Croxall

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Croxall
Derbyshire, Staffordshire
Croxall Church St John.jpg
St John's parish church
Location
Grid reference: SK1913
Location: 52°43’16"N, 1°42’29"W
Data
Post town: Lichfield
Postcode: WS13
Local Government
Council: Lichfield

Croxall is a hamlet and ancient parish that lies across the border of Derbyshire and Staffordshire. The settlement today is mainly the Church of England parish church of St John and Croxall Hall, both in the Derbyshire part of the parish. Croxall and nearby Edingale together form the civil parish of Edingale.

History

Croxall is in the Domesday Book where it is mentioned as an outlying farm of Weston-on-Trent and listed amongst the lands given to Henry de Ferrers[1] by the King. The land given to Henry[2] included two acres of pasture that was valued at four pounds.

The lordship of the manor of Croxall was held for several centuries by underlords of the Ferrers, the Curzon family, an early Anglo-Norman family seated at Derbyshire since the 12th century. A Curzon heiress carried the manor and Croxall Hall to the Sackvilles, Earls of Dorset, who in turn conveyed the manor to the Prinsep family, heirs of John Prinsep, an early Anglo-Indian merchant and later Member of Parliament.[3]

On the death in 1849 of Thomas Prinsep, High Sheriff of Derbyshire, the manor of Croxall was inherited by his nephew Thomas Levett-Prinsep.[4] The St John's parish church contains memorials to all four families, as well as the Horton family of nearby Catton Hall, a member of whom (Anne Wilmot-Horton) prompted the poet Lord Byron to write his famous poem beginning with the lines: "She walks in beauty, like the night...."[5]

References

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about Croxall)