Ashley in 1817

Description from A Topographical History of Staffordshire by William Pitt (1817)

ASHLEY.

Ashley is a parish and village situate about seven miles N W. of Eccleshall. In 1811 the parish contained 141 houses and 616 inhabitants.

The Church is a small neat stone building. It consists of a nave, north and south aisle, a south porch of entrance, a chancel at the east, and a square tower at the west end of the nave. Attached to the north side of the chancel is a cemetery or chauntry. The tower, side aisles, cemetery, and porch, are embattled at the top, and the whole appears to be covered with lead, except the nave. Some of the battlements are ornamented with pinnacles, and at the bottom of the parapets are heads and grotesque figures, as well as on the heads of some of the windows, most of which are or have been adorned with glass paintings, particularly the chancel window. These paintings occupy not more than one or two panes on h of the windows, except that in the chancel. In that corner of the porch, which is on the east side, and which joins the south aisle is a turret with a pyramidal trip, in the inside of which are steps to ascend to the top of the porch from the south aisle. In the interior of the church, the aisles are separated from the nave by three small pointed arches ; the north and south sides of the tower arrange with the arches of the aisles, the east side of the tower is open to the nave through a pointed arch, and indeed the east, north, and south sides of the tower are supported on arches which are open to the aisles and nave. In the north pier of the east arch is a niche wherein the font is fixed, which is an old stone bason of a size fit for immersion. The chancel is separated from the nave by a pointed arch, on the south side of which is the pulpit and reading desk, and it is separated from the cemetery on the north side by two small pointed arches, the lower parts of which are filled with iron railing, and gate. The east wall under the chancel window is ornamented with wainscoat, on the pannels of which is the Lord's Prayer, Decalogue, and Creed, and paintings of Moses and Aaron. In the cemetery, which is paved with flags, are several mural monuments, and one costly mausoleum, or monument of superior execution, and such as is seldom met with in country churches. The parts may be thus described : On an altar tomb are placed two recumbent effigies, a male and female as large as life, the male in armour, and the female in the dress of the times ; his head rests on an helmet, hers on a cushion ; at the feet of the male is a lion couchant, and between them near their heads is fixed a talbot sejant; that part of the top of the altar tomb whereupon the male recumbent effigy is placed, is supported on the south or front side by five small square pillars, within which on the floor and immediately under the male effigy, is the image or effigy of a corpse in a winding sheet. Against the 
north wall and perpendicular to the altar tomb are two niches with semicircular heads, and about four inches deep, within which are four half-length female figures in relievo ; they appear in the same kind of dress as the female recumbent effigy, have a ruff, &c. the dresses of the times. Two of these half-length figures are in ach niche, and at the upper part of each niche is an escalop. Over the whole of the above-described parts is erected a canopy supported on four Ionian fluted columns, about two yards high, each standing on a pedestal about three quarters of a yard in height. Above these columns is an entablature, about half a yard in height, which is continued over each arch, that is, on the east and west end, and the south side, and is surmounted by other ornaments ; upon the corners of the entablature over each of the four columns, is a square pyramid or pinnacle, each side of which is adorned with four roundles ; these pyramidal ornaments are about one yard high, and nine inches square at the base. Above the entablature on the front side, or over the south arch, is a shield which can be but imperfectly blazoned : it is quarterly 1 and 4 a lion rampant, 2 and 3, on a bend three ronndles, impaling paly of three parted per fess j first division, a bend engrailed ; second, a cross moline between four martlets ; third, a talbot rampant ; fourth, a cross raguled ; fifth, two bars, on the first of which is a crescent, and on the chief are three mullets ; sixth, a chevron between three vases (or covered cups). Below the canopy, within the west arch thereof, at the head of the recumbent effigies, is a male effigy kneeling on a pedestal, and as large as life, in armour, excepting an helmet; opposite this at the feet of the said effigy, and within the east arch, is also a male effigy in armour, excepting an helmet : this is much smaller than that at the 
head, but is in the attitude of kneeling and of prayer. These two last have their faces towards the recumbent effigies ; and opposite to each other, on the front or south side of this monument, are two small images kneeling, a male and female, and an helmet between them on the floor. This monument occupies a space on the floor of about four by two and a half yards, and may be four yards in height or more. The north side of it is against the north wall of the cemetery, on which same north wall, on the east 
side of the above monument, on a plain stone fixed in the wall, is the following inscription, in capitals : 

" Here lyes the body of Thomas Ld. Gerard, which dyed Ld. President of Wales, Oet. the 7th, Anno 1617. 

Gilbert Lord Gerard, dyed May the llth, Anno 1623. 
Button Lord Gerard, dyed April the 24th, Anno 1640. 
Charles Lord Gerard, dyed December the 28th, 1667. 
Digby Lord Gerard, dyed November the 8th, 1684. 
Charles Lord Gerard, dyed April the 12th, 1707. 

