Rugeley

A market in the forest

Richard I sold Rugeley to the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry in 1189, when the settlement lay within the Royal Forest of Cannock. A weekly market grant followed in 1259. Farming remained central to the town’s exchange with its surroundings: sheep and horse fairs brought rural producers into Rugeley, and cattle trading continued behind the Shrew until 1967. ^[2]

The 1259 charter also permitted an annual fair around St Augustine’s feast. The town council traces a later shift in the fair’s date to the calendar change of 1752. The surviving tradition joins a medieval trading privilege to later changes in the way national time was reckoned. ^[3]

A church altered by a growing town

The Old Chancel is the surviving portion of Rugeley’s medieval St Augustine’s. The district council identifies a church here by 1189 and traces later additions to the original nave and chancel. The surviving priest’s doorway, windows and memorials preserve different periods of worship and commemoration within the same structure. ^[4]

As the old church deteriorated and became too small, a replacement was built opposite. Much of the original church was demolished, leaving the tower, arcade, chapel and chancel. Bells cast by the Rudhall family in 1706 were transferred to the new church. In 1974 the churchyard was landscaped, with displaced gravestones paving former parts of the building’s footprint. ^[4]

Leather, metal and improved routes

The Phoenix Tannery exemplifies the physical demands of Rugeley’s trades. Hides were treated in lime, scraped and layered with oak bark in open pits; a small factory in Bryan’s Lane ground the bark. The district council records the tannery before 1851 and its continuation into the late 1950s. Turning animal hides into leather required processing space, water and associated machinery. ^[5]

Metalworking also reached beyond a shop counter. Harris’s ironmongery business opened in Market Square in 1855, moved to Anson Street and established the Phoenix Iron Works nearby. The foundry produced garden equipment including rollers. Retailing and manufacture could form parts of the same local business. ^[5]

The Trent and Mersey Canal gave these activities access to a wider transport network. Fully opened in 1777, it was part of James Brindley’s ambition to connect major English rivers. Josiah Wedgwood attended the planning meeting at Wolseley Bridge, outside Rugeley, in 1765: a water route promised smoother carriage for fragile pottery as well as movement of industrial materials. ^[6]

Coal goes directly to the power station

The twentieth-century energy complex joined Lea Hall Colliery with Rugeley A power station beside the Trent. Coal travelled directly from mine to station by conveyor. Construction began in the 1950s; the mine closed in 1990 and A station in the following decade. Their physical connection made local coal part of a national electricity supply system. ^[7]

The Staffordshire History Centre’s research into the two stations also records their working cultures. Former employees remembered distinctions between the older, smaller A station and the more powerful B station. An exhibition at the Museum of Cannock Chase brought workers and families together, preserving experiences that cannot be read from the demolished machinery alone. ^[8]

After generation

Rugeley B ceased generation in 2016. On 6 June 2021 its four cooling towers were brought down in a controlled demolition, watched through a public livestream. Removing these conspicuous structures marked a visible break in the town’s energy history, but preparing the ground for another use required a longer programme. ^[9]

In August 2025 former operator ENGIE announced completion of remediation and sale of the site to Vistry Group. Its account described planning consent for housing, employment space and an all-through school. These were the terms of redevelopment reported at the transfer, rather than evidence that an entire new neighbourhood had already been built. ^[10]