HISTORY OF WOODHOUSES

Burntwood lies 4 miles west of Lichfield, Staffordshire, UK. It comprises Burntwood, Chasetown, Chase Terrace and Boney Hay. It is a part of Lichfield District Council, but nowadays it is equal in size to Lichfield.Burntwood has always been associated with Woodhouses and Ediall, or Edgehill (Edjiall) as it was once known.It has been suggested that the name Burntwood or ‘Brendewode’, derives from the burning of a heath in Cannock Forest by the vill of Hammerwich; a presentment of the incident was made at the forest proceedings in 1296. This is the first mention of Burntwood in history.The name Burntwood was in use by 1298 when the bishop of Coventry and Lichfield had 300 acres of common pasture in ‘Brendewode’. The next important change in the history of the area came with the Reformation, when much of the surrounding land changed hands having been taken away from the church. The land was taken from the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield and sold to Sir William Paget in 1546. The Pagets remained the major land owners until this Century.There was a manor of Pipe by 1135. This lies within the present Burntwood Boundary. Pipe remained a member of the bishop’s manor of Longdon, which in 1546 passed to the Paget family (successively Barons Paget, Earls of Uxbridge, and Marquesses of Anglesey). Pipe was still a member of Longdon manor in the 1850’s. It covered Edial and Woodhouses but did not include Burntwood, which grew up on part of the waste of Longdon manor.Fulfen on Rugeley Road to the west was an inhabited area by the 1530’s. The Nags Head Inn at the junction of Rugeley Road and Nether Lane existed by 1799 and probably by 1775.Maple Hayes became an important house within the Burntwood Boundary. Atkinson was living at Maple Hayes by 1812, and he built up a collection of paintings and other art there. He was sheriff of Staffordshire in 1828-9.In 1884 the house and 455 acres of the 1,010 acre estate was sold to Albert Octavius Worthington, a partner in the Burton Upon Trent brewing firm of Worthington & Co. He continued to buy property in the area. He was succeeded in 1918 by his son William Worthington Worthington, who died in 1949. Most of the estate, c.1,540 acres, was sold to a trust, which still owned c.1,400 acres in 1986.
Woodhouses presumably originated as a clearing in the woodland, and the place name ‘Wodehousleye’ is found in the area in 1374. Woodhouse Green was mentioned in 1433. A county lunatic asylum was opened in 1864 on Hobstone Hill northwest of Woodhouses. A way at Hobbestone was mentioned in 1392.The hamlet of Edial developed along the stretch of the Lichfield road east of Burntwood known by 1409 as Edial Lane. In 1666, 16 people in Edial were assessed for hearth tax, the population was 225 in 1841 and 222 in 1851. Ediall Hall, Ediall is celebrated as the house in which that eminent lexicographer, Samuel Johnson, L.L.D, opened an academy in 1736, but not meeting sufficient encouragement he did not long remain in this obscure situation.
(Many thanks to Keepers of the Archive. http://www.latham45.freeserve.co.uk/Index.htm)

Burntwood, Edjall, and Woodhouses, are three hamlets of straggling houses, forming a joint township and chapelry (of Lichfield), on the eastern side of Cannock Chase, extending from one and a half to three miles W of Lichfield. Burntwood contains 709 acres and 426 souls, Edjall, 360 acres and 98 souls, and Woodhouses, 1389 acres and 225 souls. The Marquis of Anglesey is lord of the manor of Burntwood, and has a paramount jurisdiction in Edjall and Woodhouses, of which SP Wolverstan, Esq, is the mesne lord. On the Chase is an extensive rabbit-warren, with a neat house called Coney Lodge. Maplehayes, the seat of JP Shaw, Esq, and Pipe Hall, an ancient manor house, now occupied by a farmer, are in the hamlet of Woodhouses, as also is Ashenbrook, an ancient farmhouse with some curious relics of stained glass in its windows. Not far from these is Edjall Hall, a good square brick mansion, with a cupola and balustrades, celebrated as the house which that eminent lexicographer, Samuel Johnson, LLD, opened an academy in 1736. It is now a farmhouse.

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