COTES HEATH is an ecclesiastical parish, formed Dec. 17, 1844, from the civil parish of Eccleshall, and includes the townships of Cold Meece, Mill Meece and Cotes, half a mile east from Standon Bridge station on the main line of the London and North Western railway, 4 north-east from Eccleshall, 6 from Stone and 143½ from London, in the North Western division of the county, North Pirehill hundred, Eccleshall petty sessional division, Stone union and county court district, rural deanery of Eccleshall, archdeaconry of Stoke-on-Trent and diocese of Lichfield. The church of St. James, formerly a chapel of ease to Eccleshall, is a small and plain building of stone, erected in 1838, at the sole expense of the late Miss Hinckes, of Tettenhall, and consists of chancel, nave, south porch and a western bell-cote containing one bell: the church was restored and a chancel added in 1891, at a cost of £540, and affords 150 sittings. The register dates from the year 1844.

The living is a vicarage, average tithe rent-charge £126, gross yearly value £285, net £270, including 30 acres of glebe with residence, in the gift of the vicar of Eccleshall, and held since 1887 by the Rev. John Bolton Hazard. The Wesleyan chapel at Cranberry, erected in 1880, seats 80 persons. Charles Cecil Cotes esq. M.A., D.L., J.P. of Woodcote, Salop, in whose family the manorial rights have been vested since the time of the Domesday Survey, is lord of the manor of Cotes, and Ralph Sneyd esq. of Keele Hall, Newcastle-under-Lyme, is lord of the manor of Mill Meece. The principal landowners are C.C. Cotes esq. Ralph Sneyd esq. and Basil Thomas Fitzherbert esq. D.L., J.P. The soil is loam and clay; subsoil, gravel and clay. The chief crops are oats, barley and roots. The area is 2,867 acres; rateable value, £3,900; the population in 1891 was 498, including the townships of COLD MEECE, 2½ miles north from Norton Bridge station; MILL MEECE, 1¼ miles south from Standon Bridge station; COTES, 1 mile east from Standon Bridge station.

CRANBERRY is a hamlet in the township of Cotes, three-quarters of a mile north from Standon Bridge station.

Parish Clerk, Thomas Wiggin.

Letters delivered from Eccleshall at 8.30 a.m

Letters for Cotes, Mill Meece & Cold Meece delivered from Stone at 9.30 a.m. week days only. Standon is the nearest money order & Eccleshall the nearest telegraph office

WALL LETTER BOX, Standon Bridge railway station, cleared at 7.40 p.m. week days only

National School, erected, with master's residence, at a cost of £430, in 1868; the land was given for the purpose by the late John Cotes esq.; it was enlarged in 1871 & in 1888 & will now hold 120 children; average attendance, 90; Henry Holmshaw, master

Railway Station, Standon Bridge, Geo. Potts, station master
[Kelly's Directory of Staffordshire, 1896]