place

Cannock Rural District

Districts of England abolished by the Local Government Act 1972Districts of England created by the Local Government Act 1894History of StaffordshireRural districts of EnglandSouth Staffordshire District
Use British English from August 2012

Cannock was a rural district in Staffordshire, England from 1894 to 1974. It was created by the Local Government Act 1894, based on the Cannock rural sanitary district, and had the town of Cannock on its eastern border. In 1934 it was expanded by a County Review Order, gaining the civil parishes of Blymhill and Weston under Lizard, which had been administered by the Shifnal Rural District mainly in Shropshire. The district was abolished in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, going on to form part of the South Staffordshire district.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Cannock Rural District (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Cannock Rural District
Watling Street, South Staffordshire Brewood and Coven

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Cannock Rural DistrictContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 52.69 ° E -2.14 °
placeShow on map

Address

Roman Fort

Watling Street
ST19 5PN South Staffordshire, Brewood and Coven
England, United Kingdom
mapOpen on Google Maps

Share experience

Nearby Places

Pennocrucium

Pennocrucium was a Romano-British settlement and military complex located at present day Water Eaton, just south of Penkridge, Staffordshire, with evidence of occupation from the mid-1st century until the 4th century.The settlement was mentioned in the 2nd century Antonine Itinerary, which described it as lying 12 miles from Uxacona (near present-day Oakengates) and 12 miles from Letocetum (Wall, near Lichfield). The exact site of Pennocrucium was identified only after aerial photography revealed cropmarks in 1946, and excavations were conducted by Kenneth St Joseph over subsequent years.Pennocrucium was an important road junction on Watling Street – the main Roman road across the Midlands to Viroconium Cornoviorum (Wroxeter) – and was situated 700 metres east of its crossing of the River Penk, with roads leading north to Mediolanum (Whitchurch) and south in the direction of Greensforge near Kinver and Metchley Fort in Birmingham.The main civilian defensive site or burgi was a rectangular enclosure approximately 450 feet (140 m) from north to south and 700 feet (210 m) from east to west, lying astride Watling Street and surrounded by three ditches. There may have been a civilian vicus around the defended settlement, possibly forming a ribbon development along Watling Street. 800 metres (2,600 ft) to the north east of the civilian settlement lay a large double-ditched enclosure identified as a possible Vexillation fortress, with two smaller forts lying 700 feet (210 m) south east of the settlement and 200 feet (60 m) north of Watling Street on the opposite bank of the Penk. Five single-ditched enclosures in the vicinity have been identified as temporary marching camps.

Somerford Hall
Somerford Hall

Somerford Hall is an 18th-century Palladian style mansion house at Brewood, Staffordshire, which now serves as a wedding venue. It is a Grade II* listed building. Somerford is a name of Anglo-Saxon origin and the interpretation is obvious: "summer river-crossing". This probably means that the River Penk near this point was only fordable in the summer. The manor of Somerford was held from the 1120s, when Henry I granted land there to Richard de Somerford, until 1705 by the Somerford family, named after their place of residence. The old house, estate and attached manors were owned from 1696 by Sir Walter Wrottesley, 3rd Baronet (died 1712), who had bought the mortgages of John Somerford, after which all properties passed to Wrottesley's second wife Dame Anne who died in 1732. In 1734 the house was sold in trust by Dame Anne's brother Thomas, her daughter Anne, and Peter Meyrick of the Bank of England, to the lawyer Robert Barbor of the Inner Temple for £5400.Barbor replaced the old manor house with the present mansion. The central seven-bayed three-storey block is flanked by single-storey pavilions with pedimented gables and ball finials. In 1744 Barbor bought the neighbouring Coven estate, uniting it with the manor of Somerford. However, his successors seem to have got into financial difficulties and several times came close to losing the hall to creditors before finally deciding to sell it.The estate was purchased in 1779 by Hon Edward Monckton, (a younger son of Viscount Galway and half brother of General Robert Monckton), a nabob who had made his fortune in India. Monckton carried out alterations to the house including the provision of an entrance porch and application of stucco, making the frontage a startling white. The dining room was rebuilt to a design and by Robert Adam, with an impressive fireplace. Monckton also brought water from the River Penk to a rooftop reservoir and installed a system which allowed waste and surplus water to be used on the plants and vegetables in the garden. The grounds were laid out by Humphrey Repton. Monckton went on to purchase Engleton Hall, also on the Penk, to the north, and its estate, in two stages, as well as leasing the deanery estate in Brewood. In 1832, on Monckton's death, the hall and estates passed to his eldest son, also Edward, who died unmarried and without issue in 1848. The estates, therefore, passed to his younger brother George. Meanwhile, a still younger brother, General Henry Monckton (1780–1854) purchased Stretton Hall, a substantial house a short distance north, and its estate in about 1845. Henry died in 1854 and George four years later. Francis Monckton, Henry's son, thus inherited both estates in rapid succession. He promptly moved the family seat permanently from Somerford to Stretton, renting out Somerford Hall. In about 1945 the property was converted to residential flats. During the 1970s and 1980s the house was again a single large residence with the ground floor housing a sports therapy and physiotherapy clinic. The reconversion was because of a number of apartment fires; the fire service insisting that, to remain as apartments, an exterior fire escape had to be built. This was refused because of the listed building status. During the late 1980s the owners of the clinic relocated to smaller premises and the house was converted to a conference and wedding venue.