Sandon, Staffordshire Genealogy

Parish History
Sandon All Saints is an Ancient Parish in the county of Staffordshire. Other places in the parish include: Dayhills, Day-Hills, Smallrice, and Normicott. The church is now removed from its population as a result of clearance from the estate of the village and inhabitants by a former landowner.

SANDON (All Saints), a parish, in the union of Stone, S. division of the hundred of Pirehill, N. division of the county of Stafford, 4½ miles (N. N. E.) from Stafford; containing 586 inhabitants. The parish comprises by measurement 3376 acres; the surface rises gradually from the north bank of the river Trent, and the scenery is beautifully diversified. The Hall is the seat of the Earl of Harrowby, who bears the inferior title of Viscount Sandon, of this place: on the south side of it is a fine Doric pillar, 75 feet high, erected by the late earl in 1806, to the memory of William Pitt; and in the grounds is an elegant structure in the later English style, with two tablets inscribed to Spencer Perceval. Stone of good quality for building is found, and in Sandon Park is an excellent quarry. The Trent and Mersey canal passes through the parish. Fairs, chiefly for cattle, are held on the Thursday in Easterweek, and the 14th of November. The living is a vicarage, endowed with a portion of the rectorial tithes, and valued in the king's books at £7. 10.; patron, and owner of the remainder of the rectorial tithes, the Earl of Harrowby. The impropriate tithes have been commuted for £366, and the incumbent's for £356; the glebe comprises 8 acres. The church is situated in the middle of the park, and is an ancient and venerable structure, restored by the late earl, in strict harmony with its original character; it contains an elegant monument to the memory of the well-known genealogist and antiquary, Sampson Erdeswicke, the last of the Erdeswickes, formerly proprietors of the manor, who was born here, and died in 1603. In the vicarage gardens adjoining the churchyard, is a monumental cross dedicated to the late Bishop Ryder, erected by the curate out of the old pinnacles and other materials left from the repairs of the church. There is a place of worship for Methodists. In a meadow near the boundary of the Sandon estate, is a petrifying spring.

From: A Topographical Dictionary of England (1848), pp. 15-20. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51255 Date accessed: 01 April 2011.

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Sandon like this:

SANDON, a village and a parish in Stone district, Stafford. The village stands near the river Trent, the Grand Trunk canal, and the North Staffordshire railway, 4¾ miles S E of Stone; has a station on the railway, a post-office under Stone, and a fair on 14 Nov.: and givesthe title of Viscount to the Earl of Harrowby. The parish contains also Smallrice hamlet, and part of Dayhills; and comprises 3, 640 acres. Real property, £6, 502. Pop., 590. Houses, 108. The manor belonged to Earl Algar; passed to Hugh Lupus, the De Malbancs, the Vernons, the Staffords, the Erdeswicks, and others; and, with Sandon Hall, belongs now to the Earl of Harrowby. An obelisk, 75 feet high, erected in 1806, to the memory of W. Pitt, stands on an eminence in S. Hall park; and a Gothic shrine, containing two tablets to S. Percival, is in a grove on the E side of the park. Anaction, between the parliamentarians and the royalists, was fought at Hopton-Heath in 1642. Good building-stone is quarried. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £355.* Patron, the Earl of Harrowby. The church is ancient. Charities, £7. Erdeswick, the antiquary, was a native.

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
Sandon All Saints Ancient Parish

Deposited parish registers at Staffordshire Record Office Bap 1636-2004 Mar 1636-1982 Bur 1636-2004 Lichfield Record Office holdings of Bishop's Transcripts Bap 1660-1868 Mar 1660-1850 Bur 1660-1868

Include here information for parish registers, Bishop’s Transcripts and other types of church records, such as parish chest records. Add the contact information for the office holding the original records. Add links to the Family History Library Catalog showing the film numbers in their collection

Census records
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Poor Law Unions
Stone 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
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 * England Jurisdictions 1851
 * Vision of Britain

Web sites
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