A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 5, East Cuttlestone Hundred. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1959.
This free content was digitised by double rekeying. All rights reserved.
Coppenhall, a civil parish formerly part of the ancient parish of Penkridge, is bounded on the east by the Pothooks Brook. The centre of the village lies at 416 ft., the ground rising from under 275 ft. in the east of the parish to over 475 ft. in the west. The soil is stiff loam, with a subsoil of clay and gravel. (fn. 1) The parish is still mainly agricultural. A detached strip of Coppenhall, running northwards along the east side of Thornyfields Lane, was added to Castle Church between c. 1849 and 1878. (fn. 2) The area of the parish is 907 acres. (fn. 3)
About 1558 the inhabitants of Coppenhall including the hamlet of Butterhill ('Butterall') numbered over 120. (fn. 4) In the constablewick of Coppenhall and Butterhill there were fourteen households chargeable for hearth tax in 1666 and five too poor to be taxable. (fn. 5) Coppenhall contained 10 or 12 houses in 1680 and Butterhill 4, there being no gentleman's residence in either, (fn. 6) and in 1811 there was a population of 92 with 16 houses. (fn. 7) The population of the civil parish in 1951 was 113. (fn. 8)
Coppenhall had 332 acres under cultivation in 1801, 152 acres being sown with wheat, 19 with barley, 67 with oats, 3 with potatoes, 81 with beans, and 10 with turnips or rape. (fn. 9) Four farmers with a blacksmith were named in 1834, (fn. 10) and in about 1849 there were three farms of over 100 acres, one of them being of nearly 300 acres, with several of less than 100 acres. (fn. 11) In 1940 there were four farms, two of them over 150 acres. (fn. 12)
On low-lying ground at Coppenhall Gorse is a large moated site. (fn. 13) The area enclosed is about 100 yds. in diameter and is approximately oval. Beyond the moat is an outer bank and to the east is a further incomplete system of banks, roughly rectangular in shape. Most of the moat is dry but there are indications of an inlet to the north-west, leading from a field formerly known as The Springs. (fn. 14) Surrounding the site the names of eleven fields incorporate the word 'park', (fn. 15) indicating the existence of an important early dwelling. A detailed examination of the site and excavations undertaken in 1951 suggest that the period of its occupation was during the earlier 14th century. (fn. 16)
Coppenhall Hall is a much-altered farmhouse, built mainly of brick. The west end of the front range is timber-framed and consists of two bays and part of a third. The roof and attic story appear to date from the 16th century, but it is possible that the lower part of the framing is older. The front gables are later additions and the east end of the range has been rebuilt. There is also a mid-19th-century brick addition at the rear. Two carved oak bosses, probably of 15th-century date, have been reset in the present hall. They consist of grotesque faces framed in foliage and with stems issuing from their mouths. Depressions to the north and west of the house may represent the remains of a moat. The buildings of Church Farm, the other large farm in the village, are not ancient. Doxeywood Cottage in Thornyfields Lane is a small timber-framed structure of two bays, probably having at one time a third bay to the south. The front and the north gable end have exposed framing of the late 16th or early 17th century. On the west side of the road to Hyde Lea is the former smithy, which ceased working soon after 1950. Chase View is a mansion of yellow brick, built c. 1865 on a commanding site as a residence for Henry Woodhouse, engineer to the L. & N.W. Railway at Stafford. (fn. 17) It has been used as offices by the English Electric Co. since c. 1942. (fn. 18) Since the First World War the residential outskirts of Stafford have spread along the west side of the road from Hyde Lea and there are several modern detached houses to the south-east of the village.
