Knightley, Staffordshire


Knightley is a hamlet and former manor in Staffordshire, England. It is situated near the villages of Gnosall and Woodseaves, now on the B5405 road.
There is a church, an agricultural contractor, a few farms and houses and an old blacksmiths.
The hamlet is on the site of a former Roman military station, which was called Mediolanum.

de Knightley family

The prominent de Knightley family originated at the Staffordshire manor of Knightley, acquired by them shortly after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Domesday Book of 1086 lists the tenant of Chenistelei as Rainald, namely "Reginald the Sheriff", who held 88 manors throughout England, said to be the ancestor of this family. Mark Noble wrote of the de Knightley family:

In 1415 Sir Richard Knightley purchased the manor of Fawsley in Northamptonshire, where the senior line of the family became seated.
Branches of the family became Knightley baronets, of which two titles were created, and in 1892 Rainald Knightley, 1st Baron Knightley was created Baron Knightley "of Fawsley" in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.