Description:Ipstones is a Moorland village and has a high situation on the road from Froghall to Longnor about four miles north-west of Cheadle. There are splendid views from Ipstones Edge in all directions.
The name Ipstones may derive from a personal name, ‘Ippa’, and ‘stan’, the old English word for stone, so ‘Ippa’s stone’. An alternative derivation is a descriptive one, again from Old English, but meaning a ‘raised place’ or a ‘look-out platform’.
Ipstones does not occur in the Domesday Book of 1086. However in 1327 nine men were assessed for the lay subsidy in ‘Ypstanes’. The lay subsidy was granted to meet the expenses of the war with the Scots and was assessed on the value of the goods of every man. The assessment does not seem to have discriminated between classes of society and the total sum of 23 shillings was collected from Ipstones. In 1532, 26 families were recorded in Ipstones. By the time of the Hearth Tax assessment of 1666, 62 households were assessed for the tax. The largest property belonged to William Janney who had eight hearths but the property is not specified.
Ipstones’ parish church is dedicated to St Leonard. It was rebuilt in about 1790 at the expense of John Sneyd, who resided at Belmont Hall. In 1877 George Gilbert Scott superintended the renovation of the church. The chancel was rebuilt in 1902 to the design of Gerald Horsely, who was also responsible for the screen. Sneyd had quarrelled with the local incumbent and began to build his own church in about 1790. Evidently the quarrel was settled and the building, begun by Sneyd, became a house, known as Chapel House. Nonconformity was catered for by chapels for the both Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists.
Educational provision in Ipstones was provided first by a boys Free School built by subscription in 1760. There was also a girls’ Free School. By 1853 there was a public elementary school which was the forerunner of the present St Leonard’s CE Primary School. A school at Berkamsytch was opened in 1875. It later became known as St Mary and St John’s Primary School and was eventually closed in 1979.
There are a number of historic buildings in Ipstones. Sharpecliffe Hall stands 900 feet above sea level on the site of an earlier house, which was recorded as early as 1280. The present hall was built about 1630 by John Whitehall of Parkhall. After passing down through a number of owners during the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, the hall was used as a hospital during the Second World War. In 1946 it became a youth hostel and was eventually returned to private ownership in 1959.
Whitehough also stands on the site of a much older house dating from the 13th century. It is said to have a secret room. Quakers are recorded living here in the mid-17th century. The present Above Church House replaced a timber framed house and was rebuilt in the early 17th century with mullioned and transomed windows.
The Sneyd family lived at Belmont Hall which was built by John Sneyd about 1770. The bulk of the hall was demolished in 1806 but the property remained in the ownership of the Sneyds until 1912. Belmont had very fine gardens in the early 19th century, considered to be among the seven finest in England.
Elijah Cope the local poet and author was born in Ipstones in 1842. He is remembered particularly for ‘The Moorlands in Winter’.