COPPENHALL (Copehale), which had been held, T.R.E., by three freemen, was held in 1086 as a hide by Bueret from Robert de Stafford. (fn. 19) The overlordship descended in the barony of Stafford until at least 1524. (fn. 20) Lord Stafford was still described as lord of the manor in 1884, (fn. 21) and payments from Coppenhall were included among Stafford Rents from at least 1368 until at least 1720. (fn. 22) Land there remained in the Stafford family until at least 1892. (fn. 23)
Bueret, the tenant in 1086 (fn. 24) seems to have been followed before 1166 by an Ulpher de Coppenhall. (fn. 25) Coppenhall seems to have formed the 2/3 fee held in demesne by Geoffrey de Coppenhall in 1166. (fn. 26) Robert fitz Geoffrey had succeeded before 1222. (fn. 27) A Robert de Coppenhall held a small or mortain fee here in 1242 (fn. 28) and this or another Robert' de Coppenhall' or 'de Botarhale' was released, before 1255, by Robert de Stafford from his service due for ½ fee. (fn. 29)
Ulpher had granted half his demesne lands in Coppenhall, with woodland there, probably before 1166, to a William Bagot. (fn. 30) The land has been identified with The Hyde, and this William Bagot, described as of The Hyde, was succeeded, by 1182, by a son William (II) (fn. 31) who was holding ½ knight's fee in Coppenhall of Robert fitz Geoffrey in 1222 and 1227. (fn. 32) He had married one of the three daughters and coheirs of Robert fitz Odo of Loxley (Warws.), through whom he acquired Patshull (Seisdon hundred). (fn. 33) By 1236 he had been succeeded by his son Robert, and he, by 1248 or 1249, by his son William (III), when his widow Ascira was claiming dower in rents in The Hyde and Coppenhall. (fn. 34) Following the surrender of the intermediate lordship by Robert de Coppenhall, William (III) was described as lord of Coppenhall in 1255. (fn. 35) It was presumably this same William (III) on whom a manor of Hyde was settled, for life, by a Richard Bagot in 1276, with successive remainders to his sons William, Robert, and Edmund. (fn. 36) In 1279 Richard recovered possession (fn. 37) but in 1285 William (III) was holding the manor of The Hyde as 1 knight's fee. (fn. 38) In 1303 a grant of free warren in his demesne lands in The Hyde was made to William Bagot (IV), (fn. 39) and in 1305 the manor of The Hyde was settled on William and his wife Eleanor. (fn. 40) William (IV) was described as lord of Coppenhall in 1316 (fn. 41) but at some date between 1308 and c. 1324 (when he died, leaving no issue), he conveyed this manor of The Hyde to Ralph Lord Stafford. (fn. 42) Eleanor, by then wife of John de Ferrers, lord of Chartley, conveyed her life interest in the manor to the same Ralph de Stafford in 1326. (fn. 43)
In 1327 The Hyde was settled in fee tail on Ralph de Stafford and his wife Katherine, to hold in chief. (fn. 44) Meanwhile, William Bagot's heir seems to have been Sir Ralph Bagot, (fn. 45) probably his brother, whose daughter Joan, in 1359, conveyed all her rights in the manor to Ralph, by then Earl of Stafford. (fn. 46) In 1378 Hugh Earl of Stafford conveyed The Hyde and all his lands in Coppenhall to Richard and Nicholas de Stafford and four others, (fn. 47) presumably by way of a settlement since the manor of Hyde was held by the barony in 1397. (fn. 48) In 1403, on the death of Edmund Earl of Stafford, his heir being an infant, the king granted to the queen two-thirds of a carucate of demesne land in two-thirds of the manor, with 4 acres meadowland, two stews, and two-thirds of the park of Hyde (in Castle Church). (fn. 49) This grant was confirmed in 1404. (fn. 50)
By 1397, and until at least July 1403, rents from lands in The Hyde and Coppenhall were held of the barony by a Humphrey de Stafford. (fn. 51) Some time between 1443 and 1453 a manor of Hyde was settled on Avice or Amice, daughter and heir of Sir Richard Stafford son and heir of Sir Humphrey Stafford of Hooke (Dors.). (fn. 52) Avice, who by 1438 was married to James le Botiller or Ormond, later Earl of Wiltshire (d. 1461), died childless in 1457. (fn. 53) Her heir was her cousin, Humphrey Stafford (son of John), who died seised of The Hyde in 1461 and was succeeded by his cousin Sir Humphrey Stafford of Hooke and of Southwick (in North Bradley, Wilts.), son of William younger brother of Richard and John Stafford. (fn. 