Handsacre
Encyclopedia
Handsacre is a village
in Staffordshire
, England
. It is adjacent to the larger village of Armitage
.It is roughly five miles north of the city of Lichfield
and 3 miles south of the town of Rugeley
.
There is also a primary school, Hayes Meadow Primary School.
There are two pubs in Handsacre, The Old Peculiar and The Crown. The Crown is adjacent to the canal and has a beer garden. The Old Peculiar is on the corner of Hall Road.
The Popular's Pub closed in 2008 and was demolished in June 2010. As of June 2011, twenty houses have been built and are currently occupied.
The local garage, situated at the top of Tuppenhurst Lane and on the Uttoxeter Road, was demolished in 2003. In September 2010, small houses and flats were been constructed on the site and as of June 2011, are nearing completion.
There is a children's play park at the end of Harvey Road on St Barbara's Road in the north easterly part of the village. The playpark was re-furbished in 2009.
has a population of 25,000-26,000
The only modern archaeology of any note in the village is a Second World War Air Raid Shelter situated just to the west of Boat House Lane (SK 080161) within the grounds of the Armitage Shanks Ceramics Factory, which remains in 'fair' condition according to the CBA Defence of Britain Archive. (AHDS)
The Domesday Book lists fifteen villages, including Handsacre and nearby Pipe Ridware, which lay within a very large area of woodland belonging to the city of Lichfield, measuring approximately 13.5 miles (22 km) long by 10.75 miles (17 km) wide and covering an area of over 146 square miles (378.1 km²). The Hadesacre entry states that there were five 'ploughs' of farmland attached to the village, amounting to an area of about 600 acres (2.4 km²), which was held by Earl Robert of Stafford. The actual number of villagers living in Handsacre during Domesday remains unknown, as does the amount of land farmed by them, also the amount of meadowland attached to the village and the amount of land, if any, farmed by the lord of the manor; these figures were presented as a total for all fifteen dependant 'vills' at the end of the entry.
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
in Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is adjacent to the larger village of Armitage
Armitage
Armitage is a village in Staffordshire, England on the south side of the Trent and Mersey Canal between Lichfield and Rugeley. Together with the adjacent village of Handsacre, it forms the parish of Armitage with Handsacre.-Village Amenities:...
.It is roughly five miles north of the city of Lichfield
Lichfield
Lichfield is a cathedral city, civil parish and district in Staffordshire, England. One of eight civil parishes with city status in England, Lichfield is situated roughly north of Birmingham...
and 3 miles south of the town of Rugeley
Rugeley
Rugeley is a historic market town in the county of Staffordshire, England. It lies on the northern edge of Cannock Chase, and is situated roughly midway between the towns of Stafford, Cannock, Lichfield and Uttoxeter...
.
Village Services
Handsacre has two shops (a convenience store and a newsagent), a Chinese food take-away and a fish and chip shop. (Micheals Fish Bar)There is also a primary school, Hayes Meadow Primary School.
There are two pubs in Handsacre, The Old Peculiar and The Crown. The Crown is adjacent to the canal and has a beer garden. The Old Peculiar is on the corner of Hall Road.
The Popular's Pub closed in 2008 and was demolished in June 2010. As of June 2011, twenty houses have been built and are currently occupied.
The local garage, situated at the top of Tuppenhurst Lane and on the Uttoxeter Road, was demolished in 2003. In September 2010, small houses and flats were been constructed on the site and as of June 2011, are nearing completion.
There is a children's play park at the end of Harvey Road on St Barbara's Road in the north easterly part of the village. The playpark was re-furbished in 2009.
Trent and Mersey Canal
The Trent and Mersey Canal runs to the east of the village. There are two bridges in the village, bridge 56 which is situated adjacent to the Crown Inn. The second bridge is adjecent to the southern estate on Tuppenhurst Lane. There is also a bridge further down the rural part of Tuppenhurst Lane at Tuppenhurst farm, which is bridge 58.Population
Handsacre has an estimated population of over 2,500 people living in the area,therefore this is a large village, as the town of RugeleyRugeley
Rugeley is a historic market town in the county of Staffordshire, England. It lies on the northern edge of Cannock Chase, and is situated roughly midway between the towns of Stafford, Cannock, Lichfield and Uttoxeter...
