SOMERSALL HERBERT, or CHURCH SOMERSALL, is a small parish, 3½ miles north-west from Sudbury station on the North Staffordshire railway, 9 north-west from Burton-upon-Trent and 3½ north-east from Uttoxeter, in the Western division of the county, hundred of Appletree and petty sessional division of Sudbury, union and county court district of Uttoxeter, rural deanery of Longford, archdeaconry of Derby and diocese of Southwell. This place was formerly a chapelry of Sudbury, but early in the 15th century was formed into a rectory. The Somersall Brook flows through the parish. The church of St. Peter is an Early English building of stone, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and a western turret containing one bell, cast in 1874, in which year the church was restored : in a recess under a window on the north side of the chancel is the upper part of the recumbent effigy of a priest in eucharistic vestments : with his head on a cushion, the hands folded, and below them a chalice, and supposed to represent Robert by-the-Broke, the earliest known rector of Somersall, date 1428 : in the chancel is & mural monument to John Fitz-Herbert and his wife Mary (1691), and there is a small memorial window to Thomas and Elizabeth Robotham, erected in 1873 by their only daughter: the font, of Norman date, is a circular block of gritstone, carved with an encircling arcade of semicircular interlaced arches and a boldly defined border above, and has been designed by the Rev. J. C, Cox LL.D., F.S.A. rector of Barton-le-Street, to the third quarter of the 12th century : near the church is a fairly preserved specimen of an Early English churchyard cross, with steps and shaft complete, the cross being mutilated : there are 80 sittings. The register dates from the year 1538. The living is a rectory, average tithe rent-charge £157, with 21 acres of glebe, net yearly value £185, with residence, in the gift of Major W. H. Fitz Herbert, and held since 1885 by the Rev. Reginald Henry Castle Fitz-Herbert B.A, of St. John's College, Cambridge. Somersall Hall, the seat of Major Fitz-Herbert, is an ancient picturesque half-timbered mansion with ornamental gables and modern additions, and belongs to the Fitz-Herbert family, in whose possession it has remained since early in the 13th century : in the entrance hall are two wooden slabs, with the following quaint inscription :-

Lord Vernon is lord of the manor and principal landowner. The soil is a rich marl, with gravel and sand: subsoil, clay. The chief crops are wheat, beans, barley and oats and some laud in pasture. The acreage is 715: rateable value, £1,173; the population in 1881 was 107.

Verger, Mrs. Sarah Allen.

POST OFFICE.-Thomas Pakeman, receiver, Letters through Darby arrive at 8 a.m. ; dispatched at 5.30 p.m. The nearest money order & telegraph office is at Sudbury. The children of this place attend Sudbury school

Fitz-Herbert Major Walter Hepburn, Somersall hall
Fitz-Herbert Rev. Reginald Henry Castle B.A. [rector], The Rectory
Allen George, shoe maker
Bowden George Frederick, cattle exprtr
Clamp Charles, farmer
Goodall Francis, cowkeeper
Pakeman Thomas, farmer, Post office
Poyser John, farmer
Thawley John, wheelwright & cowkpr

[End of transcript. Spelling, case and punctuation are as they appear in the Directory.]



An Ann Andrews historical directory transcript