THE HISTORY OF ELFORD

"Elford is a pleasant village, upon a declivity on the north bank of the Tame, four and a half miles N by W of Tamworth, said to have derived its name from the great number of eels with which the river here formerly abounded. Its parish comprises 468 inhabitants, and 1840 acres of highly cultivated land. Before the Norman conquest this manor belonged to Earl Algar. In the reign of Henry III, it was held by William de Arderne, whose descendants continued to enjoy it till the marriage of Maud, sole heiress of Sir John Arderne, with Thomas, second son of Sir John Stanley, of Latham, carried it into that family. By a succession of females it passed, in like manner, to the families of Stanton, Smith, Huddleston and Bowes. After remaining for several generations with the latter, it devolved on the Hon. Craven Howard. The Hon. Mrs Mary Howard is now lady of the manor and owner of most of the soil, and resides at Elford Hall, a handsome mansion, erected about 1758, and having a fine avenue of young elms, planted by the late Hon. Fulke Greville Howard. A neat stone bridge crosses the Tame at Elford, and a little above it is a corn mill, formerly occupied by the late Robert Bage, who was born at Derby, in 1728, and wrote five popular novels Elford Lowe, on the summit of a hill, about one mile east of the village, is distinguished by a large oak tree and opposite it, at the distance of a mile, is a smaller lowe. These lowes are denominated by the common people 'Robin Hood's Shooting Butts', from a belief, that he sometimes practised here, and was able to throw an arrow from one to the other. Comberford, a hamlet two miles S of Elford, is mostly in Tamworth parish."

[From History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire, William White, Sheffield, 1851]

Prehistoric to Norman Times

The Village of Elford, situated at the apex of a triangle formed by the River Tame and the A513, has been populated since prehistoric times. The name Elford possibly derives from "Ellas Ford" or "Elder Tree Ford". The "El" may refer to eels, which were plentiful in the river up to the 18th century.

Stone Age tumuli have been identified at Elford Lowe and at Elford Park, which could have been the burial grounds of people who settled along the river banks and on the fringes of the forests of Lichfield and Needwood.

The Romans built the great arterial roads, Watling Street and Ryknield Street, which intersected at nearby Wall. From this time the area became an important farming region supplying wool, leather and food to the garrisons and marching legions. Remains of Roman farms have been found at Whittington.

Christianity was brought to Lichfield in the 7th century by Chad. He established his Church there and it was from Lichfield that itinerant monks travelled to outlying settlements to preach the Gospel; often at a fixed site such as beneath an erected cross of wood or stone. Eventually churches would be built on these hallowed sites. This is how the church at Elford developed. The spot where the river was forded came to be known as the hall ford and it is likely that the churchyard we know today was used as a Christian place of worship from the time of Chad.

Towards the end of the first millennium AD there were frequent clashes between invading Angles and Danes and the indigenous Celts. Offa, the king of Mercia, declared Tamworth its capital but it was later destroyed by the Danes, who established Danelaw north of Watling Street. Many names such as Croxall, Aldergate and Gungate are all Scandinavian.

By the turn of the millennium the Danes were defeated and Tamworth had been restored by Ethelfleda, daughter of Alfred the Great. In 1004AD Wulfric Spot, Earl of Mercia, founded Burton Abbey and bequeathed Elleford as part of the Abbey estate to his daughter. After the Conquest in 1066, the Manor of Elleford was forfeited to the Crown and is mentioned in the Domesday Book. It was held by the Crown until the mid 16th century.

The Middle Ages to the 18th Century

At the end of the 12th century the Lordship of the Manor of Elleford passed to the Arderne family. They were a Cheshire family who were Lords of Aldford and Alvaney. They held Elford until 1408 when John Arderne died without a male heir. The most famous Arderne was Sir Thomas who fought with the Black Prince at Crecy and Poitiers and who is reputed to have distinguised himself with "noble deeds and feates (sic)of armes". Matilda Arderne married Thomas Stanley Esq. and founded the Stanley line at Elford which lasted until 1508.

These two families lived at Elford Park in a moated house on the site of the present farm. The first Hall, adjacent to the church, was not built until the beginning of the 16th century. On 21st August 1484 John Stanley, then Lord of the Manor, is said to have entertained amongst others the Lord Stanley and Henry, Duke of Bosworth. It was Lord Stanley's intervention at the Battle of Bosworth the next day that changed the course of English history. Richard III was killed and Henry VII became the first of the Tudor monarchs.

John Stanley's only son (John) was killed by a tennis ball (they were made of wood in those days), which is said to have severed his jugular vein. To commemorate his death a statue was erected in the Stanley chapel showing the young child holding a tennis ball. The Lordship of the Manor passed via the female line to William Staunton, Richard Huddlestone, William Smythe and finally to Sir John Bowes. Thus began the line of the Bowes/Howard family at Elford which lasted up until the 1930s. Henry Bowes, who became Earl of Berkshire and Suffolk, built a new Hall on the site of the old one in about 1725. Several of the cottages in the village date back to this time.

During the civil War, Richard Bowes was a parliamentarian and protected the church, with the help of his Rector, Thomas Dowley, from being damaged by Cromwell's troops. He was not, however, able to prevent raids on his cattle from both the royalists and parliamentarians being as he was, situated between the former at Lichfield and the latter at Tamworth. The name 'Gore Hill' is reputedly derived from the amount of blood that flowed down it after a skirmish between the two sides.

The 18th Century to Present Day

In the late 18th century the most notable resident of Elford was Robert Bage, who owned a paper mill next to Mill House. He wrote six novels, three of which were included in Walter Scott's list of the fifty best novels of the time. No other author had so many titles in the list. He was a kind and generous man who espoused remarkably modern views for his time, which did not endear him to the establishment. He advocated equality of man and of the sexes, was sceptical of organised religion and accused church leaders of hypocrisy. Holding these views at the time of the French Revolution was dangerous indeed but he was apparently well liked by all who knew him.

19th century Elford was dominated by two figures. One was the Hon. Mary Howard and the other was her cousin, Francis Edward Paget who was Rector of Elford from 1835 to 1882. Mary was responsible for rebuilding the church and modernising her tenants cottages. Francis was another person ahead of his time. He ran evening classes, a library, a savings scheme, a choral society and he was a prolific author. He gave the proceeds from the sale of his books to the Parish.

The Howard line ended in the mid 1930s when the Hall, property and land were bequeathed to the City of Birmingham. During World War Two the Hall was used to store the City's art treasures. It was demolished soon after the war.

Bibliography 'The Monumental Effigies and Tombs in Elford Church, Staffordshire. With a Memoir and Pedigree of the Lords of Elford' by Edward Richardson Published 1852, London.

'Some Account of Elford Church..' by Francis Edward Paget Published 1870, Lichfield.

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