Checkley is a village and civil parish in the district of

Staffordshire Moorlands Staffordshire Moorlands is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. Its council is based in Leek, the district's largest town. The district also contains the towns of Biddulph and Cheadle, along with a large rural area containing ...

in the English

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

.OS Explorer Map 259: Derby, Ashbourne and Cheadle: (1:25 000) :Map 259 Details
retrieved 24 April 2013

Location

The village is located in the valley of the River Tean and sits astride of the A522.Staffordshire A-Z County Atlas: 2011 Edition: Scale:3.8 inches to 1 mile (5.9cm to 1km) The village is north west of the town of

Uttoxeter Uttoxeter ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in the East Staffordshire borough of Staffordshire, England. It is near to the Derbyshire county border. The town is from Burton upon Trent via the A50 and the A38, from Stafford via the A51 ...

and is south east of

Stoke on Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022, making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire and one of the largest cities of ...

. The nearest railway station is at Blythe Bridge, which is north west of the village, or at

, and gives access to trains on the

Crewe to Derby Line Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. At the 2021 census, the parish had a population of 55,318 and the built-up area had a population of 74,120. Crewe is perhaps best kno ...

, which is also a Community rail line known as the North Staffordshire line. The A50 major

trunk road A trunk road is a major highway with a specific legal classification in some jurisdictions, notably the United Kingdom, Sweden and formerly Ireland. Trunk roads are planned and managed at the national-level, distinguishing them from non-trunk ro ...

from

Stoke Stoke may refer to: Places Canada * Stoke, Quebec New Zealand * Stoke, New Zealand United Kingdom Berkshire * Stoke Row Bristol * Stoke Bishop * Stoke Gifford * Bradley Stoke * Little Stoke * Harry Stoke * Stoke Lodge Bucking ...

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

bypasses the village and runs parallel with the A522 just south of the village. This road opened in April 1985 and took much of the traffic away from the village.

Population

The 2011 census recorded a population of 4,700 within the parish of Checkley in a total of 1,944 households. The parish comes under the Staffordshire Moorlands Non-Metropolitan District.

Notable buildings and structures

The village and parish of Checkley has a variety of listed buildings and structures including a Grade I listed parish church. In total there are 58 listed structures.

Parish Church of Saint Mary and All Saints

The parish church of Saint Mary and All Saints is a Grade I listed building.Saint Mary’s Church Listing
retrieved 24 April 2013 The earliest fabric in the church dates from the 12th century, with a south doorway of about 1300, and a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

from the late 13th century. There were additions and alterations in the following two centuries, but the church was largely rebuilt in the 17th century. Inside the church is a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

with a carving of a donkey, the

effigy An effigy is a sculptural representation, often life-size, of a specific person or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certain ...

of a knight on a memorial from the early 14th century, and some stained glass also from the 14th century. The stalls date from about 1535.

References

Bibliography