Patrick Comerford
During my 10-mile hike a few days ago a few days ago in south Staffordshire, I was searching once more for places associated with the Comberford family, including Wigginton Manor, the site of the old manor house in Comberford before Comberford Hall was built in the 18th century, and the site of Comberford Windmill on Coton Lane.
I ended up in the village of Hopwas on the main A51 in Staffordshire, on the south-east edge of Lichfield District Council and about five miles south-east of Lichfield and two miles west of Tamworth. The place had links with the Comberford family from as early as the late 13th century until at least the first half of the 18th century.
Hopwas has a population of about 700, and is part of the civil parish of Wigginton and Hopwas, which includes Hopwas, Wigginton, Comberford and parts of Coton. I returned to Hopwas yesterday, to explore the history and the legacy of the village.
The centre of Hopwas is at the junctions with School Lane and Hints Lane, where the historic parts of the village have a mainly linear layout. Hopwas is set in open countryside with two waterways passing through it, the Coventry Canal and the River Tame. The main road slopes gently down from west to east, from about 65 metres above sea level along the canal to below 60 metres by the river. However, the surrounding land slopes steeply from the heights of Hopwas Wood to the north down to the banks of the River Tame to the east.
The first documented reference to Hopwas is in the Domesday Survey (1086), where it was recorded as ‘Opewas’, and it soon became a well-stocked royal forest. At the time, the settlement was owned by the king and had a mill. The area was predominantly agricultural and was prosperous, due to the natural fertility of the Tame Valley lowlands.
The name evolved by the 12th century to ‘Hopewasin’, probably from the Saxon ‘hop’, meaning a fen island or valley, and ‘waesse’, meaning a swamp leading to an enclosure near a marsh. Agriculture was then an important source of employment, and this continued in the centuries that followed.
When Alexander de Stavenby was the Bishop of Lichfield, Henry III gave permission for the Dean and Chapter at Lichfield in 1235 to dig stone in the King’s forest to repair Lichfield Cathedral.
The Franciscans or Greyfriars had arrived in Lichfield ca 1229 and founded a friary with land and houses given by Bishop Alexander de Stavenby. Henry III gave them ten oaks from Hopwas in 1237 to help them rebuild their chapel.
Edward I ordered all undergrowth in Hopwas Wood to be cut down and rooted up in 1277 to prevent evildoers from lurking in the wood, which had become notorious for the frequency of robberies, assaults and murders.
A lease dated 5 April 1599 and signed by Thomas, John and William Comberford, involving Dean’s Wood in Hopwas Hay and other lands on the Lichfield to Tamworth road (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)The Comberford family had connections with Hopwas from at least the late 13th century that continued for almost 4½ centuries until about 1718.
Alan de Comberford claimed Wigginton Manor in 1278 and had lands in Comberford, Wigginton, Coton and Hopwas. His younger grandson, Richard de Comberford, had an eldest daughter and heiress, Margery, who was ancestor of the Hopwas and Endsore families of Comberford.
John de Comberford and his wife Alice, were granted Hopwas in 1366, along with extensive estates between Lichfield and Tamworth, by his kinsman, Canon Hugh de Hopwas, a canon of Lichfield Cathedral. This may have been a legal expedient to ensure the estates did not become church property, and in 1382 John de Comberford returned the property to the Hopwas family when he granted them to John de Hopwas.
John Comberford (1440-1508) is named in court case in 1461 involving properties in Hopwas, Coton and Tamworth. His son, Thomas Comberford (1472-1532), who was admitted to membership of the Guild of Saint Mary and Saint John the Baptist in Lichfield in 1495, secured full rights over the manor of Wigginton in 1514, along with a mill, meadows, pastures and rentals in Wigginton, Hopwas, Coton, Comberford and Tamworth.
John Comberford still owned these properties when he died in 1532. He also had the right to hold a fair in Tamworth twice a year, the rights of fishery for a 2½-mile stretch along the River Tame from Lady Bridge, marking the boundary between the Staffordshire and Warwickshire parts of Tamworth, to Hopwas Bridge, and the right to keep six swans on the river.
Humphrey Comberford inherited these extensive Hopwas estates in 1528, and by 1544 that he held Hopwas, a wooded manor on the banks of the Tame. His second son, Humphrey Comberford, was the intended heir to the Hopwas estates, but he died unmarried in 1545 before his father died.
Thomas Comberford, his wife Dorothy, and their son and heir, William Comberforf, were holding the Manors of Comberford, Wigginton and Wednesbury, in 1592, which included a free warren in Comberford, Wednesbury and Hopwas and the Hay of Hopwas. In 1599, Thomas, John and William Comberford leased lands, including Dean’s Wood in Hopwas Hay and other lands on the Lichfield to Tamworth road, assigned to them in 1588 by their brother-in-law Sir William Stanford of Packington. Stanford sold all his rights in Hopwas to William Comberford in 1590 for £200.
Hopwas Bridge was described in 1608 as a private bridge in the repair of William Comberford. This William Comberford was taken to court in 1629 by the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church, Oxford, seeking a disputed annuity of £29 from the Manors of Wigginton and Comberford along his lands and tenements in Hopwas, Coton and Tamworth.
Colonel William Comberford, who had been the royalist high sheriff of Staffordshire and was involved in the Siege of Lichfield, incurred heavy debts through his activities in the English civil war. By 1649, he was in a position to claim back his lands and pay off many of his debts, using lands in Tamworth, Coton, Hopwas, Comberford and Wiggington and the Manor of Bolehall as security.
After Robert Comberford died in 1669, his widow Catherine continued to live at Comberford Hall until she died in 1718. By then most of the Comberford properties had been mortgaged or sold off and she was a tenant of the Skeffington family of Fisherwick. Catherine’s will shows she still held land in Wigginton, and some property in Hopwas, and in Tamworth, including a house in Hopwas occupied by Henry Ashmore and another property in Hopwas she had bought from Francis Astbury and that was then occupied by Thomas Astbury. She divided these properties between her granddaughters Catherine Brooke and Mary Grosvenor of Tamworth.
A year before Catherine died, the former schoolmaster’s house in Hopwas was built in 1717 at the request of Thomas Barnes, who was born in Hopwas and was then living in London. Thomas Barnes Primary School was founded in 1724 in the schoolmaster’s house, and more school buildings have been added since.
The life of Hopwas was always associated with water, first because of its position on the River Tame and then because of its connection with the canal after James Brindley was commissioned to build the Coventry Canal.
Work on the canal began in December 1768. But because Brindley demanded high standards in construction, the Coventry Canal Company ran out of money by the time the canal reached Atherstone in 1769, and Brindley was replaced by Thomas Yeoman. The canal was finally completed in 1789 after the two adjoining canal companies, the Trent and Mersey Canal Company and the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal Company, received permission to complete and operate the approved but still-unbuilt section from Fazeley to Fradley.
Meanwhile, what was left of the former Comberford interests in Hopwas seems to have passed along with Comberford Hall in the mid-18th century through the Skeffington, Swinfen, Hill and Egerton families until 1761, when they were bought by Thomas Thynne, Viscount Weymouth and later Marquis of Bath. He sold the Manors of Comberford and Wigginton, including lands in Hopwas and Coton, in 1789 to Arthur Chichester (1739-1799), 5th Earl of Donegall, who built Hopwas Hayes Lodge.
Eventually, the Chichester family was crippled by the gambling debts of a profligate son, and found it impossible to pay off their loans, so that they were forced to sell Comberford Hall and the manorial rights and lands that went with it, including those in Hopwas.
Hopwas Bridge, an old stone bridge, formed part of the original turnpiked road from Lichfield Road through Hopwas to Tamworth over the River Tame, and tolls were paid at the bridge. The bridge was washed away in a flood in 1795 and was replaced by a new bridge ca 1800. This landmark is now a Grade II listed structure and it marks the crossing point between Tamworth and Lichfield District.
The canal dissects Hopwas and has helped to provide a framework for the village. The historic core of Hopwas developed in a linear pattern alongside the canal and the adjacent Hints Lane, and this linear core helped to provide the rural charm of the village that has been preserved ever since.
Hopwas was described in the 19th century as ‘a small settlement situated at the bottom of a gravely hill’. Hopwas Water Pumping Station was built ca 1890 to the west to take advantage of the natural connection to the waterways.
By the early 20th century, the village sprawled further along A51 between Lichfield and Tamworth and housing developments grew up on the east side of Hints Lane. Despite minor alterations to the façades of some buildings and their change of use, the village kept its appearance. The gradual infill of development followed in the late 20th and early 21st century.
The Hopwas Conservation Area is a designated place of ‘special architectural or historic interest’ and has has a number of listed buildings, including the Saint Chad’s Church, built in 1879 in an idyllic and charming setting on the initiative of the Revd William McGregor of Tamworth.
No 1 Hints Road is a late 18th century house that epitomises the Staffordshire vernacular style. It is a red-brick building with a plain clay tile roof and architecturally it is the most distinguished building in that part of the village.
Black and White Cottages in School Lane form a row of three cottages, including one house that probably dates from the late 17th century.
Hopwas has two old public houses, the Red Lion and the Tame Otter, formerly the Chequers. Their neighbouring, facing beer gardens front onto the Coventry Canal, creating an attractive open space, and the steady traffic on the canal and its ambiance provide a vibrant yet relaxing atmosphere.
The Tame Otter, on the corner of the junction of Lichfield Road, Hints Road and School Lane, provides the main landmark for Hopwas. With its historic architecture, its canal-side location and its popularity, it has become the focal point of the village.
North of Hopwas village, Hopwas Hays Wood is 385 acres of ancient woodland, also known as Hopwas Hay or Hopwas Hayes, and was Crown property until the mid-16th century.
Hopwas Hayes Lodge was built ca 1786. His interests were bought out by the Levett family of Wychnor Park, and by 1834 the wood was owned by the Revd Thomas Levett (1740-1843), who was the Rector of Whittington for 40 years (1796-1836). He was a large landowner and played a role in the development of the local educational system. The house was bought by the Price family in 1949, but when it fell into disrepair it was demolished by Lichfield District Council.
A large part of the woodland is privately owned, mainly by Lafarge (Tarmac) and the Ministry of Defence. Hopwas Wood and parts of the range may be used by soldiers for dry training and the use of blank ammunition. Members of the public are warned to follow the route of the bridle path, to observe warning signs, and not to enter the range complex.
I ventured to the edges of the woods, climbed up to Saint Chad’s Church, and strolled along the canal towpaths before ending my day-long hike by rewarding myselff with a late (very late) lunch and a glass of wine at the Tame Otter.
I lingered in the sunshine a little longer than I had planned last week and missed the bus that would get me to Lichfield in time for choral evensong in the cathedral. Instead, I returned to Tamworth, had another wistful look at the Moat House on Lichfield Street, and caught the train back to Milton Keynes. But I returned to Hopwas yesterday, and managed to catch the bus to Lichfield in time for the mid-day Eucharist.
But more about Saint Chad’s Church in Hopwas, and some of the other churches, chapels and religious communities, in the days to come, hopefully.
A few moments in the sunshine on the Coventry Canal in Hopwas in the mid-day sunshine yesterday (Patrick Comerford, 2026)
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