Hamstall Ridware

Inn and Brewing History

The Shoulder of Mutton on Yoxall Road is a family-run village free house. The building is believed to have been a butcher's shop before it was licensed as a pub in 1827. It has a breakfast room, public bar, guest rooms and a self-catering cottage. Separate lunch, evening and Sunday menus are offered alongside Draught Bass and changing guest ales. At the back is a beer garden with picnic tables and a children's play area; dogs are welcome on a lead except in the breakfast room.

The village's brewing history includes a 2.5-barrel plant at Blythe House Farm on Lichfield Road, where brewing began in 2003. Two brothers bought the operation in 2017 and expanded its range.

Church Across the Pasture

The village doesn't gather around its church so much as send you out to it. St Michael and All Angels stands north of the houses, reached by a 250-metre path across open pasture and set on a slope above the River Blithe. It's Grade I listed, Norman in origin, mostly rebuilt in ashlar sandstone in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Inside the church, the Cotton tomb to Richard and John Cotton stands between the chancel and south chapel, with Tudor-era screens among the other fittings. Monuments to the Stronginthearm family stand in the south aisle and churchyard. Nearby, a late-15th-century tower belongs to Hamstall Hall; its original purpose is uncertain and the tower may have been residential or a lookout.

Jane Austen at the Rectory

Jane Austen, her mother and sister spent about five weeks with their cousin, the Rev. Edward Cooper, at Hamstall Ridware in 1806. Austen had mentioned his appointment as rector in a letter to Cassandra dated 21 January 1799. The rectory has been linked to the fictional Delaford parsonage in Sense and Sensibility.

Reservoir Walks and Wider Connections

Blithfield Reservoir's three concessionary trails begin at the Newton Hurst Lane car park, about 5.4 miles from Hamstall Ridware in a straight line; the road journey is longer. Together they pass through meadow and woodland, with bird hides along the routes; walkers may go near the water but not on the shoreline. For rail travel, Rugeley Trent Valley is an operating station in nearby Rugeley. Shugborough Hall is about 7.4 miles from Hamstall Ridware in a straight line, and the RAF Hednesford walk at Cannock Chase Visitor Centre starts about 6.9 miles from Hamstall Ridware in a straight line; both road journeys are longer.

Work and Worth Through the Centuries

The Domesday survey of 1086 recorded eleven households across three landholdings at Hamstall Ridware, valued at twenty-five shillings in total. White's 1834 directory lists William Chapman the shoemaker, Joseph Fowell the blacksmith, Joseph Mason the butcher, Edward Roobottom the corn miller and Charles Woolley the wheelwright among tradespeople across the parish. Their names give a snapshot of work recorded here in the early nineteenth century.