54) In 1469 he became Earl of Devon, and was beheaded. (fn. 55) Another Sir Humphrey Stafford then entered what were later described as lands and tenements in Hyde and Coppenhall, claiming them by virtue of a conveyance to his father, Humphrey son of Ralph, by Sir Humphrey Stafford of Hooke, grandfather of the Earl of Devon, but was dispossessed in 1473 by the heirs of Alice, aunt of the earl, namely Elizabeth and her husband Sir John Coleshill, Anne and her husband John Willoughby, and Thomas Strangeways, husband of the third daughter Eleanor. (fn. 56) In 1483 Sir Robert Willoughby, son of Anne, was cleared of a charge of wrongfully dispossessing Humphrey of these lands (fn. 57) and, as Lord Willoughby de Broke, in 1502 died seised of what was called the manor of Hyde-Coppenhall, worth £7 7s. 4d. and held of the Earl of Stafford by fealty. (fn. 58) His heir was his son Robert, (fn. 59) who in 1516, with his second wife Dorothy and son Edward, made a settlement of this and other manors. (fn. 60) Hyde-Coppenhall then descended with Littywood in Bradley, (fn. 61) being conveyed in 1542 by Sir Anthony Willoughby to Fulke Greville and Elizabeth. (fn. 62) In 1552 they conveyed it, for her life, to Anne Neville, a daughter of Ralph Earl of Westmorland (d. 1549), and granddaughter of Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham (d. 1521). (fn. 63) In 1628 Margaret, wife of Sir Richard Verney of Compton Verney (Warws.), succeeded her brother to what was called the manor of Hyde or HydeCoppenhall. (fn. 64) On her death in 1631 the manor was described as Hyde-Coppenhall otherwise Coppenhall, (fn. 65) and it probably then descended with the barony of Willoughby de Broke (in abeyance from 1521 to 1694). By c. 1849 the 16th Lord Willoughby de Broke (d. 1852) owned a farm of 297 acres in Coppenhall, the tenant being Samuel Wright, and a small holding of 6 acres, the tenant being a Mr. Ansell. (fn. 66) The 18th Lord Willoughby de Broke still owned land here at the end of the century. (fn. 67)
The Cholmeley family seem to have occupied the 'farm of Coppenhall' as tenants since the early 15th century. (fn. 68) In 1547 Thomas Cholmeley, Mary his wife, and their sons Edward and Henry were granted by Sir Fulke Greville the lease for their lives of a capital messuage and land in Coppenhall at a rent of 57s. 10½d. (fn. 69) Messuages and lands in Coppenhall and Hyde were leased to Edward and Henry by Sir Fulke and his wife in 1557, (fn. 70) and in 1565 messuages and lands in Coppenhall, Hyde, and elsewhere were settled on Edward for 40 years at a rent of £5 5s. 4d. (fn. 71) Sir Fulke's son Sir Fulke in 1607 leased the capital messuage and arable land, meadow, and pasture in Coppenhall to a Henry Cholmeley for 21 years, (fn. 72) and as Lord Brooke Fulke renewed the lease in 1627. (fn. 73) Henry died later in the same year. (fn. 74) Robert, Matthew, and Edward Chomeley made a settlement of lands in Coppenhall in 1660. (fn. 75) and land there was settled on Edward in 1663. (fn. 76)
Coppenhall Hall was bought and occupied after the First World War by Mr. James Holt, farmer. (fn. 77) He still owned it in 1956, the tenant being Mr. Sumner. (fn. 78) The building is described above. (fn. 79)
The prebend of Coppenhall in the collegiate church of Penkridge occurs by 1261 (fn. 80) and was valued at £10 in 1291. (fn. 81) In 1535 the prebend, valued at £16, consisted of the site of the PREBENDAL MANOR, worth 20s., chief rents of 30s., tithe of grain averaging £6, other tithes and oblations averaging £6 10s., and Easter offerings, averaging 10s. (fn. 82) Synodals of 6s. 8d. were due every three years to the Dean of Penkridge. (fn. 83) A lease of the prebend was granted in 1547 to Sir Edward Littleton who the following year paid £20 rent for it to the royal bailiff of the dissolved college. (fn. 84) The prebend presumably descended with the rest of the collegiate possessions, (fn. 85) and in 1585 it passed with view of frankpledge and tithe in Coppenhall to Edward Littleton, (fn. 86) grandson of the lessee of 1547 and holder of a 21-year lease since 1577 or 1578. (fn. 87) The prebend descended in his family with Pillaton (fn. 88) until at least 1709, (fn. 89) and the 30 acres in Coppenhall owned by the 3rd Lord Hatherton c. 1849 (fn. 90) may have been former prebendal land.
