Description:The small, rural village of Hamstall Ridware is situated about four miles north-east of Rugeley in the Blythe valley. Pipe Ridware, Hill Ridware and Mavesyn Ridware are situated nearby, giving rise to the local collective description of The Ridwares.
The place name Ridware derives from the Celtic word ‘rhyd’, meaning a ford and ‘wara’, an Anglo-Saxon word meaning dwellers, so ‘dwellers by a river ford’. The prefix Hamstall means ‘homestead’ or ‘place of a house’, suggesting that this might have been the first of the four Ridwares to be settled.
In the Domesday Book of 1086, Hamstall Ridware is recorded as Ridvare. The manor belonged to Roger, Earl of Shrewsbury, one of the major tenants in the county at this time. It was of little value, worth five shillings per year and had only enough land to support one and a half ploughs. In terms of its population there were four villeins (an unfree tenant who held his land by performing agricultural services) and two serfs.
By the time of the Hearth Tax assessment of 1666, a total of 35 households were assessed as liable for the payment of the tax, with a further 12 households considered too poor to pay. The largest dwelling, Hamstall Hall, had 30 hearths while the rector’s house had five hearths. By the time of the census of 1851, there were 391 inhabitants.
The parish church is dedicated to St Michael and All Angels and dates from the Norman period. There were substantial additions in the 14th century, notably the tower, chancel and chapel. Among the clergy who have served at Hamstall Ridware are the Reverend Edward Cooper, who wrote religious works and was rector for 34 years from 1799-1833, and the Reverend John Octavius Coussmaker, rector of the parish for 37 years from 1884 to 1921. A paten and chalice dating from the 14th century were dug up in 1817 at Hamstall Hall Farm. The theory is that is was buried by the rector at the time of the Civil War in order to protect it. An earlier rector, Everard Digby, was dismissed in 1603 for not being in sympathy with the Puritan doctrine.
The mediaeval lords of the manor of Hamstall Ridware were the de Ridwares. Later the estate was owned by the Cotton and then the Fitzherbert families. It was acquired by the Leighs of Stoneleigh Abbey in Warwickshire in 1601. They owned the estate until 1920. In that year the estate was sold off piecemeal, largely to existing tenants. Hamstall Hall itself dates from the early 17th century and may have been built following the purchase of the estate by the Leighs. The brick hall is very largely demolished, although there is still a courtyard with a range of buildings and the gatehouse, with its two polygonal turrets, still stands. Associated with the Hall were a number of relics including a scold’s bridle, a metal device to stop a nagging woman from speech.
Hamstall Ridware has always been an agricultural village, although farming has declined substantially of late. In the 19th century the usual agriculturally-related trades, such as wheelwrights and blacksmiths, were also to be found.
A school was first built in the village in 1809 by Thomas Leigh and was rebuilt to provide larger premises in 1906. It later became the Blythe Valley County Primary School and was closed in July 1983.
Literary connections include Jane Austen, who is said to have stayed with the Reverend Edward Cooper, who was her cousin. The poet, Francis Cholmondeley, was born in the village in 1850.