Introduction
Lying on the west side of Burton, Horninglow
stretched from an arm of the river Trent, where there
was an early settlement at Wetmore, westwards across
an expanse of moorland and then up rising ground
covered in the Middle Ages by woodland called the
Outwood. Horninglow village itself stands on rising
ground in the north of the township along the Burton-
Tutbury road. The township was drawn into Burton
from the mid 19th century, and its south-eastern part
became an area of working-class housing. There was
continued housing development around Horninglow
village in the 20th century.
Formerly a township in Burton ancient parish,
Horninglow was later a civil parish covering 2,198 a.
(889.5 ha.). (fn. 12) The south-western boundary ran along
Shobnall brook, probably the stream recorded in the
bounds of the Wetmore estate in 1012; (fn. 13) the other
boundaries ran across open ground.
The township had detached portions in Burton
township, lying in scattered parcels in Burton
meadow and in a block in Moor Mill Dam meadow
on the east side of Derby Street, and there was a
detached portion of Burton Extra within the township
in the Victoria Street area. (fn. 14) In 1853 the south-eastern
part of the township, covering 276 a., was taken into
Burton borough, as was a further 840 a., including
Horninglow village, when the borough was enlarged in
1878. (fn. 15) What remained of the original township (later
FIG. 59. Horninglow township and village
becoming Outwoods civil parish) (fn. 1) was in Tutbury rural
district until the creation of the East Staffordshire
district in 1974.
In 1886 the detached portions of Horninglow were
transferred to Burton civil parish and that of Burton
Extra to Horninglow civil parish. (fn. 2) The 1,045 a. (423
ha.). of Horninglow civil parish which lay outside the
borough was renamed Outwoods in 1894. (fn. 3) A boundary
change in 1985 transferred land on the west side of
Outwoods Lane to Anslow and on the east side of
Rolleston Road to Stretton, so reducing the area of
Outwoods civil parish to its present 966 a. (391 ha.). (fn. 4)
This article treats the former township, except for the
19th- and 20th-century development of the area added
to Burton in 1853. (fn. 5)
The underlying rock is mudstone, overlain with
boulder clay and, east of the village, some glacial gravel.
The soil is a slowly permeable fine loam. (fn. 1) There was
formerly a gypsum deposit. (fn. 2) The land lies at its lowest,
142 ft. (43 m.), beside the river at Wetmore. To the
west it rises gradually and then more sharply beyond
the Trent and Mersey canal: Horninglow village stands
on the 200 ft. (61 m.) contour. Beam hill to the north-west rises to 269 ft. (82 m.) and Henhurst wood in the
south-west to 311 ft. (95 m.).
POPULATION
Ten people were assessed for tax in 1327. (fn. 3) The adult
population listed in an Easter Book probably of the
1550s was 115, of whom 29 lived at Wetmore. (fn. 4) In 1660
ninety-three adults were assessed for poll tax, and in
1665 twenty-six households were assessed for hearth
tax, with a further ten households too poor to pay. (fn. 5)
The population was 272 in 1801, rising steadily to 391
by 1831 and then more sharply to 852 by 1841. Those
figures, however, include people in the developing area
along Horninglow Road added to Burton borough in
1853 and inmates in Burton Union workhouse. The
non-borough part of the township had a population of
544 in 1851 and 655 in 1861. (fn. 6) By 1871 it had increased
more sharply to 1,053, as the village expanded; the
population was 1,339 in 1881 and 2,587 in 1891. (fn. 7)
From 1901 onwards it is possible to give figures only
for the population of Outwoods civil parish. It was
then 924, falling to 862 by 1911 but rising to 1,013 by
1921 and 1,140 by 1931. It was 2,286 in 1951, 2,274 in
1961, and 2,293 in 1971, but then fell to 2,127 in 1981,
and 1,830 in 1991. (fn. 8)
COMMUNICATIONS
Main Roads The Roman Ryknild Street ran through
the eastern part of the township, along the line of the
present Derby Street and Derby Road. (fn. 9) The Burton-
Tutbury road ran north-west through the township; it
was turnpiked in 1753, and by 1757 there was a tollgate
with a house on the east side of Horninglow village. (fn. 10)
By 1852 there was also a tollgate near the canal, but it
was removed when that part of Horninglow was added
to Burton in 1853. (fn. 11)
Canal and Railways The Trent and Mersey canal, the
Burton section of which was completed by 1770, runs
through the township and formed the boundary of the
extension of Burton borough in 1853. (fn. 12)
