KEELE, a parish in the northern division of the
hundred of PIREHILL, county of STAFFORD, 2 miles
(W. by S.) from Newcastle under Line, containing 1061
inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the
archdeaconry of Stafford, and diocese of Lichfield and
Coventry, endowed with £200 private benefaction,
£200 royal bounty, and £600 parliamentary grant, and
in the patronage of William Sneyd, Esq. The church,
dedicated to St. Michael, is a neat embattled stone
edifice, not built due east and west. There are two
places of worship for Wesleyan Methodists. A small
shcool is supported by voluntary contributions, aided
by £5 per annum bequeathed by Madam Frances Sneyd.
In the neighbourhood are iron-stone mines, collieries,
and smelting-furnaces, which afford employment to upwards
of four hundred persons; and about one hundred
and seventy are engaged in a silk-throwing mill.