PICKFORD, (Salop) on the S.E. side of Shrewsbury, near Condover, bel. anciently to the Pichfords, then to the Lds.
Burnell. It was afterwards, for at least two centuries, the estate of the Oatleys. It is noted for a spring of pitchy
water (from whence some derive its name) on the top of which there always flows a sort of liquid bitumen. Over most of the
coal-pits here-abouts there lies a stratum of blackish rock; of which, by boiling and grinding, they make pitch and tar,
and also distil an oil from it.