Introduction
Lying on what was formerly the Derbyshire side of the
river Trent, Stapenhill was a large parish with a church
which may have had minster status in the Anglo-Saxon
period.
The parish comprised three townships, the main one
also called Stapenhill and treated in this article. (fn. 1) Burton
abbey was a major landholder in Stapenhill township
and its tenants were deemed to be in Burton parish. In
the 19th century Stapenhill village greatly expanded to
become a mainly middle-class suburb of Burton; working-class houses were also built for local brickworkers.
There has been considerable 20th-century housing
development, much of it council-built for tenants
moved out of Burton town centre.
Stapenhill township covered 1,647 a. (666.5 ha.). Its
southern boundary followed a stream called Ryle brook
in 1488. (fn. 2) The north-western part of the township,
covering 769 a. (310.2 ha.) and stretching down to
the Burton-Leicester branch railway line, was taken
into Burton municipal borough on its extension in
1878, (fn. 3) and under the Local Government Act of 1888
that area, then given as 811 a. (328.2 ha.), was treated
for municipal purposes as part of Staffordshire. (fn. 4) It was
wholly transferred to Staffordshire in 1894, when the
rest of the township was added to adjoining Derbyshire
civil parishes: the north-eastern part around Brizlincote Hall Farm to Bretby civil parish and the southern
part around Drakelowe House to Drakelow. (fn. 5)
The acreage of the Stapenhill ward of Burton county
borough was 790 a. in 1921, and under a boundary
change of 1934 it gained 16 a. from Bretby. (fn. 6) In 1979
two new wards, Edgehill and Waterside, were created
out of the southern part of Stapenhill ward together
with land taken from Winshill ward. (fn. 7) The three wards
jointly covered 1,008 a. (408 ha.), increased to 1,097 a.
(444 ha.) after a boundary change of 1991 which added
farmland on the eastern boundary from Bretby. (fn. 8)
The underlying rock is sandstone with some marl,
overlain with patches of boulder clay in the north-east of
the township along Ashby Road and further south on the
east side of Stanton Road. The soil is a loamy soil. (fn. 9) The
land rises from 147 ft. (45 m.) beside the river in
Stapenhill Hollows to 400 ft. (122 m.) on the northern
boundary. The intervening Scalpcliff hill rises to 335 ft.
(102 m.). Its top is particularly level above the 300 ft.
(91.5 m.) contour: the name, first recorded in the later
12th century, is derived from the Scandinavian word for
a shelf (skjalf), either as the original element or replacing
a similar Old English word. (fn. 10) Beyond the valley of
Brizlincote brook, which flows, mostly culverted now,
through the centre of the township, the land again rises
to the east and south-east, reaching just over 300 ft. (91.5
m.) at Brizlincote Hall Farm.
POPULATION
The adult population listed in an Easter Book for
Burton parish probably of the 1550s was 98, a figure
that presumably included only those who lived in the
Burton parish part of the township. (fn. 11) An ecclesiastical
return for Stapenhill parish in 1563 recorded 31 households in the townships of Stapenhill and Stanton with
Newhall. (fn. 12) The population of Stapenhill township
alone was 457 in 1811, falling to 447 by 1821 but
rising steadily to 535 by 1821, 577 by 1841, and 635 by
1851. Thereafter the rises were more substantial, reaching 1,111 by 1861, 1,967 by 1871, 3,843 by 1881, and
4,703 by 1891. (fn. 13) The most populated part of the
township was included in Burton municipal borough
in 1878, with only 65 people living in the non-Burton
part in 1891. (fn. 14) The population of the Burton part was
5,771 in 1901, falling to 5,234 by 1911 and 5,228 by
1921 but then rising to 5,740 by 1931. After the Second
World War Stapenhill became the most populous part
of Burton borough: in 1951 its population was 8,992,
rising to 10,419 by 1961, 11,765 by 1971, 13,229 by
1981, and 13,888 by 1991. (fn. 15)
COMMUNICATIONS
Main Roads A road called the portway in the mid
13th century ran south from Burton bridge under
Scalpcliff hill. (fn. 1) It divided at Stapenhill village, one arm
(the present Rosliston Road) leading south to Cauldwell and then on to Tamworth, and the other (Stanton
Road) leading south-east to Stanton and then on to
Nuneaton (Warws.). The Cauldwell road was taken
over Ryle brook by a bridge first mentioned in the early
18th century. By the later 18th century what was called
Mare Yard bridge further west along the stream carried
a road to Drakelow. (fn. 2) The Stanton road was turnpiked
in 18th century as part of a route from Measham
(Derb.), and by 1825 there was a tollgate a short
distance north of the church. It stood further north
beside Elms Road by 1864, and was removed after the
road was disturnpiked later in the century. (fn. 3)
Railway The branch railway line from Burton to
Leicester, which forms the southern boundary of the
Burton part of Stapenhill, was opened in 1849. (fn. 1)
Figure 69:
Stapenhill township and village
SETTLEMENT
Roman and Anglo-Saxon Periods A small square
enclosure excavated on the west side of Stanton Road
was almost certainly a Romano-British settlement
which survived into the 4th century. (fn. 2) A coin of A.D.
