FAWFIELDHEAD, in the parish of Alstonfield, is a township between the river Manifold and a small rivulet called "Blake brook", and extends from 1 to 5 miles south of Longnor: it contains a number of scattered houses in the vales of the Dove and Manifold, and the following hamlets - viz.: Hulme End, 4 miles south-east; Reap's Moor, 1½ miles south; Newtown, 1¾ south-west; and Wigginstall, 2½ south of Longnor. Fawfieldhead is 4 miles from Hindlow station on a branch of the London and North-Western railway, 7 south from Buxton railway station on the Midland line and 9 north-east from Leek, and is the largest township in the parish of Alstonfield, in the Leek division of the county, hundred of North Totmonslow and Leek union, petty sessional division and county court district. For ecclesiastical purposes the greater portion is annexed to Longnor and the remainder to Warslow. There are two chapels of ease in this township; that at Newton, built in 1837, and restored in 1891, at a cost of about £300, chiefly contributed by Sir V.H. Crewe bart. is a small and plain building of stone with a western turret containing one bell; the other, at Reap's Moor, rebuilt in 1842, has also an open belfrey with one bell: service is held in these chapels every Sunday by the Rev. Edwin James Sturdee, who has been curate in charge since 1895. The register is at Longnor, and dates from the year 1694. There is a Wesleyan Methodist chapel at Newtown, built in 1841, one at Rewlach, built in 1849, and Primitive Methodist chapels at Reap's Moor and Hulme End, built in 1834.

In the ancient township of BERESFORD, now generally regarded as part of Fawfieldhead, and about 2 miles from Alstonfield, stood Beresford Hall, which, even before the Conquest, was the seat of the noble family who bear its name; it passed by descent into the family of Cotton in the 17th century, and was re-purchased by William Viscount Beresford G.C.B. the victor of Albuera, Duke of Elves, and a field-marshal in the Portuguese service, who at his death, 8 Jan. 1854, left it to his relative, the late Right Hon. A.J.B. Beresford-Hope P.C., M.P. but on account of its dilapidated condition it had to be pulled down some years since. Beresford Dale forms the uppermost part of the glen called Dove Dale. The Dove runs at a short distance, and on the bank is a small square building, over the portal of which is inscribed, "Piscatoribus Sacrum, 1676", with the initials I.W. and C.C. quaintly intertwined: this building was erected as a fishing house by Charles Cotton, the poet, for his ingenious friend, Izaak Walton, the celebrated author of the "Complete Angler". Sir Vauncey Harpur Crewe bart. of Warslow Hall, is lord of the manor, with the exception of the Beresford Hall estate, of which Philip Beresford-Hope J.P. of Bedgebury Park, Cranbrook, Kent, is lord; these two gentlemen are also the principal landowners. The land is moorland and arable. The area is 5,367 acres of land and 16 of water; rateable value, £4,005; the population in 1891 was 570.

Letters are received from Buxton, via Longnor, at 10 a.m.; the latter is the nearest money order & telegraph office

WALL LETTER Box at Newtown, cleared daily, 10.30 a.m

SCHOOLS:-
Free, Reap's Moor, built in 1842, for 60 children; average attendance, 38; & endowed with over £25 yearly; Miss Adeline Shaw, mistress

National, Newtown, built in 1880, for 168 children; average attendance, 27; & endowed with £20 yearly; Mrs. E. Burnett, mistress

CARRIERS TO LEEK.- Richard Lomas (exors.), wed.; Isaac Gee, wed.; & to Buxton, sat.; Thos. Ball, to Buxton, sat
[Kelly's Directory of Staffordshire, 1896]