betley and near the Tailway, is partly in this parish, yearly, are distributed. A weekly market was formerly but mostly in that of Wybunbury, in Oheshire, and was held here, which is now obsolete. Malting was formerly anciently the seat of the Egerton family. carried on here. Near the village is a lake, called "Bet- Parish Clerk, Charles Warham. ley Mere," belonging to the Earl of Wilton. The prin- Post, M. 0. & T. 0., T. M. 0., E. D. & P. P. 0., S. B. cipal seats are Betley Court, the mansion of Mrs. Twem- & .A. & I. 0.-Chas. Marson, sub-postmaster. Letters low, and Betley Hall, the seat of Col. John .Andrew Mac- arrive from at 8.5 a.m. & 6 p.m.; box cleared donald C.B. Charles Wigley Wicksted esq. of Shaken- at ro a.m. & 7.30 pm.; 10 a.m. sunday. Letters burst, Cleobury Mortimer, Salop, who is lord of the from Bowsey Wood must be addressed Madeley, manor, the Earl of Wilton and Sir Thomas Fletcher NPwcastle .:Boughey bart. J.P. of .A.qualate Hall, Forton, are the Public Elementary School, built in I854• for 95 boys, 100 ·principal landowners. The soil is rich loam; subsoil, girls & 76 infants; average attendance, 70 hop, 70 ·marl. The chief crops are wheat and grass. The area girls & 54 infants; Henry Hopkins, master; ~Ii-;s is I,425 acres of land and 38 of water; rateable value, Guest, mistress ; Miss Mary Cross, infants' mistress _.£2,426; the population in I90I was 837· Railway Station, William Bowles, station master (Marked thus * should be addressed Betley Volunteer Fire Brigade (F. W. Johnson Elizabeth (Mrs.), draper &c. Leycett, Newcastle.) Place, sec) Wrinehill .(Marked thus t should be addressed Blades Richard, farmer, Ravenshall Jobnson Samuel, ratent medicine pro- ~I1adeley, Newcastle.) Brassington James, carpenter prietor, Wrinehill PRIVATE RESIDENTS. Brownsford John, blacksmith Marson Charles, grocer & draper, & 'Beech :MI"S Carter Henry, farmer po.st liam, saddler Belley hall Dean Ann (Mrs.), Black Horse P.H. Sutton James, farmer, Old hall Mather Frederick George, Bow house maltster & farmer Warham Charles, painter & glazier, as- Slack George Glover Noah, boot & shoe maker sistant overseer & clerk w parish · Twemlow Mm. BetJ.ey court Harrison Samuel, farmer co1mcil COMMERCIAL. Harrison Thomas, boot maker Whittaker John, bricklayer .Baohe John, Hand & Tmmpet P.H H:trrison Tom Henry M.R.C.S.Eng., *Whittaker William, farmer -tBebbington Thomas, miller (water & L.R.C.P.Lond. surgeon Wrench John, farmer, Ravenshall steam), Bowsey Wood mill Henshall Joseph, farmer 13IDDU'LP,H is a Jarge parish, in a hilly moorland dis­ possessing great botanical taste, has rendered the garden .trict, 8 miles north-west from Leek, 3 south-east from one of the chief objects of ailtraction in North Stafford­ Congleton, 7 north from Burslem and Hanley and 159 shire. Biddulph Hall, situated at the north end of the from London, with stations at Biddulph and Black Bull parish, and anciently the seat of the Biddulph family, -on the loop line of -the North Staffordshire Railway be­ was built in the I6th century by Francis Biddulph, but tween Stoke and Congleton, in t'he Leek division of the has long been in ruins, having been destroyed in 1643 .county, north division of , Leek petty by the Parliamentary forces, on their march towards sessional division, Leek union, Congleton county court Stafford. Biddulph is divided into four hamlets and district, rural deanery of :Leek, archdeaconry of Stoke-on­ manors, viz., Overton, Middle and Nether Biddulph, of Trent and diocese of Lichfield. The river Trent rises at which the trustees· of the late Charles Henry Mainwaring the south-e3st end of the parish, on Biddulph moor. esq. J.P. are lords, and Knypersley, of which Robert The parish was governed by a Local Board from March Heath esq. J.P. is the lord. The principal landowners zsth, I882, but under the provisions of the" Local Govern· are Robert Heath esq. and the tmstees of the late ment Act, I894" (56 and 57 Vict. cap. 71 ), an Urban Charles Henry Mainwaring esq. J.P. of Whitmore Hall. District Council has been