Description:The small village of Wetton is situated high up in the Staffordshire Moorlands adjacent to the northern end of the Manifold Valley in one of the most beautiful parts of the county. Thor’s Cave can be found close by where evidence has been found of Iron Age and Romano- British occupation. There was also a large Romano-British settlement at Borough Fields, originally excavated in 1845-46.
The name Wetton is probably descriptive, from the Old English ‘wet’ and ‘dun’, meaning hill, so ‘ wet hill’. Springs do rise on the hill on which Wetton is situated.
A place called Waddune was listed in the will of Wulfric Spot, the founder of Burton Abbey, in 1002 and this may refer to Wetton.
In 1532-1533 37 families were recorded in Wetton and six ‘syngulmen’ or bachelors.
By the time of the Hearth Tax assessment of 1666 there had been little change. Only 29 households were listed in Wetton and 13 in Ecton. A further six households were not charged hearth tax.
Wetton’s parish church is dedicated to St Margaret and dates form the 15th century. However much of the church was rebuilt in 1820. The bells in the tower date from 1699, 1703 and 1815. There was further restoration in 1894. Samuel Carrington, who died in 1870 and is buried in the churchyard, was the village schoolmaster and with Thomas Bateman a well known Derbyshire antiquarian, carried out many excavations in and around Wetton in the 19th century. His tombstone is carved with shells and fossils. Many of the finds, unearthed during his excavations, can now be seen in Sheffield Museum.
Originally there was a station at Wetton Mill for the Manifold Valley Light Railway.
The hamlet of Ecton is about a mile and a half from Wetton. On Ecton Hill there were once very productive copper and lead mines, the Ecton and Burgoyne mines, owned among others by the Dukes of Devonshire. The Devonshires had virtually worked out the mines by about 1838, although small companies continued to try to find new deposits of ore until well into the late 19th century. Much evidence survives on the ground of Ecton’s mining past, including the Ecton engine house. This once housed a Boulton and Watt steam engine. The Manor House at Ecton was once an unlicensed public house, established by the Duke of Devonshire, to serve the miners working in the area.