Edial

The hamlet of Edial developed along the stretch of the Lichfield road east of Burntwood known by 1409 as Edial Lane. A house in the area passed to the Kynchall family in 1299; the place from which they took their name evidently lay around the junction of Lichfield Road and Broad Lane where the late 18th-century Pipe Grange Farm stands. Broad Lane, so called in 1453, may be the Kynchall Lane of 1412. An inn kept by the Webbs of Edial at least between 1417 and 1466 was probably the inn in the township mentioned in 1496. A predecessor of Edial House Farm existed by the later 17th century and probably earlier, and the Edial Hall demolished in 1809 probably dated from the late 17th century. Edial Farm was built as a small house in the later 18th century and was extended twice in the 19th century; it has farm buildings of the late 18th and early 19th century. Edial House originated in the late 18th century as a small brick cottage. It was enlarged by the addition of a new block towards Lichfield Road in the early 19th century and another to the east late in the century; it was further enlarged to the west in the later 20th century. Forge Lane was so named by 1616. Peter's Lane existed by 1725. A stretch of the railway opened in 1849 from Walsall to Wychnor via Lichfield runs across the area south of Broad Lane. In 1666 sixteen people in Edial were assessed for hearth tax. The population was 98 in 1841 and 76 in 1851. ['Townships: Burntwood', A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14: Lichfield (1990), pp. 195-205] (British History Online)

"Burntwood, Edjall, and Woodhouses, are three hamlets of straggling houses, forming a joint township and chapelry (of Lichfield), on the eastern side of Cannock Chase, extending from one and a half to three miles W of Lichfield. Burntwood contains 709 acres and 426 souls, Edjall, 360 acres and 98 souls, and Woodhouses, 1389 acres and 225 souls. The Marquis of Anglesey is lord of the manor of Burntwood, and has a paramount jurisdiction in Edjall and Woodhouses, of which SP Wolverstan, Esq, is the mesne lord. On the Chase is an extensive rabbit-warren, with a neat house called Coney Lodge. Maplehayes, the seat of JP Shaw, Esq, and Pipe Hall, an ancient manor house, now occupied by a farmer, are in the hamlet of Woodhouses, as also is Ashenbrook, an ancient farmhouse with some curious relics of stained glass in its windows. Not far from these is Edjall Hall, a good square brick mansion, with a cupola and balustrades, celebrated as the house which that eminent lexicographer, Samuel Johnson, LLD, opened an academy in 1736. It is now a farmhouse." [History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire, William White, Sheffield, 1851]

Burntwood, Edjall, and Woodhouses formed a chapelry and Out-township to Lichfield. Burntwood, Edjall and Woodhouses chapelry and township became part of Lichfield Union following the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. Burntwood ecclesiastical parish was formed on 6th May 1845