MODDERSHALL is a township and small village close to the road from Cheadle to Stone, in the Kibblestone quarter of Stone parish, and with OULTON was formed into an ecclesiastical parish, October 31, 1879: it is about 2½ miles north-east from Stone station on the Colwich and Stoke section of the North Staffordshire railway, in the Western division of the county, hundred of South Pirehill and Stone union, petty sessional division and county court district. Divine service, conducted by the Rev. Hugh Horsley M.A. rector of Oulton, is held in the schoolroom, which is licensed for this purpose. Idlerocks, the residence of Godfrey Wedgwood esq. J.P. is a modern mansion of red brick, standing in its own well-wooded grounds of about 90 acres and commands some extensive views. Sir Lionel Milborne Swinnerton Pilkington bart. of Chevet Park, near Wakefield, who is lord of the manor and Sir Smith Child bart. of Stallington Hall, are the principal landowners. The soil is gravelly; subsoil, sandstone. The chief crops are grain, roots and pasture. The area is 3,399 acres.

COTWALTON, 1½ miles south-by-east, and KNENHALL, 1½ north, are small clusters of farm houses.

Post OFFICE.- George Boulton, sub-postmaster. Letters through Stone arrive at 7.30 a.m.; dispatched at 6.10 p.m.; on sundays at 11.20 a.m. Dulton is the nearest money order office & Stone the nearest telegraph office

National Endowed School (mixed), erected in 1844, upon land given by the late Lady Pilkington; it will hold 40 children; average attendance, 35; the endowment, called

"Hiatt's charity", provides for the free education of 6 poor children; Miss Mary Ellen Bruce, mistress
[Kelly's Directory of Staffordshire, 1896]