The Birmingham-Derby railway line through the
east side of Horninglow was opened in 1839. A station
for Horninglow on the North Staffordshire Railway
Co.'s branch line between Tutbury and Burton was
opened in 1883 at the corner of Derby Road and Eton
Road in 1883. It was closed in 1949. (fn. 13)
SETTLEMENT
Wetmore The earliest recorded settlement in the
township was at Wetmore beside the west arm of the
river Trent. The name is derived from Old English
words meaning 'a pool in a river-bend' (wiht, mere). (fn. 14)
The site was presumably occupied by 1012, when it
had given its name to an estate that covered the area of
the later township. (fn. 15) Such a riparine position, however, was unsuitable for growth, (fn. 16) and possibly by
1086 and certainly by the early 12th century there
was settlement at Horninglow to the west; the name is
derived from Old English words meaning 'the people
(dwelling at) the horn-shaped tumulus' (horning,
hlaw). (fn. 17) Another tumulus on the Rolleston boundary,
recorded in 1008 as 'Dottes hlawe' and named after a
Scandinavian called Dot, possibly a Viking, (fn. 18) was
probably associated with a post or pillar (Old English
beam) used in pagan worship: Beam hill, recorded in
the 13th century, lay north-west of Horninglow village
where closes called Baymill survived in the later 18th
century. (fn. 19)
Although Wetmore was still described as a vill in
1324, the estate was known as Horninglow by 1255, (fn. 20)
and Wetmore was perhaps by then already being
eclipsed by its sister settlement. In the later 18th
century there were only a few houses at Wetmore
apart from the main farmhouse, (fn. 21) which survives as
Old Wetmore Farm, having been rebuilt in the 19th
century. Wetmore Road was laid out in 1878 as an
extension of Anderstaff Lane, in Burton, and a nonconformist chapel was opened towards its north end in
1886. (fn. 22) Myrtle Cottages in Wetmore Lane are dated
1902, and to the east a static caravan site called
Riverside Park was opened c. 1960. (fn. 1)
Horninglow Village Horninglow village in the later
18th century stood around a green, probably that
recorded in the early 14th century, on the north side
of the Tutbury road. (fn. 2) The oldest surviving house there
is probably Chestnuts Farm, rebuilt in the early 19th
century. There were two inns by 1818. One was
possibly on the site of the present Plough inn, so
called by 1848, opposite Chestnuts Farm; the other
was probably the present New inn, so called by 1834,
further east towards the canal. The innkeeper at the
New inn also kept a post office by 1851. (fn. 3) The present
Red Lion inn at the junction of Tutbury Road and
Rolleston Road was first recorded as the Royal Oak in
1848. (fn. 4) A National school was built on what survived of
the green in 1846, by which date the village was
beginning to expand south-eastwards along the present
Horninglow Road North, evidently attracted by the
development of Burton borough. By the late 1870s
rows of cottages had been built along much of the main
road down to the canal, and a board school was opened
for the area in 1876. (fn. 5)
Larger houses stand on the west side of Rolleston
Road, the earliest being the Poplars, built by 1868 for
John Hopkins (d. 1891), a local farmer and, with his
brother-in-law William Hopkins, a major benefactor of
St. John's church in Horninglow. (fn. 6) The house is of red
brick with heavy stone dressings in a debased Italianate
style with some Greek details, and it has a Doric porch.
Used as offices by Tutbury rural district council after
the First World War, the house became a nursing home
in 1992, when a large block for additional accommodation was built on the north side. (fn. 7) The northern end
of Rolleston Road was built up from the 1940s, with a
council estate of the late 1940s to the west centred on
St. Andrews Drive.
Houses in Field Lane and Kitling Greaves Lane on
the west side of Tutbury Road date mostly from the
1930s and a private estate called Castle Park on the east
side of the road dates from the 1950s.
Calais Road Area In the earlier 1880s land on the
south side of Horninglow village owned by Wyggeston
Hospital in Leicester was laid out as Wyggeston Street,
Carlton Street, and Calais Street (later Road). (fn. 8) A
Methodist chapel was built at the south end of Carlton
Street in 1898. (fn. 9) Most of Calais Road took the line of
Patch Lane, whose northern end was realigned to run
up to Horninglow Road North on the west side of the
village. The remaining stretch of Patch Lane was
renamed Dover Road. Streets on the west side of
Calais Road date mostly from the 1930s.
