Little Haywood

Little Haywood is a medium-sized village in Staffordshire, approximately 4 miles from the town of Rugeley and 6 miles from the county town of Stafford.Its name is derived from the Old English "haeg wadu," meaning an enclosure in a wood. The village has ancient roots and is cited in the Domesday Book of 1086. [http://www.staffshistory.org.uk/domesday.htm] Although originally a small village, housing expansion during the 1980s has created a commuter village, where most of the inhabitants have employment far outside the confines of the Haywood area.

History

Originally a Saxon settlement, Little Haywood would appear to have been situated within the Pirehill hundred.

Circa 1210, King John was a regular guest of the Lichfield bishops and stayed at Haywood. Up until 1235 the bishops lived in the Haywood manor or in Eccleshall. In that year, however, extensive building work was carried out by Bishop Walter de Langton and Roger de Norbury at the Lichfield Cathedral site, which included a bishop's residence. The manors of Haywood and Shugborough were also repaired at this time.

Circa 1536 the ownership of the Little Haywood manor was removed from the Lichfield bishops and given to the Paget family as part of the Protestant Reformation.

On Friday the 17 March 1643, the royal garrison at Stafford met a large body of parliamentary troops at Haywood and were victorious, with half the Roundheads being slain or captured.

Little Haywood today

Little Haywood is distinctive from its closest neighbouring village of Colwich in that, whereas Colwich has no general store, no public house, a church and a school, Little Haywood has a general store and two public houses but has neither church nor school . This is due to the sphere of influences of both towns overlapping because of the shared geographical nature of the site.

Another distinctive element to Little Haywood is St. Mary's Abbey. The Abbey is home to a community of enclosed Benedictine nuns in the Roman Catholic Church. Although part of the Colwich parish, the abbey itself and its grounds are to be found alongside the Little Haywood main road.

At the side of the road between Little Haywood and the similarly named Great Haywood there is an example of a make work wall, built by employees of the now non-existent Haywood manor of Earl Talbot during times when there was little else to do. So in order to keep the workers from being idle the lord would "make work" in the form of long term beneficial or decorative projects.

The village and its outlying neighbours have an active parish community. [http://www.thehaywoods.co.uk/] As is typical for English villages, the social life on a seasonal basis is ordained by the parish council, who organise events such as village fetes, but on the day to day basis the social life of the village revolves around its public houses, namely the 'Red Lion' and the 'Lamb and Flag' [http://www.pubsulike.co.uk/newps/Staffordshire/Stafford.asp?Locality=Little+Haywood] . This focalisation to the public houses is made more acute given the lack of a true village green within the village proper.

Politically, Little Haywood falls into the Haywood and Hixon ward, and is at present under Conservative wardship [http://www.staffordbc.gov.uk/live/dynamic/DemServWard.asp?id=0&ward_id=B2CDAFEA-5CA7-4637-9DC0-28A2B521BF4E] .

Little Haywood has three main waterways, the rivers Sow and Trent and the Trent and Mersey Canal, which was built circa 1776. A wooden footbridge carrying Meadow Lane across the Trent was built in 1830. Previously the river was crossed by a ford, still used by cattle and horse-drawn vehicles after the bridge was constructed. The wooden bridge was replaced by the brick- and stone-built Weetman's Bridge in 1887. [http://www.search.staffspasttrack.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?theme=422&originator=%2Fengine%2Ftheme%2Fdefault%2Easp&page=&records=&direction=&pointer=33&text=0&resource=13950] At Little Haywood, the Trent and Mersey canal mile post is number 37. [http://www.tmc-mileposts.co.uk/MP_pages/milepost_37.html]

Traffic through the village is mainly light, owing to a post-war bypass in the road A51 [http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/roadlists/f99/51.shtml] .

On September 18th 1986, two passenger trains collided in Staffordshire, killing the driver of one of the trains and injuring 75. Several carriages derailed when the crowded Inter City services crashed at about 1830 BST at Colwich Junction, the junction connecting Little Haywood to Colwich. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/19/newsid_2524000/2524593.stm]

Geology

Geographically, Little Haywood is situated on the side of a hill in the Trent/Sow valley system. Bedrock is of the sherwood sandstone group with overlying tillite deposits from the last glaciation of Britain. It is surrounded in the main by farmland, with Cannock Chase, Little haywood abbey used to cover a large amount of little haywood and it has been said that there are tunnel's under ground leading from the abbey to lichfield catherdral [http://www.enjoyengland.com/campaign/outdoor/aonbs/oe2_aonbs_cannock.aspx?bbcam=adwds_out&bbkid=Cannock+Chase&x] and Shugborough Hall [http://www.shugborough.org.uk/] at its outskirts. Within the village, on Shugborough manor land, there is evidence of small-scale stone quarrying in the area known to locals as "the cliffs". [http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/anson.staffs/page15.html]

External links

* [http://www.old-maps.co.uk/oldmaps/index_external.jsp?easting=400500&northing=321500 A map of Little Haywood dating from 1887]
* [http://www.staffshistory.org.uk/ The Staffordshire History Home Page]