Description:A rear view of Brereton Old Vicarage.
The Reverend Evelyn Henry Hill and his wife, Ida Lucy Hill in the garden of their Brereton Vicarage home. After a period as a curate at Rugeley, he was the Vicar of Brereton 1897-1919. According to the 1911 census they had a resident cook and a parlour maid. The house was recorded as having 19 rooms.
The present vicarage at Glovers Hill, Brereton stands in its own grounds and is built on the site of this previous vicarage which was demolished in 1963.
The building that was to become this original vicarage appears on Ebenezer Robins’ map of Rugeley dated 1815 and was originally a private house. It was probably built about 1807 when Thomas Birch acquired the land from the Earl Talbot.
Brereton, St Michaels Church was opened in 1837 as a ‘Chapel of Ease’ for the growing Rugeley parish. In 1843 an Ecclesiastical District was assigned to the church and it must have been decided that a vicarage was needed. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England agreed to purchase the conveniently located home of George Collett, Gent. (~1772-1846), together with his adjacent parcels of land, totalling 8 acres 3 roods and 8 perches, which were to be used as glebe land (i.e. lands used to generate income towards the financial support of the parish priest), for the total sum of £1,770.
It is worth noting that the house sale did not include the kitchen cupboards, dresser and all grates and fireplaces!
Brereton became a separate parish in 1856.