FREEHAY is an ecclesiastical parish, formed March 5, 1847, from the civil parish of Cheadle, 2 miles south-east from Cheadle and 3 south-west from Oakamoor station on the Churnet Valley section of the North Staffordshire railway, in the Leek division of the county, hundred of Totmonslow North, union and county court district of Cheadle, petty sessional division of Cheadle, rural deanery of Cheadle, archdeaconry of Stoke-on-Trent and diocese of Lichfield. St. Chad's church, erected in 1843 (chiefly at the expense of the late Right Rev. Richard Rawle D.D. formerly Bishop of Trinidad and rector of Cheadle), is a building of stone in the Early English style, from designs by Messrs. Scott and Moffatt, architects, and consists of chancel, nave and a western turret containing one bell: it is fitted with open seats of carved oak, the communion table, reredos, font, reading desk and pulpit being of stone: in the chancel is a stained window, illustrating the principal events in the life of Our Saviour, and brasses to the memory of Bishop Rawle and the Rev. George Mather, first vicar of the parish, 1847-1887; two other stained windows were erected as memorials to Mrs. Mather and her father, Admiral Sneyd: the organ was erected in 1875, at a cost of £120: there are 250 sittings.

The register dates from the year 1847. The living is a vicarage, gross yearly value £200, with 17½ acres of glebe, in the gift of the rector of Cheadle for the time being, and held since 1887 by the Rev. Thomas William Tomlins B.A. of Magdalene College, Cambridge. The principal landowners are the trustees of the late Rev. George Mather M.A. sometime rector of Longford (Salop); John Capel Philips esq. J.P., D.L. of Heath House, Upper Tean; John William Philips esq. J.P., D.L. of Heybridge, Lower Tean, and the trustees of the late Benjamin Thacker esq. of Plantation House, Cheadle. The soil is loam and sand; subsoil, gravel. The chief crops are oats, barley, cereals and grazing land; the population in 1891 was 598.

Huntley, 1 mile south of Cheadle, contains Huntley Hall, the property of Frederic George Mather esq. of Bow House, Betley, who is the principal landowner, now the residence of Mrs. Child; Huntley House, a handsome brick mansion, is now occupied by Henry St. George Foote esq.

Tenford, 2 miles south of Cheadle, on the river Tean, consists of a few farms and scattered dwellings, a flint mill and two inns.

Mobberley, 1¼ miles south of Cheadle, comprises two or three farms, an inn and a few scattered dwellings.

Parish Clerk, Joseph Carter.

Letters through Stoke-on-Trent, via Cheadle. Cheadle is the nearest money order & telegraph office. LETTER BOX, Huntley, cleared at 6.30 p.m. week days only

National School (mixed), built in 1847, with a house for the mistress attached; it will hold 160 children; average attendance, 72; Miss Florence M. Beal, mistress; Mrs. Dorothy Taylor, infants' mistress
[Kelly's Directory of Staffordshire, 1896]