Description:HANBURY is situated in an elevated position in Needwood Forest. The forest area originally comprised about 8,000 acres and belonged to the Duchy of Lancaster. The name Hanbury probably reflects its geographical location from the Saxon word ‘hean’ meaning high. It was a very large parish geographically, originally comprising of 10 villages or hamlets and divided into five townships.
A nunnery founded here by King Ethelred in about 680. His niece, who became the prioress, was later to become St Werburgh. On her death in about 700 at Trentham Priory, another monastic house founded by King Ethelred, she was brought back and buried at Hanbury Priory. Later when Hanbury was threatened with attack by the Danes in 874, her remains were removed back to Trentham Priory and eventually to Chester, where there is a shrine to her in the cathedral. Nothing remains of the priory at Hanbury, which did not survive Danish attack.
Hanbury does not have a separate entry in the Domesday Survey of 1086. However Draycott (Draicote), Marchington (Merchametone), Agardsley (Edgareslege), Fauld (Felede) and Moreton (Mortune), all within the parish, all have separate entries. These were held by Henry de Ferrers, one of the most important tenants-in-chief of the Crown, who held nearby Tutbury Castle.
The Hearth Tax returns of 1666 indicate a sizeable population in the parish as a whole. 16 households were assessed for tax in Hanbury itself, 22 in Hanbury Woodend, 11 in Fauld, 46 in Draycott, 45 in Marchington, 47 in Marchington Woodlands and 24 in Moreton. A further 84 were found not to be chargeable for tax. A mill is listed at Marchington, Draycott and at Fauld
The church of St Werburgh is situated in an elevated position on Hanbury Hill. The earliest part of the building dates from the 13th century and is Early English. The tower and clerestory are Perpendicular and the chancel was re-built in 1862. In 1883 a further 20 feet were added to the tower. A notable monument is the busts of two severe-looking Puritan ladies, which are unusual. They depict Mrs Agard and her daughter, Mrs Wollcocke. Sir John Egerton, who died in 1662, a Royalist and Axe-Bearer of Needwood Forest, was buried by his sister in the north aisle so that he might be away from the gaze of these two formidable ladies. Additionally the oldest alabaster tomb in Staffordshire, that of Sir John de Hanbury, who died about 1303, is also here.
Hanbury Free School was originally built about 1815 and enlarged in 1848 to the design of an architect called Fradgley from Uttoxeter.
Sadly, Fauld is notable for one of the worst home front disasters of the Second World War, the Fauld explosion which took place on 27 November 1944. 4000 tons of stored bombs exploded, resulting in 70 dead or missing. The crater created by the explosion is 800 yards long, 300 yards wide and 150 feet.
For more information about Hanbury, see the Victoria County History Staffordshire, Volume X, pp 125-148. Reprint available from Staffordshire Record Office, <body><a href="http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/leisure/archives/services/publications/VCHReprints.htm" target="_blank">Victoria County History Reprints
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