Burntwood is a town 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...

, lying in the Cannock Chase

Cannock Chase

Cannock Chase is a mixed area of countryside in the county of Staffordshire, England. The area has been designated as the Cannock Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Chase gives its name to the Cannock Chase local government district....

 area approximately 4 miles (6 km) west of Lichfield

Lichfield

Lichfield is a cathedral city, civil parish and district in Staffordshire, England. One of eight civil parishes with city status in England, Lichfield is situated roughly north of Birmingham...

. The town had a population

Population

A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...

 of 25,674 at the time of the 2001 census and forms part of Lichfield district

Lichfield (district)

Lichfield is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. It is administered by Lichfield District Council, based in Lichfield.The dignity and privileges of the City of Lichfield are vested in the parish council of the 14 km² Lichfield civil parish...

. The town forms one of the largest urbanised parishes

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 England. Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...

 opened an academy

Academy

An academy is an institution of higher learning, research, or honorary membership.The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece. In the western world academia is the...

 in nearby Edial

Edial

The hamlet of Edial lies to the east of Burntwood in Staffordshire.Edial Hall School, Edial is celebrated as the house in which lexicographer, Samuel Johnson, opened an academy in 1736....

 in 1736. The town is home to the smallest park in the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, Prince's park

Prince's Park

Prince's Park is located in the Staffordshire town of Burntwood and is featured in the Guinness Book of Records for being the smallest park in the United Kingdom....

, which is located next to Christ Church on the junction of Farewell Lane and Church Road. The town expanded in the nineteenth century around the coal mining

Coal mining

The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...

 industry.

Areas of Burntwood are Boney Hay, Chase Terrace

Chase Terrace

Chase Terrace is an area in the town of Burntwood in Staffordshire, England.Chase Terrace began as a mining village in the 1860s with mines at the south side of Cannock Road. By 1884 Chase Terrace had gained a population of nearly 2,000...

, Chasetown

Chasetown

Chasetown is an area in the town of Burntwood, and is split between the civil parishes of Burntwood and Hammerwich in Staffordshire, England.Chasetown began as a coal mining village in the mid-18th century, at first known simply as Cannock Chase...

, Gorstey Lea and Burntwood Green. Nearby places are Brownhills

Brownhills

Brownhills is a town in the West Midlands, England. Located on the edge of Cannock Chase near the large artificial lake Chasewater, it is north-east of Walsall and a similar distance south-west of Lichfield. It is part of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the Aldridge-Brownhills...

, Cannock

Cannock

Cannock is the most populous of three towns in the district of Cannock Chase in the central southern part of the county of Staffordshire in the West Midlands region of England....

, Cannock Wood

Cannock Wood

Cannock Wood is a village and civil parish in the Cannock Chase District of Staffordshire, England. Situated near Cannock and Lichfield and north of Burntwood. It is approximately north of Birmingham and 14 miles north-east of Wolverhampton...

, Norton Canes

Norton Canes

Norton Canes is a village and civil parish on the southern periphery of Cannock Chase District, in Staffordshire, England. It is situated out of the centre of Cannock. At the 2001 census it had a population of 6,394...

, Gentleshaw

Gentleshaw

Gentleshaw is a village and hamlet in Staffordshire located about midway between Cannock and Lichfield, and about a mile north of Burntwood. Although it is now part of Longdon civil parish, it has a Parish Church and a primary school....

, Hammerwich

Hammerwich

Hammerwich is a village and civil parish in Lichfield District, Staffordshire, England. It is situated to the south east of Burntwood.The name may derive from the Old English hamor and wic , or possibly, 'a smith's workshop' or 'a hammer-making workshop'.Charcoal burning, nail making, agriculture...

 and Lichfield

Lichfield

Lichfield is a cathedral city, civil parish and district in Staffordshire, England. One of eight civil parishes with city status in England, Lichfield is situated roughly north of Birmingham...

.

In September 2009 it was announced that a Burntwood man, Terry Herbert, had discovered a hoard of Saxon treasure with a metal detector in a field in the adjoining village of Hammerwich

Hammerwich

Hammerwich is a village and civil parish in Lichfield District, Staffordshire, England. It is situated to the south east of Burntwood.The name may derive from the Old English hamor and wic , or possibly, 'a smith's workshop' or 'a hammer-making workshop'.Charcoal burning, nail making, agriculture...

. Known as the Staffordshire Hoard

Staffordshire Hoard

The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork . Discovered in a field near the village of Hammerwich, near Lichfield, in Staffordshire, England on 5 July 2009, it consists of some 3,500 items that are nearly all martial in character...

, it is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold yet found.