Drayton Bassett, Staffordshire

Description
Drayton Bassett, a village and a parish in Staffordshire, near the river Tame, at the boundary with Warwickshire, 1 1/2 mile SSW of Fazeley, and 3 miles SSW of Tamworth, with a post office under Tamworth; money order and telegraph office, Fazeley. Acreage of the civil parish, 3364; population, 461; of the ecclesiastical, 539. The manor belonged formerly to the Bassetts and to the Earls of Leicester. Drayton manor-house, a grand Tudor mansion by Smirke, in a large well-wooded park with fine gardens, is the seat of Sir Robert Peel, Bart. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Lichfield; net value, £187 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Lichfield. The church is a plain but very good stone structure, repaired in 1850, has a tower, and contains marble tablets to the memory of Sir Robert Peel and his father, the first baronet.