The text below is taken from a book on the
Elford family by Laura Elford kindly supplied by Dan Elford.
1002 - 1304.
The earliest date I have been able to obtain
is in a 1002
charter.
There
is a small village between Tamworth and Lichfield called Elford.
After
some correspondence with the late and present Rectors, I was invited to stay with a Mrs. Hodgetts, who is the last of
the Lords of Elford whose history is recorded and housed at the British Museum.
Her grandfather who was Rector of Elford, attempted a booklet on the history of the church and Manor,and
it was from this I obtained the earliest history.
"Within fifty years after the Conquest there
was a Hugo de Elleforda, (that is about 1116) and from the family of the de Elleford, the manor seems to have passed
by marriage to the Ardernes, somewhere about the year 1250.
Now, since on the evidence of Doomsday Book,
there was no church at Elford, up to the year of the Conqueror's death (1087)and that style of architecture which is called
"Norman", only continued in use for a hundred years afterwards, a de Elleford was probably the founder of the first church,
and we may fix the period of its construction between the years 1086 and 1168 and I think the earlier is more likely than
the latter period, when the simplicity of the first Norman style was lost and was passing into that transitional state which
led to the adoption of the "first Pointed" or Early polish style.
In the church is a Chantry Chapel with the
tombs of the Lords of Elford, the earliest being John Ardenne and his wife John was Physician to the Black Prince and as you
will see later, was probaly still related to the Elfords.
Around
the top of the walls are the coats of arms of the head of the family of the Lords of Elford and number 8 shows Elford crossed
with Ardennes, indicating the marriage into that family at one time.
The manor was on the pilgrims route to Lichfieldand
the local legend is that the name Elford arose from the ford across the Tame, and the fact of the quantities of eels to be
found there, but the Oxford Dictionary of Place names gives "Ella'sford’. Or O.E. ellern ford "elder's ford'', from
a charter dated 1002.
At Elford Park Farm the remains of the moat
around the original "stockade" may be seen* The only part of the moat still full of water is now the farm pond, but the extent
of the area thus fortified may still be traced as a low
circular area through the farmyard.
Strangely enough, the people of Elford village,
although
justly proud of it, had no idea that the surname Elford was still in existence.
