Edingale

The Inn That Became Memory

The Black Horse Inn on Main Road is three buildings pretending to be one: a forge at the western end, a frontage about a century old, and an older inn tucked in behind. The Gadsby family ran it as blacksmiths and publicans from the 1830s; the Duggins family held it for more than sixty years after that. It closed around 2020, and a 2026 application to convert the building to residential use has been approved. In its last years, it served real ale alongside curries and a famous sizzling mixed grill.

Edingale currently has no pub and no shop. The Old Post Office on Main Road was in use until its sale in 1987; a later refit uncovered bread ovens showing that it had once doubled as the village bakery. Win Hobley kept a shop at Lilac Cottage until the early 1940s, and Moses Emery ran a grocery on Lullington Road until his death in 1931.

Brook, Meadow and Mease

The River Mease runs through the parish to join the Trent near Croxall. Three village routes run through Edingale: the 4.5km Pessall circuit follows Pessall Lane to Pessall Brook; the 2.4km River Mease figure-of-eight passes the churchyard and crosses the river; and the 2.4km Pingle Meadow loop starts at the Village Hall and follows the river before turning back. At Croxall Lakes, former sand-and-gravel workings draw wintering and breeding birds. Otter signs are found by the river, although the animals are difficult to spot.

A Church on Royal Ground

Holy Trinity Church was rebuilt in 1880–81 by Charles Lynam, replacing a Georgian building of 1736 on a site with a church recorded as far back as 1191. A small Saxon window, salvaged from whatever stood there before that, is built into the vestry, and the parish registers begin in 1575. The Domesday survey valued the Staffordshire portion of the village at forty shillings; by 1086 it belonged directly to King William I, one of the Mercian manors he kept for himself after putting down the 1068 rebellion.

Shire Horses and a Cold War Shelter

E J "Jos" Holland farmed Edingale House Farm from 1909 to 1986, breeding Shire horses that carried the village’s name overseas. One was Edingale Mascot, an 18.3-hand stallion exported to the United States in 1984. When Holland’s stock was auctioned that March, around 4,000 people came to watch. He received the MBE in 1983 and died in 1986, aged 96. Behind Fort Joe, Joe Golubic began building a nuclear fallout shelter in 1963.

Village Life and the Road South

Edingale Village Hall has playing fields and a playground. Former publican Alfred Edward Duggins and his sons founded the Edingale Swifts with the Green family in the late 1940s. The A513 crosses the Tame at the Grade II* Chetwynd Bridge towards Alrewas; nearby Harlaston has the White Lion pub. By 1999, Arthur Rowley had served fifty-three years as an Edingale parish councillor, an achievement that brought him and his wife Gladys an invitation to a Buckingham Palace garden party.