TRENTHAM, a parish in the northern division of the hundred of PIREHILL, county of STAFFORD, comprising the chapelry of Blurton with Lightwood-Forest, and the townships of Butterton, Clayton-Griffith, Hanchurch, Handford, and Trentham, and containing 2203 inhabitants, of which number, 589 are in the township of Trentham, 3 miles (S.S.E.) from Newcastle under Lyne. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the archdeaconry of Stafford, and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, endowed with £200 royal bounty, and £1200 parliamentary grant, and in the patronage of the Marquis of Stafford. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, is an ancient structure without a tower, which was taken down about a century ago. A new chapel, erected at Handford, was opened in July 1828.

The Trent and Mersey canal passes through the parish, in the neighbourhood of which there is a considerable manufacture of remarkably good bricks and tiles, of a dark blue colour, much in request at Northampton and the intervening places. A court leet is held once a year. Lady Catherine Leveson, in 1670, bequeathed an annuity of £20 for teaching poor children, and a like sum for apprenticing them. Here was anciently a nunnery, of which St. Werburgh, in the seventh century, was appointed abbess, by her brother, King Ethelred. In the reign of Henry I., Randal II., Earl of Chester, converted it into a priory of Augustine canons, in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary and All Saints, which, at the dissolution, had a revenue of £121. 3. 2., and was granted to Charles, Duke of Suffolk. Trentham gives the title of viscount to the Marquis of Stafford, whose noble mansion is in this parish.

BUTTERTON, a township in the parish of TRENTHAM, northern division of the hundred of PIREHILL, county of STAFFORD, containing 22 inhabitants.

CLAYTON-GRIFFITH, a township in the parish of TRENTHAM, northern division of the hundred of PIREHILL, county of STAFFORD, containing 34 inhabitants.

HANDCHURCH, a township in the parish of TRENTHAM, northern division of the hundred of PIREHILL, county of STAFFORD, 3 miles (S.) from Newcastle under Line, containing 224 inhabitants.

HANDFORD, a township in the parish of TRENTHAM, northern division of the hundred of PIREHILL, county of STAFFORD, containing 490 inhabitants.