One Elias de Coppenhall (living c. 1160) made various grants of land in Coppenhall to Stone Priory (Pirehill hundred), including 2 virgates held of him by Ranulf his brother. (fn. 91) Part of this land was confirmed to the priory by a Robert de Coppenhall after some dispute. (fn. 92) Robert de Coppenhall, Dean of Penkridge c. 1180, granted to the priory the messuage in Coppenhall where his father and then he himself had lived, along with an orchard, an alder grove, and ½ virgate in campo, (fn. 93) while Robert son of Geoffrey de Coppenhall gave the priory 2s. out of the farm of the lands of Butterhill ('Butterales'). (fn. 94) At some time after c. 1217 Hervey de Stafford confirmed the canons in their possession of land granted by Elias and of the 2s. rent from Butterhill. (fn. 95) Part of Elias's grant, the land between Hyde and 'Holedene' with meadow, was given to William Bagot (II), son of William Bagot of The Hyde, by Prior Sylvester for homage and a rent of 40d. (fn. 96)
A Henry de 'Butterhall', lord of Butterhill, occurs possibly early in the 14th century. (fn. 97) At some unknown date Margery, daughter of John le Rede of Longdon, gave to John de Pykstoke and his heirs all her rights in the whole lordship of the vill of Butterhill and Coppenhall. (fn. 98) In 1324 Philip de Pickstock acquired 2 acres in Butterhill from Richard de Wenlock, (fn. 99) and by 1403 Nicholas de Pickstock was holding tenements here of Lord Stafford by rent of six barbed arrows (worth 12d.). (fn. 100) His heirs were holding as free tenants of the barony a messuage called Butterhill (Butterhall) between at least 1452 and 1486. (fn. 101) In 1518 William Greene was paying a rent to Lord Stafford for a messuage and a carucate of land, formerly held by Nicholas Pickstock, (fn. 102) and between at least 1627 and 1631 Ralph Greene paid 12d. for what was almost certainly this same tenement at Butterhill. (fn. 103)
An estate in Butterhill of some 111 acres including Butterhill House was owned c. 1849 by Edward Moore and occupied by Richard Wright. (fn. 104) By 1868 it seems to have been owned by William Marson, who was living in Butterhill by 1872, (fn. 105) and James Cramer Marson seems to have succeeded by 1876, although he was then not resident there. (fn. 106) By 1880 the estate was owned and farmed by Mrs. Lydia Busby, (fn. 107) who was still living there in 1900. (fn. 108) Mrs. A. J. Busby was one of the chief landowners in Coppenhall in 1912 and 1916, (fn. 109) but between at least 1924 and 1932 Butterhill House was owned and occupied by T. P. Darlington. (fn. 110) Miss Darlington was living there in 1940. (fn. 111) The house subsequently passed to the present Mr. Darlington, and he sold it in 1955 to Mr. A. N. Hillier, who had converted it by 1956 into flats. (fn. 112) The present house is a mid-19th-century brick building with gabled dormers, ornamental barge-boards, and stone bay windows. (fn. 113) There is a large walled garden to the north.
