Gratwich is a small hamlet

Hamlet

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

 in Kingstone

Kingstone, Staffordshire

Kingstone is a village and Civil parish in Staffordshire, it has a Church, a Primary School and a Public House, at he 2001 census the population for the parish of Kingstone was 596.-History:...

 civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

, in Staffordshire

Staffordshire

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, four miles southwest of Uttoxeter

Uttoxeter

Uttoxeter is a historic market town in Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. The current population is approximately 13,711, though new developments in the town will increase this figure. Uttoxeter lies close to the River Dove and is near the cities of Stoke-on-Trent, Derby and...

 in the valley of the River Blythe

River Blythe

The Blythe is a river in the English Midlands which runs from Warwickshire, through the borough of Solihull and on to Coleshill. It runs along the Meriden Gap in the Midlands Plateau,...

.

It is believed that the name Gratwich comes from the Old English ‘greot’, meaning gravel and ‘wic’ meaning “lying on”, so Gratwich means 'lying on gravel'. An alternative possibility may be “a dairy farm by the gravelly stream”. In the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 of 1086 Gratwich is recorded as Crotewiche. At that time the manor was part of the lands of Robert de Stafford

Robert de Stafford

Robert de Stafford was a Norman nobleman, the builder of Stafford Castle in England. He may or may not be the same as Robert de Tosny Lord of Belvoir or of the Robert de Tosny who was son of Raoul II of Tosny ; primary evidence is lacking to determine his parentage, according to Cawley...

. There was sufficient arable land for three plough

Plough

The plough or plow is a tool used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. It has been a basic instrument for most of recorded history, and represents one of the major advances in agriculture...

s. The recorded population was four villeins, five bordars and one serf

SERF

A spin exchange relaxation-free magnetometer is a type of magnetometer developed at Princeton University in the early 2000s. SERF magnetometers measure magnetic fields by using lasers to detect the interaction between alkali metal atoms in a vapor and the magnetic field.The name for the technique...

. There was a Grist mill which brought in four shillings per year, and the manor

Manor

-Land tenure:*Manor, an estate in land of the mediaeval era in England*Manorialism, a system of land tenure and organization of the rural economy and society in parts of medieval Europe based on the manor*Manor house, the principal house of a manor...

 was recorded as being worth 24 shillings per year. There was one acre of meadow

Meadow

A meadow is a field vegetated primarily by grass and other non-woody plants . The term is from Old English mædwe. In agriculture a meadow is grassland which is not grazed by domestic livestock but rather allowed to grow unchecked in order to make hay...

 and a wood half a league

League (unit)

A league is a unit of length . It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour...

 in length and breadth.

The village church is St. Mary the Virgin's.

Notable locals include native Ruth Gledhill

Ruth Gledhill

Ruth Gledhill is an English journalist and the longstanding religion correspondent for The Times.Gledhill grew up in Gratwich, Staffordshire, a small village near Uttoxeter, as the daughter of the local vicar. She is married to Alan Franks, a Times feature writer...

 (born 1959), journalist for The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

, daughter of the vicar

Vicar

In the broadest sense, a vicar is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior . In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant...

of the time.