Description:The village of Ellastone is situated about five miles north east of Uttoxeter on the border with Derbyshire on the River Dove. Upper Ellastone includes the church and the main centre of the village on the north side of the main road leading to Mayfield. Lower Ellastone is situated on the River Dove and includes Calwich. The parish of Ellastone originally had six townships: Ellaston; Calwich; Prestwood; Ramsor; Stanton and Wootton.
The place name Ellastone derives from the Anglo-Saxon and means ‘Aethelac’s town’ or Aethelac’s farm.
In the Domesday Book of 1086 two manors are recorded at Ellastone called Edelachestone and Elachestone. The first belonged to the Bishop of Chester and was of little value, worth only 9s per year. It had enough land, however, to support five ploughs. In terms of its population there were eight villeins (an unfree tenant who held his land by performing agricultural services) and five bordars (a small holder of land who farmed on the edge of the settlement). The second manor belonged to Robert de Stafford and was tenanted to Wodeman and Alsi. Its population consisted of one serf (an unfree tenant who held land in return for rent and service), 11 villeins and four bordars. The second manor was large enough to support six ploughs and a mill was also recorded. This manor was worth 30 shillings per annum.
By the time of the Hearth Tax assessment of 1666, a total 24 households were assessed as liable for the payment of the tax in Ellastone and 19 in Calwich and Norwood.
Ellastone’s parish church is dedicated to St Peter. It has some 15th features but the chancel dates mainly from the 16th century. The nave was rebuilt in 1830. There were two chapels in the village in the 19th century, one for Wesleyan Methodists and one for Primitive Methodists.
Calwich Abbey was situated nearby. Originally an Augustinian priory, it was acquired by the Fleetwood family in1544 following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The original house was rebuilt in the early 18th century by Bernard Granville. It was in Granville’s time that the house played host to many literary celebrities including Erasmus Darwin and Anna Seward and the French philosopher, Rousseau. The composer, GF Handel, was also a frequent visitor and it is said that he composed some of his Water Music suite here A further rebuilding of the house took place in 1849-1850 to a design by the architect William Burn. By then the estate had been acquired by the Duncombe family. Calwich Abbey was demolished in 1927-1928 following the selling-off of the estate. A fishing temple, built next to the river, survives.
Ellastone Old Hall, a late 17th century house, stands by the side of the main road through the village. It was used at one time as one of two village pubs and was called the Bromley Arms. In the 1930s the other pub, the Duncombe Arms, offered ‘comfortable accommodation for motorists and cyclists’. Most of the trades in the village were agriculturally-realted.
Ellastone is notable for its literary associations. George Eliot’s grandfather lived in the village and she based her novel, “Adam Bede”, in Ellastone (called ‘Hayslope’ in the novel) and the surrounding area.