Description:The village of Dilhorne is situated in the south of the Staffordshire Moorlands and in the north-east of the county. The name itself derives from the Anglo-Saxon, ‘dulf’, which means a digging. This suggests either early quarrying or mineral activity in the area. In fact Dilhorne sits on the Cheadle coalfield.
In the Domesday Book of 1086, Dilhorne is recorded as Dulverne and formed part of the lands of Robert de Stafford, an important tenant-in-chief of the King. There was some land under cultivation, as four ploughs are recorded, and there was an acre of meadow. In addition there was a considerable area of woodland, at least a mile in length and half a mile in width. The recorded population at that time consisted of five villeins (tenants who held land in return for labour services) and five bordars (smallholders who had brought land into cultivation on the edges of the village). The manor was worth 20 shillings annually.
In 1532, 12 households or families were recorded in Dilhorne. By 1666, 38 households were recorded in the Hearth Tax Returns as paying tax, although there would also have been some who were considered too poor to pay. There were a number of larger houses, the largest being the one belonging to Mr Edward Doughty with eight hearths, and Blake Hall with six hearths belonging to Samuel Adderley..
The parish church at Dilhorne is dedicated to All Saints. It is particularly unusual for its octagonal tower which is one of very few in England. The church dates from the early 13th century and the late mediaeval chancel has been heavily restored. Dilhorne Hall, the home of the Holiday family, was rebuilt in the early 19th century. It was owned later by the Bullers and was demolished during the 1930s. Dilhorne Recreational Centre has been built on the site of the hall.
The main industry in Dilhorne was coal mining. The largest mine was Foxfield Colliery at Godley Brook and it was also the largest mine on the Cheadle coalfield. It was worked for over 80 years. The colliery had its own rail connection to the railway network, connecting to Blythe Bridge and so to the North Staffordshire Railway. The pit was closed in 1965 and the remaining workforce was moved to Florence Colliery at Longton. The mineral railway is preserved by the Foxfield Light Railway Society. Farming was the other principal occupation in the village in the past and remains so though to a much lesser degree.
There was a free grammar school in Dilhorne, which is said to have been founded in the reign of Henry VIII by the Earl of Huntingdon. However the foundation was actually made at the beginning of the 17th century by the Reverend Richard Coke, the vicar of Dilhorne and five other inhabitants of the village, on land endowed for the purpose by the Earl of Huntingdon. . The object of the school was to provide for a schoolmaster to teach grammar. However by the beginning of the 19th century, the school took in paying boarders who were taught a classical education whereas free scholars, that is those who did not pay, received only a limited education. There was some controversy about this in the village between about 1801 and 1815. Eventually it was decided that the school should not teach a classical education but simply English, writing and arithmetic. Children of the parish were taught free of charge except that they had to pay for their own books and one shilling a year towards fuel to heat the schoolroom.
One of the most famous, if uncomplimentary, comments, made about Dilhorne in the past is attributed to Admiral Leveson-Gower ((1740-1792), who said that he “would rather be in the Bay of Biscay a storm than on one of Dilhorne’s roads in a carriage”.