Gnosall in 1851
from History, Gazeteer and Directory of Staffordshire
by William White, Sheffield, 1851

"Gnosall is a large and ancient village, seven miles W by S of Stafford, and six miles E by N of Newport in Shropshire. It has a station on the Shropshire Union Railway. Its parish is very extensive, being about six miles in length and comprising 2424 inhabitants and about 8000 acres of land, divided into the four quarters of Gnosall, Cowley, Knightley and Moreton. The soil is various, but the uplands have generally strong loam. Here are several valleys with rivulets and the meadows on their banks are very productive.
The Bishop of Lichfield is the appropriator of the tithes and Lord of the Manor of Gnosall, but they are held on lease by Captain Tennant of Needwood.

Except for three freeholds, the land in this manor (which only comprises one quarter of the parish) is copyhold and subject to small fines and heriots. Gnosall has two annual fairs for cattle, etc. on May 7th and September 23rd, and a feast or wake, on
the second Sunday in August.

Apeton and Rule are small hamlets, two and a half miles S E
of Gnosall, partly in Gnosall and partly in Bradley parish.

Cowley quarter contains a number of scattered houses .........

Knightley, in the northern quarter of this parish, is a large estate .........

Moreton, the southern and largest quarter of this parish, includes the scattered hamlets of Coley, Bromstead, Wilbrighton, Outwoods and Chartwell, extending from two to four miles S W of Gnosall, and bordering on Shropshire. Chatwell, the most distant place is said to derive its name from St Chad's Well, which was formerly of some repute. The principal landowners are Sir TFF Boughey and John Coates Esq.

Mr Henry Green has a large farm at Moreton. At Chatwell is a valuable bed of clay and a stratum of limestone, worked by Mr Thomas Boultbee.

The Ducie family were formerly seated here, and one of them, Matthew Ducie Moreton, was created Lord Ducie, Baron of Moreton in 1720, but on the death of his successor without issue, the title became extinct but his second title, Baron Ducie of Tortworth, descended to his sister's son, Thomas Reynolds, whose descendant, the present Lord Ducie, has assumed the name of Moreton, though the family has long been seated at Tortworth in Gloucestershire."

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