Chapel Chorlton

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Date:1086 - 2015 (c.)

Description:The elevated village of Chapel Chorlton is situated north-west of Stone.
The area was once famous for fine quality, white stone quarries and stone from one of the local quarries was used in alterations at Trentham Hall in the late 18th century. The village has a green and a pond at its centre. Hill Chorlton is about 1.5 miles north- west of Chapel Chorlton.

The name ‘Chorlton’ derives from the Anglo-Saxon ‘ceorlestun’ which means ‘churl’s town or settlement’, a churl being a husbandman or farmer. The first element ‘chapel’ was added later because the village was a chapelry of the parish of Eccleshall. For Hill Chorlton the derivation is different and is probably from the Old English words ‘calf’ meaning calf and ‘dun’, a hill, so ‘calves’ hill’.

In the Domesday Survey of 1086 Chorlton was named as Cerletone and nearby Hill Chorlton as Cerueledone. Both were part of the large manor of Eccleshall which was held at that time by the Bishop of Lichfield. Chorlton was wasteland at the time of Domesday.

In 1532-1533 eight families were recorded in Chapel Chorlton. In 1666 households were assessed for the payment of the Hearth Tax but the return for Chorlton is difficult to interpret accurately. It appears that there were then 21 households in Chapel Chorlton and 10 households in Hill Chorlton. In 1841 the population was 365 at the time of the census and by 1931 had risen to 1,758.

Chapel Chorlton’s parish church is dedicated to St Lawrence. It was remodelled in 1826-1827 by James Trubshawe, junior, one of the Little Haywood dynasty of master builders and architects. The Trubshawes had a hand in the building and design of many churches, country houses and public buildings in Staffordshire. The mediaeval tower of the church survived the remodelling. At nearby Hill Chorlton there were both Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist chapels.

A National School was built in 1848 and later enlarged. It became a public elementary school in the early 20th century.

The community has largely been a farming based community. The kennels of the North Staffordshire Hunt are located in the parish at Hill Chorlton.