has a population of 25,000-26,000
Modern Handsacre (A.D.1901 - Present day)
The River Trent was undoubtedly the first means of travel along the Trent Valley and has probably seen traffic since the Mesolithic or Neolithic periods, whereas the A513 Road has possibly been in existence only since the early Medieval period. These ancient communication routes were augmented by the Trent and Mersey Canal which was designed by James Brindley but completed after his death in 1777 and now delimits the northern extent of the two villages of Armitage and Handsacre. Armitage Railway Station (SK 088159) was opened on the Trent Valley Railway in 1847 but was closed to passengers in 1960 and to goods traffic by 1969. (AHDS)The only modern archaeology of any note in the village is a Second World War Air Raid Shelter situated just to the west of Boat House Lane (SK 080161) within the grounds of the Armitage Shanks Ceramics Factory, which remains in 'fair' condition according to the CBA Defence of Britain Archive. (AHDS)
The Etymology of the name Handsacre
The Domesday spelling of the name is Hadesacre, but there should probably have been an 'N' in the name, since all later records have it, although they differ a lot in other respects. Other spellings are: Hendesacra (1167); Hundesacra (1176); Handesacra (1196); and Hondesacre (1242). Acre, when occurring in a place-name, generally means an area of marginally cultivable land, often on the edge of heath, high moor or marsh and in this case refers to marsh. The first part of the name is a lot harder to decipher; a hypothetical name Handa has been proposed as the origin, which seems more likely than any other suggestions. The meaning in that case is 'the land beside a marsh belonging to Handa. (Gelling & Cole, p. 264, 266; Mills, p. 163; Poulton-Smith, p. 58)History
HANDSACRE HALL. Three connected arms of a large rectangular moat, now drained of water with the northern arm partly filled-in, may be viewed at the eastern end of Manor Court Drive off Shropshire Brook Road (SK 0900 1565), and is all that survives of the former Medieval mansion of Handsacre Hall. The hall was built in the 14th century but the moated platform which housed it probably dates from the 12th century and was at first furnished with a wooden homestead. The drawbridge of the Medieval 'cruck house' building was still in place in the early-18th century but Stebbing Shaw states that the timber-framed mansion was derelict in 1798; he also reported a timber dated 1663 which probably records a major rebuild. The site was finally abandoned in the early-1960s and damaged by vandals in 1973 after which the majority of the house collapsed leaving only the front wall and parts of the side wings still standing. Excavations conducted by Staffordshire County Council in 1986-87 prior to the development of the modern housing estate recovered pottery ranging from the 12th to the 19th centuries. The architectural finds from the Medieval hall are now in the Avoncroft Museum and the excavation reports were published in The Journal of the Society for Medieval Archaeology in 1987, also in West Midlands Archaeology of 1986 and 1987. A substantial pond-bay associated with the hall lay to the south in the field known as Pool Meadow.Medieval Handsacre (A.D.1066 - 1540)
In 1795 the stone foundations of a small rectangular building were discovered in a field named Mill Croft, directly opposite the north front of Handsacre Hall (SK 0898 1586). The building was identified at the time as a small church, possibly a manorial chapel associated with the nearby Hall, based on the fact that the neighbouring field was named Church Croft. The site now lies at the end of Station Drive close to the signals at the end of the railway platform and has been partly demolished by the railway cutting; nothing of the site is now visible. The only other remains of the Medieval village are three stone crosses: one wayside cross lay beside the A513 at the entrance to Church Lane (SK 0769 1626), and another lay beside the A51 at the entrance to Bardy Lane (SK 0666 1523) about 1 mile (2 km) south-west of Armitage, both of which have been lost. The only visible remnant is the shaft of a churchyard cross, now in two pieces, at the end of Church Lane in Armitage (SK 0771 1648 : SK 0773 1646), which was originally thought to be Norman but is probably of 19th century provenance. (AHDS)Domesday Hadesacre (A.D.1086)
"LICEFELLE (Lichfield). It has already been described before. A woodland, 8½ leagues and 7 furlongs long and 6½ leagues and 8 furlongs wide, belongs there. These members belong to this manor: ... HADESACRE (Handsacre), land for 5 ploughs; Robert holds it. ... In these lands or outliers, 7 ploughs in lordship; 60 villagers and 22 smallholders with 25 ploughs. Between them all, meadow, 52 acres; a mill. The valuation is accounted for in the manor." (The Domesday Book, 1086, 2.22)The Domesday Book lists fifteen villages, including Handsacre and nearby Pipe Ridware, which lay within a very large area of woodland belonging to the city of Lichfield, measuring approximately 13.5 miles (22 km) long by 10.75 miles (17 km) wide and covering an area of over 146 square miles (378.1 km²). The Hadesacre entry states that there were five 'ploughs' of farmland attached to the village, amounting to an area of about 600 acres (2.4 km²), which was held by Earl Robert of Stafford. The actual number of villagers living in Handsacre during Domesday remains unknown, as does the amount of land farmed by them, also the amount of meadowland attached to the village and the amount of land, if any, farmed by the lord of the manor; these figures were presented as a total for all fifteen dependant 'vills' at the end of the entry.