Biddulph, Staffordshire

Description
Biddulph, a parish in Staffordshire, 3 miles SE of Congleton, with stations at Gillow-Heath and Black Bull, on the North Staffordshire railway. It consists of the four hamlets and manors of Over-Biddulph or Overton, Nether-Biddulph, Middle-Biddulph, and Knypersley. The post, money order, and telegraph office is at Bradley Green. Acreage, 5671; population of the civil parish 5290; of the ecclesiastical, 4316. Biddulph Hall, a picturesque Tudor edifice, was anciently the seat of the Biddulph family, but is now mainly a ruin, and partly a farmhouse. Biddulph Grange, the seat of the lord of Knypersley manor, is a modern mansion in the Italian style. The land is chiefly moorish and hilly, and a peak of it, called Mow Oop, 1091 feet high, commands fine prospects, even to the Mersey. Coal, ironstone, and limestone are extensively worked, and several kinds of manufacture are carried on. Remains of a Druidical temple, known as the Bride Stones, and of three curious artificial caves, are on the N border. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield; net value, £226. The parish church is a substantial edifice, with an embattled tower, and contains an ancient altar-tomb and some brasses. Knypersley Church is a structure of 1849, in the Early English style. There is a Wesleyan chapel. Bradley Green a village 1 mile S of Biddulph Church, has chapels for Wesleyans and Primitive Methodists.