Longdon

 In 1002 Longdon was known as ‘Langandune’ (long hill or down) [The Oxford Names Companion]

Longdon parish became part of Lichfield Union following the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. Lichfield Union also included the parishes and townships of Alrewas, Armitage-with-Handsacre, King's Bromley, Colton, Elford, Farewell-and-Chorley, Fradswell, Longdon, Ogley-Hay, Orgreave, Pipe-Ridware, Hamstall-Ridware, Mavesyn-Ridware, Rugeley, Swinfen-and-Packington, Shenstone, Weeford, Whittington, and Yoxall. The Union had an area of 94 square miles, and 24,127 inhabitants in 1841. The Union workhouse stood on Burton Road, Lichfield, and was a large building in the Elizabethan style, erected in 1841, with room for about 200 paupers.[History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire, William White, Sheffield, 1851]

"Longdon, three and a half miles NNW of Lichfield, and SE of Rugeley, is a long straggling village on the Rugeley road, including within its parish 1183 inhabitants, 4452 acres of land, a number of small hamlets, and several gentlemen's seats, the largest of which is Beaudesert, on the eastern side of Cannock Chase, the residence of the Marquis of Anglesey, who is lord of the manor, and owner of most of the soil. From the time of the Saxons till the reign of Henry VIII, the Bishops of Lichfield held the manor of Longdon, and had here a free court. In 1546, the bishop surrendered the manors of Longdon and Haywood, to the King, and in the same year, his Majesty granted them to Sir William Paget, an ancestor of the Marquis of Anglesey. Beaudesert, anciently a palace of the bishops of the diocese, and now the residence of the Marquis of Anglesey, is two miles WSW of Longdon church, and five miles NW of Lichfield. The greater part of the mansion was rebuilt by Thomas Lord Paget, in the reign of Elizabeth, and many improvements have been made by the late and present owners. The principal entrance is under a light Gothic portico, and leads into a spacious and handsome hall. The apartments are large and elegantly furnished, and the library contains a valuable collection of books and manuscripts. Part of the house is said to have been erected in the time of William Rufus. Among the other seats in the parish are Lyswayes Hall, near Longdon Green, the seat of Mrs Elizabeth Forster, relict of the late Charles Smith Forster, who was MP for Walsall from 1832-1837, which formerly belonged to the ancient family of Lyswayes. It afterwards passed to the Legydd, Arblaster, Cobb, and Austin families, the latter of whom sold it to the Forsters. Chestall, to the south of Beaudesert, was formerly the seat of the Rugeleys, but is now a farmhouse. Stonywell, one mile SE of the church, was anciently the residence of a family of its own name, but is now divided into two farms. Hanch Hall, one mile E of the church, is the seat of John Forster, Esq, and was built in the reign of Edward I, by one of the Astons of Haywood. It passed from the Astons to the Orme family and was afterwards the seat of the Parkhurst family. Longdon House, the pleasant seat of Lady Chetwynd, is a handsome structure in the Tudor style, erected in 1839-40, on an eminence two miles from Beaudesert, commanding fine views of Cannock Chase." [History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire, William White, Sheffield, 1851]

Longdon (St. James), a parish, in the union of Lichfield, S. division of the hundred of Offlow, and of the county of Stafford, 4 miles (N.W. by N.) from Lichfield; containing 1183 inhabitants. It is situated on the road from London to Liverpool, and comprises by admeasurement 4455 acres. The surface is undulated, and the scenery picturesque, being richly ornamented with wood; the pastures are of good quality, and the arable land produces excellent wheat and barley. The Trent and Mersey canal passes about two miles north of the church. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £5.5.; patron, the Bishop of Lichfield. The great tithes have been commuted for £391, and the small for £136; the impropriate glebe contains 49½ acres, and the vicarial nearly 29 acres. The church is an ancient edifice with a tower, and contains a beautiful Norman arch. Portions of this parish, and of Cannock, were in 1837 assigned as a district to the chapel at Gentleshaw, in Longdon: the chapel is dedicated to Christ; and the living is a perpetual curacy with an income of £100, in the alternative gift of the Bishop and Dean and Chapter. There are places of worship for Independents and Wesleyans; and the Society of Friends have a very ancient burial-ground at Gentleshaw. A national school has been established. St. Mary’s almshouses, ten in number, were founded by Mrs. Jane Cotton. The Castle Ring, a point in the Marquess of Anglesey’s park at Beaudesert, are the remains of a British or Danish encampment. [Samuel Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1859]

Saint James Church stands about half a mile north of Longdon Green, upon a fine eminence, and is a large ancient edifice. It was thoroughly repaired about 40 years ago, and enlarged in 1829, by the erection of a new gallery. A remarkably fine Norman arch divides the nave and chancel. Among the monuments is one to John de Stoneywell. who died in 1553, one to William Orme, Esq, who suffered much for his loyalty to the Stuarts, and one in memory of the late Bishop Majendie, of Bangor. The Hanch Chapel, which contains the tomb of William Orme, has been restored by J Forster, Esq.

Longdon, a parish in Lichfield district, Stafford; 1¼ mile S of Armitage r. station, 1¾ W of the Grand Trunk canal, and 4 NNW of Lichfield. It contains the village of Brookend, which is central, the village of Upper Longdon, and the straggling hamlet of Gentleshaw,- aggregately so long that an old rhyme says that a beggar cannot beg through them on a summer day; and it has a post office under Rugeley. Acres, 4,511. Real property, £9,085. Pop. in 1851,1,148; in 1861,1,220. [John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales 1870 - 1872]

Are you related to the Hall family from Longdon? Then you may find an ancestor or two here

Staffordshire Record Office holds the original Presbyterian Church Birth and Baptism Registers (1659 – 1736)

Photographs of Saint James Primary School from the early 1960s

The Church of England website for Saint James the Great Church

Saint James the Great Church own website

Staffordshire Record Office holds Saint James the Great Church Bishops Transcripts (1663 – 1868) with gaps 1666 to 1670, 1672 to 1673, 1680 to 1684, 1689 to 1692, 1717 to 1721 and 1730 to 1732

Staffordshire Record Office holds the original registers of Saint James the Great Church Baptisms (1687 – 1965), Marriages (1687 – 1980) and Burials (1687 – 1908)

The Corpus of Romanesque website detailing the sculpture of Saint James the Great Church

The B F H G has photographed and transcribed all the names on the Longdon War Memorial

Staffordshire Record Office holds the original Wesleyan Methodist Church Baptism Registers (1857 – 1879)

Are you related to Mary Wooley christened in Longdon on the 19th August 1798? Then this family tree may help you find more relatives

Paupers in need of assistance from Longdon would have been examined and assessed, and if they met the criteria, they would have been admitted to Lichfield Workhouse. Learn a little of the history of the Lichfield Workhouse