Pirehill Hundred
| Pirehill | |
|---|---|
| History | |
| • Origin | Anglo-Saxon period |
| • Created | 10th century |
| • Abolished | 1894 |
| • Succeeded by | various |
| Status | Obsolete |
| Government | Hundred |
| Subdivisions | |
| • Type | Parishes (see text) |
| • Units | Parishes |
Pirehill is a hundred in the county of Staffordshire, England. The Hundred is located in the north-west and toward the upper centre of Staffordshire. It is about 28 miles in length, north to south, and around 8 to 20 miles in breadth. It is bounded on the north-east by Totmonslow (Totmanslow) Hundred, on the east by Offlow Hundred, on the south by Cuttleston Hundred and on the west and north-west by Shropshire and Cheshire.
The River Trent rises at its northern extremity and flows through it in a south-easterly direction, passing the noble seats of Trentham, where it becomes somewhat navigable, then Ingestre, Shugborough and Wolseley; and nearly parallel with that river now runs the Trent and Mersey Canal. It contains the boroughs of Stafford, the county town, the town of Newcastle-under-Lyme and the city of Stoke-on-Trent, which latter includes the Potteries. Besides these, Pirehill has six market towns: Burslem, Hanley, Lane-End, Stone, Eccleshall and Abbots Bromley.
A large number of Hundred names refer to hills or mounds which were gathering sites. Some of these at least are very conspicuous hills, which afford a commanding view of the countryside for miles around. It seems likely that such moot and mustering sites were chosen as being remote and bare, from which approaching forces would be easily spotted. In this case the Pirehill Hundred was named after Pire Hill (height 462 ft), a hill two miles south of Stone. The hill was a meeting place for the Hundred Moot and also a mustering point in case of invasion. It is noteworthy that the meeting-places of the two northern hundreds (Pirehill and Totmonslow) are in the extreme south of the respective hundreds. Presumably this was to unify Staffordshire's forces with those of the neighbouring hundreds, and thus to meet invaders in force, invaders who might either: i) be travelling as war-bands up the River Trent, navigable to Stone; or ii) renegades invading from Wales and seeking the vital upper Trent crossing at Stone; or iii) pressing down in larger numbers from Northumbria, in which case there would be an urgent local need to fall back south to Stone.
...
Wikipedia