Church Eaton

A Peacock on the Border

Percy the peacock arrived in Church Eaton about five years ago and simply stayed. Nobody has worked out where he came from. By day he walks the High Street as if keeping an eye on proceedings, then roosts somewhere nearby at night, and the village has more or less adopted him.

The High Street is essentially the whole village: one main road, a few cul-de-sacs, houses along the five lanes that lead in, and the Shropshire Union Canal running through the parish just to the east. You're on the Staffordshire–Shropshire border, six miles southwest of Stafford, in dairy farming country.

The Pub That Stayed

The shop and post office have both closed, leaving no sales outlets in the village itself. Gnosall, Haughton and Wheaton Aston, all under three miles away, cover the gap — shops, doctors, vets, pharmacies, petrol, an Indian and a Chinese takeaway.

Which leaves the Royal Oak, on the High Street near the canal, trading since 1899. Threatened with closure at one point, it was bought instead by 34 villagers, who run it as a community pub through a company called Lanvar Ltd. The kitchen is modest — cobs with a variety of fillings, plus visiting street-food traders doing fish and chips or stone-baked pizza, so check the pub's social media before you set your heart on either. It's a freehouse with traditionally brewed cask and bottled beers, a beer garden, dogs on leads welcome, darts and pool, and once a year Oakfest, a music weekend that raises thousands of pounds for local charities. Otherwise it's simply where the village's clubs and committees meet, since there's nowhere else left to meet in.

Towpaths, Tracks and Stone

The canal towpath makes flat, easy walking toward Gnosall and Wheaton Aston, past enough listed bridges and mileposts to plot the route by them alone; there's also the Way for the Millennium, a footpath along a disused railway line. Gnosall has a Norman church with the tomb of an unidentified knight, and two canalside pubs.

St Editha's Church is Grade II* listed, tower and nave late 12th-century, restored by C. Lynam in 1886. The east window is enormous, seven lights filling almost the whole chancel wall, glazed with Kempe stained glass from that restoration, showing scenes from the life of Christ. In the north aisle is what's left of a font from around 1150, broken and repaired; Pevsner traced its carving to a workshop at Gnosall, the same one that produced fonts at Bradley and Lilleshall.

Patronage and Village Life

The church is dedicated to St Editha of Polesworth, daughter of King Egbert and aunt of Alfred the Great. From the early 12th century the right to appoint its priest belonged to the nuns of Polesworth Abbey, disputed with the local lords until an 1261 settlement had the lord nominate a candidate and the abbess present him to the bishop, the rector paying the nuns twenty marks a year until the Dissolution in 1539. Domesday had already recorded the place as Eitone, valued at one pound a year to the lord, Robert of Stafford.

Glebelands Sports Field carries the cricket and tennis clubs, there's a playground at the west end, and the Village Institute runs everything from toddler groups to dog training to local history.

Last Orders and the Road Home

Stafford station is six miles off, and the 877 bus runs between Stafford, Church Eaton, Wheaton Aston and Brewood. The Royal Oak stays open till 11pm most nights, long enough for a full game of darts before last orders. By then Percy has gone to roost.