TRENTHAM, a parish in the northern division of
the hundred of PIREHILL, county of STAFFORD, com-
prising the chapelry of Blurton with Lightwood-Forest,
and the townships of Butterton, Clay ton-Griffith, Han
church, Handford, and Trentham, and containing 2203
inhabitants, of which number, 589 are in the township
of Trentham, 3 miles (S. S. E.) from Newcastle under
Lyne. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry
of Stafford, and diocese of Lichfield and
Coventry, endowed with £200 royal bounty, and £1200
parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Marquis
of Stafford. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is
an ancient structure without a tower, which was taken
down about a century ago. A new chapel, erected at
Handford, was opened in July 1828. The Trent and
Mersey canal passes through the parish, in the neighbourhood
of which there is a considerable manufacture of
remarkably good bricks and tiles, of a dark blue colour,
much in request at Northampton and the intervening
places. A court leet is held once a year. Lady Catherine
Leveson, in 1670, bequeathed an annuity of £20 for
teaching poor children, and a like sum for apprenticing
them. Here was anciently a nunnery, of which
St. Werburgh, in the seventh century, was appointed
abbess, by her brother, King Ethelred. In the reign of
Henry I., Randal II., Earl of Chester, converted it into
a priory of Augustine canons, in honour of the Blessed
Virgin Mary and All Saints, which, at the dissolution,
had a revenue of £121. 3. 2., and was granted to
Charles, Duke of Suffolk. Trentham gives the title of
viscount to the Marquis of Stafford, whose noble ma
sion is in this parish.