So, have times changed??

Rev. Maitland lived in Milwich because there was no Rectory in Fradswell. In September 1850 an appeal was launched to build one and a notice in the Staffordshire Advertiser at that time painted a very bleak picture of local conditions - all attributed to the absence of a resident clergyman! We read:

"The hamlet of Fradswell ... contains 230 inhabitants. A hall, let to a tenant, four farm houses, and a number of cottages, or mud huts, widely spread over a barren heath, comprise the village ... Buried in ignorance and superstition, [the inhabitants of the heath] commit crime with impunity, and totally disregard the Sabbath. On that holy day the women are employed in washing, baking, mending, or any other domestic avocation they deem necessary. The men, who are chiefly excavators, poachers and tramps, may be found getting up or planting potatoes, or repairing hedges, tools etc. Adultery is held in light esteem ... should the call be neglected, or not responded to, the souls of these poor benighted people will soon fall a prey to the wiles of the Romanists, or be entangled in the meshes of infidelity and dissent."

Extracted from 'Milwich in the Mid-Nineteenth Century'
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