Eccleshall - History

History

According to the Domesday book, Eccleshall in 1086 was no more than a small village of about one hundred inhabitants and a few fragments of stone at the base of the tower of the present Parish Church of Holy Trinity suggest that a stone church was in existence about this time and the base of the 10th century cross still stands outside the church. The oldest part of the church, the pillars and arches of the nave were begun in 1180 while the remainder of the church was completed during the 13th century, with a fine clerestory being added in the 15th century.

Eccleshall briefly played a part in the War of the Roses, when the castle was used as a base for the Lancastrian Queen Margaret of Anjou and her troops before and after her defeat at the battle of Blore Heath in 1459.

To the Bishop of Lichfield, Eccleshall was conveniently situated on the main road between the centres of the diocese in Chester, Lichfield and Coventry. In 1200 Bishop Geoffrey de Muschamp was granted a ‘licence to crenellate’ the castle by King John. However the ruins which exist today are those of the castle built in 1305 by Bishop William Langton, a friend of King Edward I of England and later Chancellor of England. This was the great era of castle building and he built an imposing fortress with four corner towers and a wide moat.

Eccleshall became important as a market town for the surrounding area. In 1153 it was granted the right to hold a weekly market and by 1259 had obtained a charter to hold an annual fair at Ascensiontide. Around the beginning of the 13th century the village had become a town with the granting of ‘Borough’ status.

By the time of the survey of the Bishop’s estates in 1298 about five hundred people lived in the village, mainly craftsmen or engaged in agriculture.

In June 1643 the castle was besieged by Sir William Brereton and his Parliamentary forces encamped around the church. Their guns caused considerable damage to the walls but the castle held out. When the Parliamentary forces finally took the castle on August 30 they found that the Bishop had died of a heart attack during the siege and most of the defenders were either drunk or had gone into town drinking in the taverns. The castle was sacked but enough of the building remained to be used as a prison for Royalist gentry.

With the development of turnpike trusts in the 18th century as a method of financing road building and improvements, coach travel throughout England had become faster and more reliable. With its position on the main London to Chester road Eccleshall became an important stopping point for coaches on several different routes and the town prospered, the inns in particular. Until recently the large stables at the Royal Oak Hotel could be seen.

For three centuries leather working and shoemaking had been important domestic industries in Eccleshall, but by the end of the 19th century both had almost ceased, with the growth of the mechanised shoe factories in nearby Stafford.

Bishop William Overton (1580–1609) was probably responsible, in 1580, for bringing two glass making families from Lorraine, Tyzack and Henzey to Bishops Wood near Eccleshall to set up glass production. Manufacturing ceased around 1615, however, the site of one glass furnace has been excavated in recent times and is preserved and can be seen in Bishops Wood. The film 'I know where I'm going,' Powell and Pressburgers classic romantic comedy made in 1945 Highlights Eccleshall in the scene where Joan Webster (Wendy Hiller) meets up with her father in London, and he informs her that he'd travelled all the way from Eccleshall to see her that evening.