Tixall is a small
village about 2 miles east of Stafford, the county town of
Staffordshire in England. The village lies on the northern side of the
valley of the River Sow. The Church has the OS Map Reference SJ 978 228.
This year, 2001, there
are 163 resident electors and 85 dwellings. Four Councillors represent
Tixall on the Parish Council of Ingestre
with Tixall. Local Information gives
bus, mobile library times, etc.
The history of Tixall dates from before Domesday,
with evidence of prehistoric activity at the Bronze Age barrows of
Kings and
Queens Low, both recently excavated by the Staffordshire Archaeology
Society
. Soon after Domesday, the manor passed to the De Wastney family, and
was
then to sold to Sir Thomas Littleton in the 15th century. Joan
Littleton
subsequently married Sir John Aston of Haywood in the early 16th
century
and Tixall remained with the Aston family and their descendants, the
Cliffords,
until it was sold to Earl Talbot of Ingestre in 1845. Until the 1960s
Tixall
was owned by Lord Shrewsbury, Earl Talbot's descendants. In 1960 the
estate
was divided up and sold, with several of the tenant farmers buying
their
farms.
A Local History Group meets monthly.
Tixall is a Conservation Area
and part of the Cannock
Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
(AONB). It
also contains a Site of Special Scientific Interest, SSSI, on the
wetlands
between the river and the canal. The village contains several Listed
Buildings,
although only Tixall Church is open to the public: