BARTON-under-NEEDWOOD, a chapelry (parochial), in the northern division of the hundred of OFFLOW, county of STAFFORD, 6 miles (S.W. by W.) from Burton upon Trent, containing 1287 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of Stafford, and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, endowed with £430 private benefaction, £200 royal bounty, and £1800 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Dean of Lichfield. The chapel, dedicated to St. James, is a handsome building in the later style of English architecture, erected in the reign of Henry VIII., by Dr. John Taylor, a native of this village.

Barton is the head of one of the five wards into which the ancient royal forest of Needwood has been divided: it is in the honour of Tutbury, duchy of Lancaster, and within the jurisdiction of a court of pleas held at Tutbury every third Tuesday, for the recovery of debts under 40s. Courts leet and baron, are held annually in October. The Grand Trunk canal passes through the parish: fairs are held on May 3rd and November 28th. Thomas Russell, in 1593, gave a rent-charge of £50. 10. for the establishment of a free grammar school, under the management of a committee: about sixty-five boys are instructed on Dr. Bell's plan, and the master receives a salary of £70 per annum, arising from the endowment, and from voluntary contributions.