An estate in Butterhill of some 30 acres including the present Butterhill Farm and the windmill (see below) was owned c. 1849 by Lord Hatherton and occupied by William Handy. (fn. 114) It seems to have been united by 1868 to the Butterhill House estate (fn. 115) with which it then descended until 1955 (fn. 116) and in 1956 was still owned by Mr. Darlington. (fn. 117) The farmhouse and many of the outbuildings date from the early 19th century.
Henry Cholmeley and his wife Francis conveyed a windmill and ½ acre of land in Coppenhall to John Giffard (or Halfepenye) in 1616. (fn. 118) This may have stood in the Windmill Field 'adjoining Hyde Lea' mentioned in 1661, (fn. 119) but by the mid-19th century the field-name alone survived. (fn. 120)
A second windmill standing on high ground some 150 yds. west of Butterhill Farm and locally said to have been the only six-sail mill in the county was in use by 1820. (fn. 121) About 1849 it was part of Lord Hatherton's estate in Coppenhall occupied by William Handy. (fn. 122) It seems to have gone out of use between 1872 and 1876, (fn. 123) but the tackle was not removed until 1912. (fn. 124) The derelict brick tower probably dates from c. 1800.
There was a church at Coppenhall by 1200. (fn. 125) It may have been of independent foundation and subsequently appropriated to Penkridge College (fn. 126) of which it was a dependency by 1261. (fn. 127) A vicarage had been ordained by 1291. (fn. 128) By the Reformation 'all manner of sacraments and sacramentals, as well in christening of children as others', were administered in the church (fn. 129) which was described in 1563 as a chapel of ease to Penkridge with cure. (fn. 130) The churchyard, however, was not consecrated for burials until 1870. (fn. 131) The benefice became a perpetual curacy after the Reformation, (fn. 132) and since 1892 it has been united with that of Dunston. (fn. 133)
The right of presentation to the vicarage was claimed without success against the Dean of Penkridge by Richard Bagot in 1310. (fn. 134) The Crown presented in 1342, when the chapel was said to be annexed to the prebend of Bold in Penkridge College, (fn. 135) but by the time of the Dissolution the right of presentation was held by the Prebendary of Coppenhall. (fn. 136) It then passed to the Crown (fn. 137) and presumably descended with the advowson of Penkridge church (fn. 138) with which it was granted in 1585 to Edward Littleton. (fn. 139) It descended in his family until c. 1897, its recent history being the same as that of Dunston. (fn. 140)
The vicarage was valued at 13s. 4d. in 1291. (fn. 141) In 1548 the vicar had a house and lands in Coppenhall, all tithes in Coppenhall and Butterhill and tithe of corn in the hamlet of Hyde, the total being valued at £4. (fn. 142) In the same year the vicar was ordered to continue to serve the chapel at his old salary. (fn. 143) In 1550 the glebe and vicarial tithe were granted by the Crown to John Bellowe and William Fuller (fn. 144) but by 1554 were held by John Leveson and his wife Joyce who then granted them to Edward Cholmeley. (fn. 145) About 1558 the inhabitants of Coppenhall were accusing Edward of having made no provision for a vicar so that there was then no one to serve the cure. (fn. 146) The vicarial tithes were held by the Cholmeley family until at least 1703. (fn. 147) The curate's stipend was £4 in 1604 (fn. 148) and the same in 1651 when it was stated to be paid out of the fee farm of Penkridge College. (fn. 149)
A service is held in the church each Sunday under the terms of Helen Perry's gift of 1902. (fn. 150)
The church of ST. LAWRENCE is a small stone building consisting of a nave and chancel with a timber bell turret at the west end. It dates from c. 1200 and is of special interest as a comparatively unaltered example of a small church of this period. (fn. 151) The walls are of stone ashlar and are of exceptional thickness, the east and west walls being further thickened at the base.
