Brewood Grammar School

St Dominic's Grammar School (formerly St Dominic's Brewood and St Dominic's High School For Girls and boys ) is a private day school for girls and boys aged 4 to 18 in the village of Brewood, Staffordshire, England. The school is centered on a large Victorian brick building in rural Staffordshire, just north of Wolverhampton. Founded in 1920 by the Dominican Order resident in Staffordshire, it is now an inter-denominational school but retains its Christian ethos and the historic logo featuring the cross from the order's seal.

Speedwell Castle is a mid-18th-century house at the centre of Brewood, Staffordshire, between Wolverhampton and Stafford. Described by Pevsner as a "peach" and a "delectable folly", it stands beside the village market place, at the head of a T-junction on Bargate Street, facing onto Stafford Street. The house is an interesting combination of "Gothick" and Classical architecture: the symmetrical brick façade has two canted bays, each of three storeys, either side of a pillared entrance with ogee portico and octagonal-panelled door. There are five windows around each bay on each floor, and a single window on the two floors above the entrance, with decorative plasterwork arranged in tiers of round-headed arches with keystones and ogee arches rising to pinnacles surmounted by acorns. The glazing is arranged in a delicate tracery, originally of hexagons (although the glazing bars are not original on the ground and first floors). The façade is finished by a modillion cornice and parapet, concealing a hipped slate roof with brick chimney stacks. The interior includes one surviving decorative plaster ceiling and a Chinese Chippendale staircase with fretted balustrade. The house became a grade II listed building in 1953. The designer is unknown but some sources suggest Thomas Farnolls Pritchard, who worked nearby in Shropshire. The house has some similarities with Sandhurst House in Stourbridge, and Shenstone Hall near Lichfield. The design may have been inspired by the books published in the 1740s by Batty Langley, who attempted to improve Gothic forms by giving them classical proportions. Speedwell Castle was reputedly built by a local apothecary William Rock, using the winnings from betting on the Duke of Bolton's racehorse, Speedwell. (An alternate story is that the builder owned an unsuccessful racehorse, and said that he would build a castle to celebrate if it ever won). After a period as the home of the classics master at Brewood Grammar School in the second half of the 19th century, it became a reading room in the late 19th century. It was then used as shops and storage until the 1930s, when it was converted to residential flats.

Brewood (listen) is an ancient market town in the civil parish of Brewood and Coven, in the South Staffordshire district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. Located around grid reference SJ883088, Brewood lies near the River Penk, eight miles north of Wolverhampton city centre and eleven miles south of the county town of Stafford. A few miles to the west of Brewood is the border with the county of Shropshire.

Belvide Reservoir is a reservoir in South Staffordshire, England. It was built in 1833 to supply the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal, and has been managed as a nature reserve since 1977. It has been used to study the effect of water level changes on bird populations.

Stretton Aqueduct is a short cast iron canal aqueduct between Stretton and Brewood, and near to Belvide Reservoir, in south Staffordshire, England. Designed by Thomas Telford and bearing his name plus its date of construction, 1832, it carries the Shropshire Union Canal (formerly the Birmingham and Liverpool Junction Canal) 30 feet (9.1 m) over the A5 road at a skewed angle.The aqueduct has five sections, each 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) long, held together by bolts and supported by six cast iron arch ribs, each in two sections and joined at the centre of the arch. It was cast by William Hazledine of Shrewsbury. The trough is 21 feet (6.4 m) wide with an 11 feet (3.4 m) wide channel of water and a towpath on either side. The Staffordshire blue brick abutments have stone dressings.During 1961–62, the road under the aqueduct was lowered by about 4 feet (1.2 m) to allow taller vehicles to pass underneath.It was one of Telford's last aqueducts and has been grade II listed since 1985.

Stretton is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Lapley, Stretton and Wheaton Aston, in the South Staffordshire district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is just north of the A5 road. In 1961 the parish had a population of 176.The A5 is Watling Street, a notable Roman road, and another Roman road passes through Stretton from Mediolanum (Whitchurch), forming a junction with Watling Street near the bridge over the River Penk. On the other side of the river was the now-deserted Roman settlement of Pennocrucium. The village's position on the road from Mediolanum gives it its name, the Old English for "street town" ("street" meaning a paved or Roman road). Stretton Bridge today carries Watling Street over the Penk.Stretton Hall is in the village. The Church of England parish church of St John's Church, Stretton has a 12th-century chancel. The Shropshire Union Canal passes to the west of the village, and there is a Stretton Wharf. The Stretton Aqueduct carries the canal over the A5 road. Vernon Lodge Preparatory School was a small coeducational non-selective private school in Stretton for children aged 2 to 11. It was founded in 1981 and closed in March 2015.

St John's Church, Stretton is the Church of England parish church of Stretton, South Staffordshire.

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.

Stretton Hall is an early 18th-century mansion house at Stretton, South Staffordshire. It is the home of a branch of the Monckton family descended from John Monckton 1st Viscount Galway. It is a privately owned Grade II* listed building, not open to the public.The house built by John Congreve in about 1700 was originally two-storeyed with dormers above, a three-bay pedimented central block and two-bayed wings with a central pedimented entrance door. General Henry Monckton (1780–1854), a son of Edward Monckton and Sophia Pigot of Somerford Hall, purchased the estate in about 1845. He died in 1854, passing the estate on to his son, Francis Monckton. Four years later, Francis inherited Somerford, which had passed through the hands of two childless uncles, Edward and George. The Somerford inheritance included Coven and Engleton, two large neighbouring estates. Francis already resided at Stretton and moved the family seat there permanently, renting out Somerford Hall. In the 1860s he carried out extensive alterations at Stretton including a third storey and a new entrance front. Several members of the family have served as High Sheriff of Staffordshire, the latest being Mrs Joanna Bird Monckton in 1995.

Chillington Hall is a Georgian country house near Brewood, Staffordshire, England, four miles northwest of Wolverhampton. It is the residence of the Giffard family. The Grade I listed house was designed by Francis Smith in 1724 and John Soane in 1785. The park and lake were landscaped by Capability Brown. In the Domesday Book, Chillington (Cillintone) is entered under Warwickshire as forming part of the estates of William FitzCorbucion. His grandson Peter Corbesun of Studley granted Chillington to Peter Giffard, his wife's nephew, for a sum of 25 marks and a charger of metal. The present house is the third on the site. In the 12th century there was a stone castle on the site, a small corner of which can be seen in the cellars of the present house, and beside it the original house. This house was replaced in the 16th century by Sir John Giffard, who was High Sheriff of Staffordshire on five occasions. Peter Giffard began the third building by demolishing and replacing part of Sir John's Tudor house in 1724. This rebuilding replaced the existing south front of three storeys in red facing bricks with stone dressing. In about 1725, Peter Giffard planted the long avenue of oak trees which formed the original approach to the house, but he probably incorporated many existing trees. During the 1770s, Capability Brown designed the landscape park and lake to the south of the house for Thomas Giffard the elder. There are a number of Grade II and Grade II* listed structures on the estate. The Grade II* listed dovecote and stable block were on the Buildings at Risk Register but were removed in 2009 following repair work. Restoration work had commenced in 2008 under John Giffard, former chief constable of Staffordshire Police.

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.

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.