The above inscription, it is presumed, alludes to those represented on the above monument. 

Above the last inscription, on the same wall, a plain marble tablet fixed therein, is inscribed : 

" To the Memory of Thomns Fletewood, of Gerards Bromley, Esq. and Frances his wife, who was the only sister, and at length sole heir of the 

Right Honourable Charles Lord Gerard: the said Thomas Fletewood departed this life the 16th day of July , in the year 1720, and in the 56th year of his age, 
and lies interr'd near this place. The said Frances Fletewood died at the city of Liege, the third day of February, in the year 1736, and in the 74th year of her age. The said Thomas Fletewood and Frances his wife left issue only one son, Charle Fletewood, now of Gerards Bromley, Esq." 

Above this last inscription, on two separate brackets, are the Busts of Thomas and Frances Fleetwood. 

On the west wall of the cemetery, a plain marble tablet, is inscribed : 

" To the Memory of the Right Hon. Charles Lord Gerard, Baron of Gerards Bromley, who died the 12th day of April, in the year of our Lord 1707 ; 
aged 48 yeares, and lies interr'd near this place. He marryed Mary, the daughter of Sir John Webb, of Hatheropp, in the county of Gloucester, Barrt. by whom 
he left no surviveing issue. The said Mary Lady Gerard survived him many years, and died at Joppa in the year of our Lord 1731, in her return from the Holy Land." 
On a bracket above the last inscription, is a male bust. 

Against the east window of the cemetery, is a mural monument of white marble, which is a plain tablet with a cornice surmounted by a weeping cherub, sitting on a rock, with his glass run down. On a tablet is : 

" Sacred to the Memory 

Of Hugo Meynell, 
Who died May 1800." 

Against the north wall of the chancel, over the pillar which is between the two arches whereby the chancel communicates with the above cemetery, is a marble monument to the memory of William Lord Viscount Chetwynd, the top part of which is a niche with a circular head ; and within it is placed a large Egyptian black urn, which was made at Etruria in the time of the late Josiah Wedgwood, Esq. F.R. s. A.S.S. Below the niche, on the corona of a corniche, in one line, is the following, in capitals : 

" He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again." 
Below the above, a white marble tablet is inscribed, in capitals : 

Sacred to the Memory of William Lord Viscount Chetwynd, who died April 3, AD. M.DCC.LXX. Aged LXXXVII. years." 

Beneath this inscription is a coat of arms, viz. : Azure, a chevron, Or, between three mullets, Or, surmounted by a large Viscount's coronet of white marble. 

The founder of the church was a David Kenrick, whose character is thus delineated on a brass plate on the south side of the nave, over the second pillar from the pulpit : 

" In perpetuam rei memoriam, 

Manubias Deo, 
David Kenricus, pietas ejus memoriae, 

Hoc virtutis praemiolum dicavit. Mira cano, Pietas saevis reperitur in armis. 
jEdificat bellum sternere quod soleat Hanc sacram struxil miles memorabilis aedem 
Principe sub nigro, quern meruisse ferunt, David Kenricus : Davide beatior illo 
Templum cui Superis aedificare nefas. 
Fair Virtue's deeds transmit a glorious name 
That lives on records of eternal fame. 

This holy edifice, arising from the spoils of a conquered enemy, was dedicated by David Kenrick to the Omnipotent. 

Hail wond'rous Piety, when seen in arms, 
Whose balmy breath a hero's bosom warms 
To build, and not destroy with impious ire, 
The solemn Temple, and the sacred Choir 
Kenrick, to early scenes of slaughter led, 
By Edward's son in toils of battle bred, 
This pile erected, by bis God approv'd, 
His Country honour'd, and his Prince belov'd. 
Happier than David he allow 'd to raise 
An Altar sacred to Jehovah's praise." 

The Church is dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The living is a rectory in the patronage of Thomas Kinnersly, Esq. two turns, and Hugo Meynell, Esq. one : the Rev. W. Anwyl is the present incumbent. 

The soil of the old inclosed land in the parish is a lightish loam on a sand or gravel bottom. 

The parish of Ashley contains 141 houses, 141 families ; males 321, females 295 : total of inhabitants, 616. 

Ashley Common, to the south of the village, is a thin black peat moor, the hilly parts having an under-stratum of sand, gravel, or sandy rock. The herbage is poor, possessing but few of the better grasses, but the soil improves into an inferior friable marl nearer to Eccleshall.

Hungershutt, another waste in this parish, is now under inclosure. The principal land-proprietors are Thomas Kinnersly and Hugo Meyneil, Esqs.