The chancel was probably built shortly before 1200. In the east wall are three widely spaced lancets, the most southerly having a semicircular head externally, the others being slightly pointed. In each instance the heads are cut from a single stone. externally the jambs and heads are chamfered and there are deep internal splays. The south wall has two similar windows. The pointed chancel arch is of two orders, springing from semicircular responds with hollowed bell capitals and square-edged abaci. The plinths are square and the base mouldings consist of two rolls, the lower one flattened. The nave probably dates from soon after 1200. In the west wall are three graded lancets with pointed heads. Externally they appear as independent lights but internally they are contained under a single arch with splayed jambs, exhibiting an early form of three-light window. Below the window the west doorway has an undercut dripstone terminating in much-decayed carved stops. The arch is pointed and carries a filletted roll-moulding which is continued down the jambs. In both north and south walls of the nave are three pointed lancets, those on the south being largely modern. Traces of a south doorway, which was already blocked before the mid-19th century, (fn. 152) are still visible between the two more westerly lancets. The buttresses abutting on the chancel arch and those at the west end of the nave are probably original; the buttresses at the east end of the chancel are later additions. At some period, possibly in the 16th century, a small wooden bell turret with a pyramidal roof was added at the west end of the nave, and in the 18th century two windows were inserted in the south nave wall. (fn. 153) The former lancets were blocked, but parts of their stonework may have survived. A thorough restoration of the church took place c. 1866 at a cost of £500. (fn. 154) Previously the interior had contained box-pews, a Georgian pulpit, turned altar rails, and a plaster ceiling. (fn. 155) At the restoration the church was reroofed, lancets were reinstated in the south nave wall, the gable-ends were rebuilt, and a circular window was inserted in the east gable. A new bell turret with a taller spire was added. Internally the Georgian fittings were removed and a stone pulpit and a circular font installed. The church contains memorial tablets to the Revd. Evan Price (d. 1875) and his wife; also to Lillie (d. 1911), wife of Charles H. Wright.
A memorial pulpit and lectern were given in memory of Charles Mort by his widow Helen who by will proved 1917 bequeathed an annual interest of £5 for their maintenance. (fn. 156) In 1932 £20 accumulated income was used towards the cost of the heating apparatus, (fn. 157) and in 1957 the income was accumulating for use, as necessary, in the maintenance of the church. (fn. 158) The east lancets were restored in 1930, and stained glass was inserted in memory of the Revd. Charles E. Cope. (fn. 159) The oak lych-gate to the churchyard was erected in 1932 as a memorial to Charles H. and Lillie Wright. (fn. 160) The church still benefits from the gift of £100 made by Henry Woodhouse of Llandudno (Caernarvonshire) to provide an income for the upkeep of the fabric. (fn. 161)
In 1553 the plate included a silver chalice and paten and a brass censer. (fn. 162) In 1955 it included an Elizabethan silver chalice, a silver flagon, a pewter alms dish, an electro-plated alms dish, and an electroplated paten, 1897. (fn. 163) In 1548 there were two bells, identified in 1553 as one bell and a sanctus bell. (fn. 164) The present silver bell was cast by Clibury of Wellington in 1670. (fn. 165)
There is a register of baptisms from January 1678/9 to 1812, with nine marriages, 1684–1783, 1831, 1837. (fn. 166) The entries down to 1776 are copied mainly from the Bradley register with some from the Haughton register, but not consistently so. There is also a register of marriages from 1847 and of burials from 1871. (fn. 167)
Charities for the Poor
John Webb of Coppenhall, by will proved 1759, left to the poor of Coppenhall a rent of 20s. charged on land here. (fn. 168) In 1928 £2 accumulated income was paid to the church cleaner, (fn. 169) but by 1955 the charity had not been distributed for some years because no one had qualified to receive it. (fn. 170)