Description:Keele is situated three miles north west of Newcastle under Lyme. There are two suggestions for the meaning of the name. The first is from Old English with kye as the plural of cow and with Old English hyll meaning hill and so ‘cows hill’. The alternative is of Scandinavian origin with a ‘keel’ in the sense of a ridge that looks like an upturned boat.
Keele is not listed in the Domesday Survey although it is likely to have existed as a place at this date.
The King granted land in Keele to the Knights Templar until 1308 when the Templars were suppressed in England. In 1314 the manor of Keele was handed over to the Knights Hospitaller and the church was dedicated to St John the Baptist (patron daint of the Hospitallers). At the Dissolution of the Monasteries the manor was seized by the Crown and by 1544 it had been purchased by the Sneyd family.
There are twenty six families listed as living in Keele in 1532. By 1666 forty three households were recorded in the Hearth Tax Returns as paying tax. A further twenty two were considered too poor to pay the tax. The largest household by far was that of Mr Sneyd who had twenty four hearths which must be for Keele Hall which was built around 1580 for Ralph Sneyd. By 1851 White’s Directory lists 1,194 inhabitants in an area of about 2,700 acres.
The major landowner and lord of the manor for Keele was the Sneyd family. The village is often referred to as a ‘closed’ village indicating that there was just one owner of land in the village. The Sneyd family was a north Staffordshire/Cheshire family who made their money through trade, farming and advantageous marriages. During the seventeenth and eighteen centuries most inhabitants of the village were employed in agriculture as farmers, smallholders or labourers on the Sneyd estate. During the nineteenth century coal and iron was exploited on the estate although many coal and iron workers actually lived in Silverdale which eventually became a separate parish in 1853.
From the 1830s- 1869 the village was re-routed and altered in its layout. This meant a reduction in number of properties by about 14% and a more compact village. The village had a small school which had been endowed at £5 per year by Mrs Frances Sneyd in 1698. It later became a National School and is now St John’s CE Primary School. Other buildings included the Sneyd Arms (built 1848), a Post Office and Reading Room (1856-60) and Keele Farmhouse (rebuilt 1861).
The family residence was Keele Hall built around 1580 as mentioned above. Another Ralph Sneyd had the hall rebuilt 1856-1861 by Salvin in a Jacobean style. The Hall is built of red stone with angle stone dressings and consists of a low ground floor and two main floors. The building is L shaped and the dominating motif , the staircase, is at an angle. The interior state room of Keele Hall are not Jacobean in style instead taking their motifs form William Kent and the Italian Renaissance.
The parish church of St John the Baptist was built in the 1780s and probably replaced a thirteenth century Templar chapel. It was rebuilt 1868-1867 by J Lewis of Newcastle under Lyme paid for by Ralph Sneyd. It features red and cream stone with a south west steeple and sharp spire. There are monuments inside the church to the Sneyd family including William Sneyd (1613) and his wife; recumbent effigies with a tomb chest and shields for Ralph Sneyd (1703).
By 1947 the failure of a direct heir led the Sneyd family to sell the site of Keele hall to the corporation of Stoke on Trent. They conveyed it to University College of North Staffordshire in 1950. Keele was the first of the New Universities in the twentieth century beginning as University College of North Staffordshire in 1949 with degree giving powers. It became the University of Keele in 1962. The University incorporates some of the existing buildings whilst also having added a number of new buildings. However it began life housed in Nissen huts (remaining from the wartime period when the estate had been used to house troop) but the conversion of Keele Hall soon began and was completed quickly. The centre of its layout is a pedestrian plaza where three of the main buildings are located. The Library is the earliest building designed by Sir Howard Robertson and built in 1960-1961. The Students Union was erected 1961-1963 and was designed by Stillman and Eastwick Field and makes use of much glass and reinforced concrete typical of the period. The final main building is the chapel designed by G G Pace, 1964-1965 and uses Staffordshire blue bricks and mullioned windows possibly echoing Keele Hall. The building was designed to allow congregations to assemble from a few to several hundred.
The village of Keele has moved from being dominated by the Sneyd family to being very strongly influenced by the presence of the University. By 2010 the village had a population of 4,091 many of whom are, unsurprisingly, students.
Keele will be included in the next volume (volume XI) of the Victoria County History for Staffordshire which is due to be published in 2012.