Forsbrook

Forsbrook is a village in Staffordshire, around three miles southwest of Cheadle and situated on the edge of the Staffordshire Moorlands.

It is an old village and is mentioned in the Domesday Book, with the rather unflattering description as waste ground.

The village derives its name from the Old English Fotes-broc - a brook or ditch. The brook flowed through the village square, where it was crossed by a wooden pedestrian bridge and a ford for horses and vehicles, until it was culverted in 1932.^[1]

History

For hundreds of years the village was only a small settlement, situated on the turnpike road to Cheadle. However, it gradually grew in size with the coming of the North Staffordshire Railway to nearby Blythe Bridge in 1848.

The village totally changed in character during the post Second World War period as a large new housing estate was built, and the area gradually became an overspill of the Stoke-on-Trent conurbation. However, the village has still retained its rural charm and is surrounded by some beautiful countryside, and along with neighbouring Blythe Bridge is considered a desirable and much sought after place to live. This is helped by the excellent transport links nearby to the A50 and the local Blythe Bridge railway station with regular trains to Derby and Stoke-on-Trent.

Within the village there are shops and two public houses, the Roebuck and Butchers Arms. Once there were four pubs; the other two were The Miner's Arms (now a private residence), and the Bull's Head (demolished for road widening).

The village is also home to a Primitive Methodist Chapel built in 1856.

The Forsbrook Pendant, an item of Anglo-Saxon jewellery comprising a 7th-century ring enclosing a Roman gold coin, was found in Forsbrook by a labourer and sold to the British Museum in 1879.^[2]

Forsbrook is contiguous with Blythe Bridge, with which it shares a parish council, and Blythe Marsh. It was formerly in the parish of All Saints Dilhorne.

During the First and Second World War 46 men from Forsbrook and Blythe Bridge laid down their lives for their country. The names are recorded on the village war memorial.

People from Forsbrook

• Arthur Bridgett (1882–1954), Sunderland and England footballer
• Richard JD Evans (born 1984), Nottingham Lions and Great Britain and Northern Ireland ice hockey and roller hockey player
• Doug Lishman (1923–1994), Arsenal and Nottingham Forest footballer settled in Forsbrook.

References

http://hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=58199

External links

• Forsbrook Community Website
• Forsbrook in the Domesday Book

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Forsbrook.

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