Shenstone, Staffordshire

Description
Shenstone, a village and a parish in Staffordshire. The village stands on an eminence 3 1/2 miles S by W of Lichfield, and has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Lichfield, and a station on the Birmingham, Sutton-Coldfield, and Lichfield branch of the L. & N.W.R. The parish contains also the hamlets of Catshill, Chesterfield, Footherley, Lynn, Littlehay, Little Aston, Shire Oak, and Stonnall, and comprises 8543 acres; population of the civil parish, 2681; of the ecclesiastical, 1033. The parish was divided under the Local Government Act of 1894: the urban part, which was in the Brown Hills local board district, was constituted a separate parish under the name of Shireoak; and the rural part was divided into three wards, Shenstone, Stonnal, and Little Aston, with a parish council consisting of nine members. Shenstone Court, Shenstone House, Shenstone Lodge, Shenstone Hall, Footherley Hall, Little Aston Hall, and Lynn Hall are chief residences. An ancient castle stood on a spot now called Castlefield. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield; gross value, £336 with residence. The present church was built in 1852, and contains some ancient monuments. Stonnall forms a separate ecclesiastical parish, and parts of the ecclesiastical parishes of Little Aston, Ogley Hay, and Walsall Wood are contained in Shenstone parish. There is a Wesleyan chapel.