327 was found in 1881 on an adjacent site, which was
later used as a cemetery by the first Anglo-Saxons.
Most of the burials were inhumation with grave goods,
indicating a pre-Christian origin. (fn. 3) A cruciform brooch,
decorated with a garnet and found nearby at Brizlincote in 1850, probably dates from the late 6th or early
7th century. (fn. 4)
Stapenhill Village The Old English name Stapenhill
means steep hill, probably the small hill on which the
parish church stands. There was almost certainly a
church, possibly of minster status and on the present
site, in the Anglo-Saxon period. (fn. 5) The medieval village
developed near by around a green whose remnant
survives at the junction of Main Street and Stapenhill
Road, and where a small sandstone cross is a memorial
to those who died in the First and Second World Wars.
Some of the present brick-fronted houses in Main
Street may date from the 17th century but the most
substantial house, Stapenhill House, was demolished in
the early 1930s and a pleasure ground laid out over the
site. (fn. 6) Dating from the 16th century or earlier, Stapenhill House was built on an H-plan of brick with stone
dressings around the windows (fn. 7) and it was presumably
the house assessed for tax on nine hearths in 1662.
There was a number of other large houses in the village
at that date, two assessed on six hearths and another
two on five. (fn. 8)
Waterside There were also houses in the later 18th
century south-west of the village along Ferry Street,
which led to a small riverside settlement at Waterside,
so called in the late 1590s and probably associated with
the medieval ferry. The mainly 18th-century Ferry
House there possibly stands on the site of the cottage
which the ferryman was licensed to build in 1596. The
nearby brick house called Ferry Cottage, dated 1889,
was presumably built for the toll-collector for the foot
bridge which replaced the ferry that year. (fn. 9)
19th-Century Development The still rural character of
Stapenhill village was depicted in the 1840s by the Lake
District artist John Harden, whose daughter was
married to John Clay, the vicar of Stapenhill. (fn. 10) It was
soon to be transformed, however, into a suburb of
Burton with several large detached houses (later
demolished) as well as terraces of middle-class housing.
Already by 1845 Bridge End Farm at the north end of
Stapenhill Road had been renamed Scalpcliff House, (fn. 11)
and in 1852 some of the farmland along Stapenhill
Road and Scalpcliff Road was surveyed for use as
building plots; the rest of the farmland was acquired
by Burton corporation for a municipal cemetery,
opened in 1866. (fn. 12)
Semi-detached villas and rows in Clay Street and
Malvern Street off the east side of Stapenhill Road date
mostly from the 1870s. They may have been among the
houses built on the edge of Stapenhill village after the
marquess of Anglesey exchanged land there despite the
warning of his Burton agent, who in 1863 argued that its
value might increase if a bridge was built over the river
from the south end of Burton, as one was in 1889. (fn. 13)
The detached houses included the Heath, occupied by
Mrs. Ann Bass in 1846 and probably the 'handsome
mansion' called Heath Cottage in 1857. (fn. 14) Albury House
set in grounds off the east side of Stapenhill Road was
built probably in the late 1860s for the Burton brewer
and M.P., Sydney Evershed (d. 1903), and was named
after his birthplace in Surrey. (fn. 15) Park Hill House on the
high ground on the west side of Rosliston Road had been
built by 1870 for Josiah Poyser, a brewer, and another
large house called the Heath to the north was built
probably about the same time for Robert Belcher, a
surgeon, the occupier in 1881. (fn. 16)
In contrast, the development of brickworks in the
southern part of the township especially from the 1840s
led to the construction of artisans' houses, the earliest
probably dating from the 1850s in Hill Street (together
with a court named Pickering Street off its west side) and
at the west end of Heath Road. Long Street and the
southern end of Short Street were also built up probably
in the 1850s, possibly by the Burton Freehold Land
Society, as at Winshill: the streets stood on land called
the Freehold in 1879. (fn. 1) Methodist chapels were built for
the area in 1855 and 1866, and an Anglican mission
room was opened in Short Street in 1869. (fn. 2)
Figure 70:
Stapenhill in 1879
Several 19th-century houses have been converted
into nursing homes, notably one at the south end of
Main Street, opened as the Croft in 1987. (fn. 3) Albury
House was sold to Staffordshire county council in
1956 for conversion to a nursing home, but it proved
unsuitable and was demolished. Rider House, a purpose-built home named after Alderman George Rider,
mayor 1941-2, was opened by the county council in
the grounds in 1961. It was privatised in 1992. (fn. 4)
20th-Century Housing Estates In the mid 1920s council houses were built in two new streets off Rosliston
Road, Baker Street (on the west side) and Saxon Street
(on the east side), and in 1929 in the northern
extension of Short Street between Heath Road and
Baker Street. A large council estate stretching westwards from Rosliston Road to the river was built in two
stages: as far as Somerset Road in 1939 and the rest
(including Cumberland Road) in the later 1940s.
