Wigginton, Staffordshire

Wigginton
Staffordshire
St Leonard's Church, Wigginton
Location
Grid reference:	SK208067
Location:	52°39’30"N, 1°41’30"W
Data
Post town:	Tamworth
Postcode:	B79
Dialling code:	01827
Local Government
Council:	Lichfield
Parliamentary constituency:	Tamworth

Wigginton is a tiny village in Staffordshire, a mile north of Tamworth town centre.

The village contains a pub, the Old Crown, and a Church of England primary school, 'St Leonard's'. The pub, The Wigginton, is just into Tamworth, as is Wigginton Park, the home of Tamworth RUFC.

History

The name 'Wigginton' is believed to come from Old English, and to mean 'Wicga's farm'. The name was also sometimes written as 'Wiggington'. The village lies on a mediæval trade route, the Portway, possibly used for transporting salt from the River Mease at Edingale to Tamworth.

Ecclesiastically, Wigginton had been a chapelry attached to the parish of St Editha in Tamworth.

In 1861 the population of Wigginton township was 670, on 3,470 acres. This figure included inmates of the Tamworth workhouse, which at that time lay within the township. The population of the chapelry alone was 466.

Parish church

The parish church, St Leonard, was founded as a chapel of ease. It was rebuilt in 1777, extended in 1830, and altered again in 1861 to a design by Nicholas Joyce.

About the village

Within the modern village is a shrunken mediæval village, visible as a series of pronounced earthworks to the northern end of the village, and mediæval ridge and furrow still to be seen in surrounding fields.

To the south-west of the village is the former site, now ploughed out, of a likely Bronze Age barrow formerly known as "Robin Hood's Butt". Several finds of archaeological interest have been made in the area around the village. To the north-west is a flat area formerly called the "Money Lands", where human bones and ancient coins, thought to be Roman, were recovered in a find made in the 18th century.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Wigginton, Staffordshire)

• Staffordshire Past Track: Old images of Wiggington^(sic)