Tixall is a small village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about south of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Wolverhampton, and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021–2022 United Kingd ...

district, in the English county of

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, ...

lying on the western side of the Trent valley between

Rugeley Rugeley ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Cannock Chase District, in Staffordshire, England. It lies on the north-eastern edge of Cannock Chase next to the River Trent; it is north of Lichfield, southeast of Stafford, northeast of ...

and

Stone, Staffordshire Stone is a market town and civil parish in Staffordshire, England; it is situated approximately 7 miles (11 km) north of the county town of Stafford, 7 miles (11 km) south of Stoke-on-Trent and 15 miles (24 km) north of Rugeley. As a notable c ...

and roughly 4 miles east of

. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 239. The place-name 'Tixall' is first attested in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086, where it appears as ''Ticheshale''. Deriving from

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

, the name means 'the hollow of the goats'. It is a fairly elongated village lying to the west of Great Haywood and just north of the sprawling Shugborough estate, the

River Sow The River Sow is a tributary of the River Trent in Staffordshire, England, and is the river that flows through Stafford. Course The river rises to the south of Loggerheads, Staffordshire, Loggerheads, near Broughton Hall, Staffordshire, Brough ...

forming the natural boundary between the two, which joins the Trent on the Shugborough estate a mile or so east of Tixall. The village has benefited substantially from its close proximity to such affluent estates as Shugborough to the south and Sandon Hall and Ingestre Hall to the north, homes of the

Earl of Lichfield Earl of Lichfield is a title that has been created three times, twice in the Peerage of England (1645 and 1674) and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom (1831). The third creation is extant and is held by a member of the Anson family. Hi ...

, the Earl of Harrowby and the

Earl of Shrewsbury Earl of Shrewsbury () is a hereditary title of nobility created twice in the Peerage of England. The second earldom dates to 1442. The holder of the Earldom of Shrewsbury also holds the title of Earl of Waterford (1446) in the Peerage of Ireland ...

respectively. Also passing nearby to the east and through the Trent valley is the

Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal is a navigable narrow canal in Staffordshire and Worcestershire in the The Midlands, England, Midlands of England. It is long, linking the River Severn at Stourport in Worcestershire with the Trent a ...

, which expands into a body of water called Tixall Wide near to

Tixall Gatehouse Tixall Gatehouse is a 16th-century gatehouse situated at Tixall, near Stafford, Staffordshire and is all that remains of Tixall Hall which was demolished in 1927. The gatehouse is a Grade I listed building. Tixall was used as a prison for Mary, Q ...

. Tixall Hall was the home of the Aston family, who held the title Lord Aston of Forfar. They were staunch Roman Catholics and Tixall was the centre of the local Catholic community. During the

Popish Plot The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy invented by Titus Oates that between 1678 and 1681 gripped the kingdoms of England and Scotland in anti-Catholic hysteria. Oates alleged that there was an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinat ...

Tixall briefly became notorious as the centre of the alleged conspiracy to kill King Charles II, and many victims of the plot such as William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford were questioned intensively as to their actions while at Tixall. Tixall is served hourly by Chaserider bus service 828, Monday to Saturday. This was formerly

Arriva Arriva Ltd. is a British multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England. The company was originally established on 24 October 1938 as T Cowie Ltd. Initially focused on the sale of motorcycles, it relaunched shortl ...

service 825.

Local governance

The village, and civil parish, of Ingestre is nearby. The civil parishes of Tixall and Ingestre have shared a single parish council of Ingestre with Tixall since 1979.

Notable buildings

;Church of

St John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

A free chapel has existed in Tixall since the 12th Century but the present church was built in 1848 by the Hon. John Chetwynd Talbot, son of the 2nd Earl Talbot of Ingestre. It is built of local sandstone with a roof of

blue tiles. The floor tiles are by Minton. The oldest grave in the churchyard is reputed to date from 1627. ;Tixall Gatehouse The 16th century 3-storey gatehouse of the now-demolished Tixall Hall, built by the Aston family, is in the care of the

Landmark Trust The Landmark Trust is a British architectural conservation, building conservation charitable organization, charity, founded in 1965 by John Smith (Conservative politician), Sir John and Lady Smith, that rescues buildings of historic interest or ...

, which offers it as a holiday let. ;Obelisk There is a sandstone obelisk in Tixall dated 1776 sat in a triangle where the road from

meets the road from Milford. It is said to have been placed there by Thomas Clifford, who owned the estate at the time.

Notable people

other than members of the aristocracy referred to above * Henry Redwood (1823 in Tixall – 1907) a New Zealand farmer, politician and racehorse breeder. * Francis Webb (1836 Tixall Rectory – 1906) an English railway engineer, responsible for the design and manufacture of locomotives for the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) * Francis Redwood SM (1839 in Tixall – 1935) the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Wellington, New Zealand. * Rupert Rogers (1902 in Tixall – 1976) an English cricketer who played a single first-class match for Worcestershire

References

External links

GENUKI(tm) page
*
National Register of Archives, holdings relating to Tixall

{{authority control Villages in Staffordshire Civil parishes in Staffordshire Borough of Stafford

Local governance

Notable buildings

Notable people

See also

References

External links