established. The church of The soil is sandy: subsoil, stiff clay. A few oats and St. Lawrence, on the high road to the Potteries. is a some wheat are grown here, but the land is principally bnilding of stone, in the Early English style, consisting pasturage. The area is 5,671 acres; rateable value. of chancel, clerestoried nave, aisles, south porch and an £24,553 ; the population in Igoi was 6,427 in the civil embattled western tower contaiiling a clock and 6 bells: and 5,217 in the ecclesiastical parish. in the church are brasses to William Bowyer of Knypers­ Sexton, J onah Cottrell. ley, patron of the church, I6o2, his wife Ann (Heywood) At Knypersley is an unconsecrated church, with school· 1:603, and I5 children : there is also an altar tomb to Sir house, built at a cost of £w,ooo, by the late John Bate­ William Bowyer kt. dated I64o, and in a side chapel is a man esq. of Knypersley Hall: it is an edifice in the Early handsome marble monument, with life-.sized figures of English style, consisting of chancel, nave, south transept, O.ur Saviour and two angels, erected in memory of Wm. and a tower on the north-west containing one bell : a new and Mary, son and daughter of R. Heath esq. of 1Hddulph organ was erected in 1895, at a cost upwards of [450. GTange: there are also two memorial windows to the same persons : a window filled with glass brought from BRADLEY GREEN is a village I mile south of Bid­ Belgium, and various fragments of old glass represent­ dulph church, and has Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist ing incidents in Scripture history. The font, of Transi­ chapels. tion Norman date, is circular; it stands on four dwarf Biddulph Moor, consisting of a plateau of pasture lands shafts and is adorned with interlaced arches. The about 4 miles by 2, having Biddulph valley on the west carved oak pulpit wa_s presented by Mrs. Heath in 1875; and Churnet vaHev on the east, is a separate ecclesiastical the organ and clock were given by the parishioners : parish, formed .S Feb. 1864, from the parishes of Biddulph in I894 the church was re-seated, new floored and a and Horton. Christ Church, opened in the summer of new organ chamber added in memory of the late Robert 1863, is a building of stone, in the Norman stvle, erected Heath esq. of Biddulph Grange: there are sittings fol' at a cost of [,I,7oo, and partially endowed at the expense 324 persons. The register dates from the year I558. of James Bateman esq. F.R.S. ; it consists of chancel and 'l'he living is a vicarage, net yearly value £zo5, in the nave and a turret containing one bell, and affords 300 gift of Robcrt Heath esq. and held since 1892 by the sittings. The register dates from the year I863. 'l'he Rev. David Brodie. In the churchyard lie a number of living is a t'ectory, net yearly value £2oo, with residence. grave slabs incised with circular-headed crosses, swords in the gift of the trustees of Robert Heath esq. J.P. and and axes, and there is also a cross of the late Decorated helil 'since I go I by the Rev. Hubert Bertram Black more period. The parish abounds in coal and has several M . .A. of St. Mary Hall, Oxford. The population in 1891 quarries of durable stone. There are several collieries, was I,Ig6. The Mission church, Childerplay, erected in large iron works, and a scrap iron and spade, shovel 188o at the expense of Robert Heath esq. J.P. is an and fustian manufactories. Biddulph Grange, the seat edifice in the Early English style, consisting of chancel of Robert Heat.h esq .•T.P. is a modern mansion in the and nave. There is a Wesleyan chapel, built in 1856, Italian style, and has attached to it finely laid-out gar­ and one for Primitive Methodists, erected in I854· The dens and conservatories, stocked with the choicest exo­ poor have £4 Ios. as the interest of £Ioo left in I8I"l by tica : the late owner has spared neither pains nor expense William Carter. The Alsager Charity, amounting to £I3 in collecting the rarest shmbs, plants and flowers, and, y£·arly, is for five unmarried women of good character;