Audley, Staffordshire

Description
Audley, a town and a parish in Staffordshire. The town lies 5 miles NW by N of Newcastle-under-Lyme. It has a station on the North Staffordshire railway, and a post office under Newcastle-under-Lyme; telegraph office, Bignall End, a mile E. It gives the title of Baron (now in abeyance) to the family of Touchet. Population of the town, 12,631. The parish includes also the townships of Halmer-End, Eardley-End, Knowl-End, Bignall-End, and Park-End, and the township and ecclesiastical parish of Talk-o'-th'-Hill. Area of the parish, 8727 acres; population of the civil parish, 12,936 ; of the ecclesiastical, 5353. There is a Local Board. Heighleigh Castle in Knowl-End township, now a ruin, was the seat of the Audleys, one of whom fought at Poitiers. Ape-dale Hall is a fine modem mansion in Halmer-End township. Coal and ironstone are worked. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield; value, £386. The church is an ancient Decorated edifice, with a massive pinnacled tower, a brass, and some ancient monuments; it was restored in 1846 and 1856, and a chancel screen was erected in 1887. There is a chapel of ease at Alsagers Bank, in the township of Halmer-End, and Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist, and New Connection Methodist chapels at Audley, and other dissenting chapels in the district. Vernon's grammar school was founded in 1612; new school buildings were erected in 1876.