On the south side of Calais Road, Burton Union
workhouse (the present Queen's hospital) was opened
in 1884 in Belvedere Road (formerly Dallow Lane). (fn. 10)
Outwoods Street, running south from Belvedere Road
to Shobnall Fields sports ground, had been built up by
1900: Bosbury House at its north end is dated 1899. (fn. 11)
Houses in Belvedere Road date mainly from 1900 to
1910. (fn. 12) In the early 1920s Burton corporation built
some of its first post-war council houses on the west
side of Mona Road, running north off Belvedere Road,
and by 1927 it had developed a large estate on the west
side of Calais Road. (fn. 13)
Balfour Street and Craven Street, off the south side
of Horninglow Road North almost parallel with the
east end of Wyggeston Street, were built for artisans by
a private building company in 1900-1. (fn. 14) The intervening land between Carlton Street and Craven Street was
built up with council houses in the later 1920s, and
council houses in Harper Avenue, running off the
north side of Horninglow Road North, date from the
mid 1930s.
Area East of Canal On the east side of the canal,
streets running north off Thornley Street, in that part
of Horninglow township not added to Burton borough
in 1853, were being built up in the late 1870s and early
1880s, and a board school was opened for the area in
Goodman Street in 1881. (fn. 15) To the north, Eton Road
was built up in the early 20th century: a house called
Coronation Villa at the corner with Derby Road is
dated 1902. Council houses towards the west end of
the road date from the mid 1920s, and a large council
estate centred on Shakespeare Road and Mansfield
Crescent north-west of Eton Road dates from the
mid 1950s.
Shobnall Road Area From the later 19th century
houses were built in the road which runs along the
township's southern boundary. The earliest were the
terraced cottages on the north side of Shobnall Road
and its western extension Forest Road. The Albion inn
at the east end of Shobnall Road was opened as an hotel
in the early 1880s. Built of red brick, it was a showpiece
for the nearby Albion brewery, opened in 1875, and the
interior is richly decorated with tiles and stained glass.
The adjoining bowling green was in use by 1887. (fn. 1) An
Anglican church, nonconformist chapel, and board
school were opened for the area in the late 1880s. (fn. 2)
Several larger houses near Henhurst Farm are dated
1889, and houses further west along the Henhurst Hill
stretch of the road date from the 1940s and later.
Reservoir Road, running north off Shobnall Road, was
laid out as access to a reservoir opened in 1882, (fn. 3) and
houses there date from the 1940s. A small estate in
Highcroft Drive, off the east side of Reservoir Road,
was built in the 1980s. Further east a house called
Oakhurst, built in the mid 1880s for Edward Grinling,
became the Charlotte James nursing home in 1985,
taking its name from the owners' two children. (fn. 4)
Figure 60:
Horninglow village in 1879
Figure 61:
The Poplars,
Rolleston Road, from
south-east, with 1992 extension to right
Outwoods The western half of the township was an
area of woodland called the Outwood in the Middle
Ages. (fn. 5) A family was living there in the 1730s, probably
on the east side of the common. (fn. 6) The site of house
known as Outwood in 1853 and Lower Outwoods by
1882 (fn. 7) was used in 1891 by Burton corporation for an
isolation hospital which later became the Outwoods
branch of the present Queen's hospital. (fn. 8) The common
land was inclosed in 1773 and was converted into
farmland. (fn. 9) Houses in Beamhill Road along the northern edge of the inclosed land date from the 1930s and
later. There was a cottage at Henhurst at the southern
edge of Outwood common by 1601, possibly on the
site of what in the early 18th century was known as
Henhurst House. (fn. 10) The present Henhurst Farm on the
site dates mainly from the early 19th century.
Services As in Burton, mains water was supplied by
the South Staffordshire Waterworks Company. Houses
in Outwoods civil parish were connected to Burton
corporation sewers in the late 1930s. (fn. 11)
SOCIAL LIFE
A village wake was held in 1753 and still in 1796, but
the time of year is unknown. (fn. 12) A cricket club was
established in 1858. It still existed in 1864. (fn. 13)
The 20-a. Outwoods recreation ground, on the west
side of the canal near Outwoods Street, was opened by
Burton corporation in 1883, (fn. 14) and was approached
from the Burton side of the canal by a bridge, paid for
partly by the feoffees of the Burton town lands. (fn. 15) The
west end of the ground became detached when the A38
bypass was opened in the late 1960s. A further 46 a. to
the south was opened in 1960 as a sports ground called
Shobnall Fields, again at the expense of the feoffees of
the Burton town lands. (fn. 16) Another recreation ground
was provided by the corporation in 1906 on the north
side of Eton Road near the railway line (the present
Princess Way). First known as Horninglow pleasure
ground, it was called Eton community park by 1999. (fn. 1)
From 1957 Burton Albion football club has had a
ground on the east side of the park. (fn. 2)
The Loyal Bass Lodge of Oddfellows (Manchester
Unity), formed in 1872, met at the New inn. It was
amalgamated in 1988 with the newly-formed Trent
Lodge in Burton. (fn. 3)
Carver Road community centre off Wyggeston Road
was opened in 1991. (fn. 4)