Gailey, Staffordshire Genealogy

Guide to Gailey, Staffordshire, history, family history, and genealogy: chapelry register transcripts, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.

History
This page is about the village of Gailey. Gailey is a very old village, actually mentioned in the Domesday Book. Initially the name was Gragelie.

Most of the village, as well as the surrounding land, is the property of Lord Hatherton, whose manor house is about 2 miles away.

The village remained a sleepy backwater until the start of the Industrial Revolution, when a major canal passed nearby, and Gailey Wharf was built. The wharf became a major loading and unloading site for materials for the potteries located nearby.

In the early 1830's the Grand Junction railway line was built, and a station erected at Gailey. However the village gradually ceased being an active location, and the station was closed in 1951.

Following the introduction of the railway network, the canals were unable to compete economically, and gradually fell into disrepair. Starting in the 1950's a major effort was started throughout the United Kingdom to restore the canals as a recreational network, and the Wharf was restored and became the site for a narrow-boat rental base.



At one time Gailey Christ Church was a chapel of ease to the Penkridge, Staffordshire Parish. However as the village shrunk in size, the church was deconsecrated, sold, and is now a small pottery.

The following link provides access to the Penkridge Parish: https://stage.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Penkridge,_Staffordshire

Gailey does not have its own graveyard.

Gailey Christ Church was a former chapel of ease to Penkridge, Staffordshire which was formed as an Ecclesiastical Parish in 1869 from parts of Brewood and Penkridge.

The church was deconsecrated and is now well known as Gailey Pottery.

Gailey Hay formed, with Teddesley Hay, a division of the Forest of Cannock which before 1300 included the vills of Penkridge and Wolgarston, Pillaton, Otherton, Rodbaston, and Water Eaton, and also Calf Heath, and it was in the parish of Penkridge by 1252. By 1834 Gailey seems to have been an alternative name for the hamlet of Spread Eagle, which had consisted by 1775 of a few houses around the crossroads formed by Watling Street and the Stafford–Wolverhampton road and was still part of Water Eaton in 1851. The road widening at Gailey crossroads in 1929 and 1937, besides absorbing parts of Gailey churchyard, involved the demolition of the Spread Eagle Inn at the north-west corner of the crossing, but a new inn has replaced it. There are five post-1945 council houses in the cul-de-sac near Croft Farm.

From 'Penkridge: Introduction and manors', A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 5: East Cuttlestone hundred (1959), pp. 103-126. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=53403 Date accessed: 03 May 2011.

Civil Registration
Birth, marriages and deaths were kept by the government, from July 1837 to the present day. The civil registration article tells more about these records. There are several Internet sites with name lists or indexes. A popular site is FreeBMD.

See Staffordshire BMD

Church Records
Gailey chapelry registers of christenings, marriages and burials are available online for the following years:

Deposited parish registers at Staffordshire Record Office Bap 1870-1977 Mar 1872-1976 Bur 1870-1977, 2006 Lichfield Record Office has no holdings of Bishop's Transcripts

To find the names of the neighbouring parishes, use Jurisdictions 1851. In this site, search for the name of the parish, click on the location "pin", click Options and click List contiguous parishes.

The microfilming of marriages 1872-1976 has spelling Galey and refers to being part of Wolverhampton parish which is incorrect as can be seen from the Parish History quoted above. The entry is also confused in reference to Gailey-with-Hatherton attachment in 1869.

See also

A chapel of ease was opened at Gailey in 1850 (fn. 195) and the consolidated chapelry of Gailey-with-Hatherton attached to it in 1869, the patronage being in the hands of Lord Hatherton and trustees.

'Penkridge: Economic history, churches, schools and charities', A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 5: East Cuttlestone hundred (1959), pp. 126-138. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=53404&amp;strquery=Gailey Date accessed: 03 May 2011.

Poor Law Unions
Penkridge Poor Law Union, Staffordshire

Probate records
Records of wills, administrations, inventories, indexes, etc. were filed by the court with jurisdiction over this parish. Go to Staffordshire Probate Records to find the name of the court having primary jurisdiction. Scroll down in the article to the section Court Jurisdictions by Parish.

Maps and Gazetteers
Maps are a visual look at the locations in England. Gazetteers contain brief summaries about a place.


 * England Jurisdictions 1851


 * Vision of Britain