Another council estate covering the northern half of
Sycamore Road off the west side of Stanton Road dates
from the mid 1950s, and private houses between
Rosliston and Sycamore Roads date from the same
period. An Anglican church was opened for the area in
1963. (fn. 5) The Sycamore Road council estate was extended
southwards in the mid 1960s. Violet Way, running off
the east side of Stanton Road, and its continuation,
Beaufort Road, were laid out with private houses from
the early 1980s.
Sheltered housing called Vicarage Field on the
north side of the former vicarage house near the
church was opened by the Anchor housing association in 1979. (fn. 6)
Outlying Areas There was a settlement at Brizlincote
by the early 12th century, its name possibly meaning a
cottage in an enclosure. It became the centre of an
estate later in the Middle Ages, and there may have
been a chapel there. The present Brizlincote Hall Farm
dates from the early 18th century. (fn. 1)
Drakelowe House in the part of the township added
to Drakelow in 1894 had been built by 1882, possibly
for a lawyer, William Drewery, the occupier in 1891. (fn. 2)
Services Although the built-up part of Stapenhill was
taken into Burton borough in 1878, it was not until the
early 20th century that it fully benefited from a mains
water supply and sewerage system. (fn. 3)
SOCIAL LIFE
Societies and Social Clubs
A friendly society which met at the Barley Mow in
Main Street was registered in 1854. Lodges of Oddfellows were established in 1866 (Manchester Unity)
and 1874 (United Order), and the former survived
until 1990 when it was amalgamated with the newlyformed Trent Lodge in Burton. (fn. 4)
The Trisantona Lodge of Freemasons, consecrated
at Stapenhill Institute in 1919, moved in 1933 to
Ashfield House, the newly-opened masonic hall in
Winshill. (fn. 5)
Stapenhill Institute was opened in temporary premises in Ferry Street in 1884. It was rehoused in 1888
in a new building of red brick in Main Street, still open
as a social club in 1999. (fn. 6)
Waterside House in Waterside Road, of brick in a
Queen Anne style with a curved bay and dating from
the 1890s, was opened as a community centre by
Burton corporation in 1947. (fn. 7) Since 1986 it has been
run by Staffordshire county council as a day centre for
people with learning difficulties. (fn. 8)
In 1968 the Stapenhill branch of Burton Labour
Party opened a social club on the site of a disused
Methodist chapel in Long Street. It was named the Red
Rose Club in the early 1990s. (fn. 9)
Recreation Grounds
By 1857 a strip of land along the riverbank near the
present municipal cemetery had been laid out by
Edward Cliff, a beerhouse keeper, as a public pleasure
ground. It was taken over by the Burton improvement
commissioners in 1865, (fn. 10) and bandstands and arbours
were erected there by Burton brewers in the 1870s. (fn. 11)
Its southern end opens on to Stapenhill Hollows
(formerly open meadow called Church meadow),
and the whole area has become part of the Washlands
nature reserve. The 4-a. recreation ground on the
south side of Heath Road was opened by Burton
corporation in 1894, and Waterside Community
Centre was built there in 1989. (fn. 12)
In 1933 Henry Goodger gave the land adjoining the
former Stapenhill House and part of its garden as a
pleasure ground in memory of his mother. (fn. 13) The
central portion of the ground was lost when the
access road for St. Peter's bridge was laid out in 1985.
The Sycamore Road housing estate is served by a
small recreation ground, lying north of the football
ground and called Edgehill community park by 1999.
Sports Clubs
Burton golf club was established in 1894 with links in
Stapenhill, probably on the north side of Woods Lane.
The club moved to Branston in 1897, and later to
Bretby (Derb.). (fn. 14)
The present Stapenhill football club was formed in
1947, and since 1955 it has played on a ground beside
the railway line off Sycamore Road, just inside Derbyshire. (fn. 15)
Two rowing clubs have boathouses on the Stapenhill
side of the river near Burton bridge. (fn. 16)