Description:The small and attractive village of Maer lies in the west of the county, situated under the Maer Hills and adjacent to Maer Pool, a small natural lake. The name itself derives from ‘mere’, meaning a large lake or stretch of standing water. Maer Pool is all that remains of a very large Ice Age lake which once covered the whole of the valley. The pool is the source of the River Tern. The Maer Hills include Berth or Byrth Hill, which has an Iron Age hill fort at its summit. The hills are reputed to be the site of a number of battles during the Dark Ages. Oswy, King of Nothumbria, killed in 642, is said to be buried at Kings Bank, situated in the Maer Hills.
In the Domesday Book of 1086, Maer is recorded as Mere 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 two ploughs are recorded, and there was a substantial amount of woodland. The recorded population was four villeins (tenants who held land in return for labour services) and one bordar (a smallholder who had brought land into cultivation on the edges of the village). The manor was worth 10 shillings annually.
In 1532, 10 households were recorded in Maer itself. By 1666, 20 households were recorded in the Hearth Tax Returns as paying tax, although there would have been some who were considered too poor to pay. The largest house was Maer Hall with five hearths.
Maer Hall is a Jacobean house, which was originally built by the Macclesfield family. It became the home of the second Josiah Wedgwood in about 1805. It later belonged to another potter, William Davenport, whose pottery works was in Burslem. In 1893 the hall was acquired by the Harrison family, who had made their fortune in shipping in Liverpool. The Harrisons added late Victorian wings to the house, using Liverpool architects. The wings were demolished some years ago, bringing the house back to its original size. The gardens are by Thomas Mawson (1861-1933), an important garden designer. Other work by Mawson in Staffordshire includes Hanley Park.
The parish church at Maer stands in an elevated position and is dedicated to St Peter. The building dates from the early 13th century but the rest of the building is a Victorian restoration of a mainly 17th century building. <a href="http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/leisure/archives/discoverychannel/featureddocument/CharlesDarwinAnniversaries" target="_blank">Charles Darwin married his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, in this church on 29 January, 1839.</a>
Darwin appears to have spent a considerable amount of time in Maer, following his return from the Beagle voyage, and he pursued his scientific interest in natural history in the surrounding countryside. The daughter of George Tollet of Betley checked Darwin’s manuscript of “The Origin of Species” for grammar and spelling before its publication in 1859. While at Maer, Darwin also discovered the nearby Butterton Dyke, a geological fault, formed by an upthrust of volcanic lava.
There was a parish school in the village by 1856. By 1924 a new building at Blackbrook had replaced this, built by FJ Harrison of Maer Hall. The former school building became the village institute and later the parish hall. Most of the inhabitants in the 19th and early 20th centuries were employed in farming or agriculturally related trades.