The River Sow - A historical record by Mike Tallent

These links and the numbers on the map will take you to Mike’s illustrated history of the river:

River Sow Introduction

1:Broughton
2:Fairoak
2:Fairoak Grange
3:Langot lane
3:Bishop’s Wood
4:Bishop’s Offley
5:Walk Mill
6:Cop Mere
7:Eccleshall
8:Chebsey
9:Shallowford
10:Great Bridgeford
11:Cresswell
12:Doxey Marshes
13:Stafford Castle
14:Stafford
15:St Thomas’s
16:Milford Common
17:Essex Bridge

About Mike Tallent

Introduction

I had planned this type of project for several years but never found the time to do it. When I saw that St. Thomas’s Priory site had been sold off for housing it kick started me to do this project before it was too late.

The project was designed to keep a photographic record of historical sites before modernisation destroys these sites. I go horse riding around the Fairoak area near Eccleshall and know the area very well. This project was to cover the area from Fairoak to Stafford. A friend told me about the Watershed Project which was about the river Sow from Fairoak to Shugborough. I decided to combine my project with the Watershed Project as both cover the same area.

My project was to include the following details:

Domesday details.
All known names through the centuries of the villages/towns to be covered.
Details of all early history. A full history of each village/town was outside
the scope of my project.
Photographs (where possible) of the early historical sites.

After speaking with Andrew Baker of Staffordshire Libraries about my project and the Watershed Project this is the result. It is hoped that this project will inspire others to investigate these sites and produce their own projects of the Sow and town/villages along the river Sow.

Return to Watershed