The name Eccleshall derives from a combination of the
Primitive Welsh word
eglẹ̄s meaning 'church' and the
Old English halh meaning 'nook of land'. According to the
Domesday Book, Eccleshall in 1086 was no more than a small village of about one hundred inhabitants. A few fragments of stone at the base of the tower of the present
Parish Church of Holy Trinity suggest that a stone church was in existence about this time and the base of a 10th-century cross still stands outside the church. The oldest part of the church, the pillars and arches of the nave, were begun in 1180 while the remainder of the church was completed during the 13th century, with a fine clerestory being added in the 15th century. Eccleshall became important as a market town for the surrounding area. In 1153 it was granted the right to hold a weekly market. Around the beginning of the 13th century the village had become a town with the granting of ‘Borough’ status and by 1259 had obtained a charter to hold an annual fair at Ascensiontide. By the time of the survey of the bishop’s estates in 1298 about five hundred people lived in the village, mainly craftsmen or engaged in agriculture. To the
Bishop of Lichfield, Eccleshall was conveniently situated on the main road between the centres of the
diocese in
Chester,
Lichfield and
Coventry. Land was reputedly granted to
St Chad and in 1200 Bishop
Geoffrey de Muschamp was granted by
King John a ‘licence to crenellate’ a
castle. From then on until the 1860s the site would provide a residence for the Bishops of Lichfield. However the ruins which exist today are those a later castle built in 1305 by Bishop
William Langton, a friend of King
Edward I and later
Chancellor of England. This was the great era of castle building and he built an imposing fortress with four corner towers and a wide moat. Eccleshall castle briefly played a part in the
War of the Roses, when it was used as a base for the
Lancastrian Queen Margaret of Anjou and her troops before and after her defeat at the
Battle of Blore Heath in 1459. Bishop
William Overton (1580–1609) was probably responsible, in 1580, for bringing two
glass making families from
Lorraine, Tyzack and Henzey to Bishop's Wood near Eccleshall to set up glass production. Manufacturing ceased around 1615, however, the site of one glass furnace has been excavated in recent times and is preserved and can be seen in Bishop's Wood. In June 1643 the castle was besieged by
Sir William Brereton and his Parliamentary forces encamped around the church. Their guns caused considerable damage to the walls but the castle held out. When the Parliamentary forces finally took the castle on 30 August they found that the bishop (
Robert Wright) had died of a heart attack during the siege and most of the defenders were either drunk or had gone into town drinking in the taverns. The castle was sacked but enough of the building remained to be used as a prison for Royalist gentry. With the development of turnpike trusts in the 18th century as a method of financing road building and improvements, coach travel throughout England had become faster and more reliable. With its position on the main
London to
Chester road Eccleshall became an important stopping point for coaches on several different routes and the town prospered, the inns in particular. Until recently the large stables at the Royal Oak Hotel could be seen. For three centuries
leather working and
shoemaking had been important domestic industries in Eccleshall, but by the end of the 19th century both had almost ceased, with the growth of the mechanised shoe factories in nearby
Stafford. The film ''
I Know Where I'm Going!'', Powell and Pressburger's classic romantic comedy made in 1945 highlights Eccleshall in the scene where Joan Webster (
Wendy Hiller) meets up with her father in London, and he informs her that he had travelled all the way from Eccleshall to see her that evening. ==Community==