Hide

Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1817

hide
Hide

Description from A Topographical History of Staffordshire by William Pitt (1817)

NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME.

Newcastle-under-Lyme. This Borough and Market-town is situated within the Hundred of Pirehill and although entirely surrounded by parishes which are within the Northern division of that Hundred, is considered, for the public purposes of the county, to be in the Southern district. Newcastle is distant from Lichfield 31 miles, from Stafford 16 miles, and from Leek 12 miles. 

Monday is the regular market-day, and another market on Saturdays has been recently established to meet the demands of the increased population. 

There are well-attended fairs, for horses, cattle, woollen cloths, and many other articles, on Shrove-Monday, Easter-Monday, Whit-Monday, and the first Monday in November, besides two other moveable fairs in the months of July and September. 

This Borough, and also a Manor of considerable extent adjacent to it, known by the name of the Manor of Newcastle-under-Lyme, derive the former part of their appellation from a Castle, which stood in the midst of a large pool, now nearly surrounded by the town. The Manor appears, from ancient documents, to have extended over the liberties of Penkhull, Wolstanton, Shelton, Hanley, Clayton, Seabridge, Knutton, Dimsdale, Holditch, Hanchurch, Hanford, Whitmore, Keel, Fenton, Longton, Meer-lane, Normacot, Tunstall, Chatteriey, Bradwell, and Thursfield. 

Antiquaries have generally supposed, upon the authority of Camden, that the castle had its name on account of an older castle, which stood not far from it at Chesterton-under-Lyme ; but, supposing this to be correct, the addition of under-Lyme still wants explanation, and if it ever formed part of the name of Chesterton, it has long ceased to do so. Camden's account of Newcastle is as follows : 

" The Trent first runs southward, with many windings, not far from New-Castle under Lime, so called upon the account of an older castle which formerly stood not far from it at Chesterton-under-Lime, where I saw the ruinous and shattered walls of an old castle, which first belonged to Ranulph Earl of Chester by the gift of king John, and after, by the bounty of Henry 3rd, to the House of Lancaster." 

Later authors have been led into error by the ungrammatical construction of the above quotation, for it is certain that Camden must have meant, that the ruinous walls which he had seen of an old castle formerly belonging to the Earl of Chester and afterwards to the House of Lancaster, were the walls of Newcastle, and not, as the sentence at first reading seems to imply, the walls of the castle of Chesterton. 

Dr. Plot fell into the above-named error, and he proceeds to state,f that the castle of Chesterton went to decay " as long ago as the reign of king Henry 3rd, when the Earl of Lancaster built another near by, in the midst of a great pool, which he called the New Castle, that gave original (no doubt) to the town of that name close by it." 

Bishop Gibson, the editor of Camden, follows Dr. Plot in his mistake, and he also asserts* that Newcastle was " built in Henry 3rd's time by the Earl of Lancaster." 

The Guildhall of the Borough is a large and handsome brick edifice, ornamented with stone pilasters, and standing in the centre of the Market-place. Nearly adjacent to it is an elegant stone Cross, surrounded by a flight of steps for the accommodation of the market. 

Two Members are returned to Parliament by the resident Burgesses of this Borough. This privilege has been exercised ever since 1352, and probably for a longer period, as the time when the right was first obtained is not known. It appears from a Report of the House of Commons, made by the Committee of Privileges in 1624, that the right of Election was then considered to belong exclusively to the Common Council ; but the resident Burgesses at large have long been admitted to share in the Elections, and their right is now for ever confirmed by the last Resolution of the House of Commons, which passed in the year 1792. 

This Borough is at present represented in Parliament by Sir JOHN CHETWODE, Bart, of Oakley, and Sir JOHN FENTON BOUGHEY, Bart, of Aqualate, both in this County. The latter gentleman is a native of the Borough, and was elected for the first time in 1812. The other Representative succeeded in 1815 to 
Earl GOWER, who had vacated his seat for Newcastle in order to be elected for the County of Stafford. 

The Church of Newcastle is dedicated to Saint Giles the Abbot. It was re-built in 1720 of brick, with a parapet wall, and is a large and commodious .structure, with three galleries, supported by well-proportioned pillars. The pews are of oak and uniform, and there is a good Organ. On each side of the middle aisle are pews for the Corporate Officers of the town, that for the Magistrates being distinguished by a gilt canopy. The Chancel is in the form of a semicircular alcove, and the walls and ceiling of it are elegantly and appropriately painted. Over the middle window is a carved Pelican feeding her young. The font (of white marble) was the gift of Samuel Bagnall Esquire, of Barlaston. A neat clock was lately added to the west gallery by the late Alderman Hill. The Church contains several handsome mural monuments, belonging to the families of Ford, Fenton, Kinnersly, Beard, Bourne, &c. The tower is very ancient, and built of red sandstone, and the entrance to it is on the western side by a Saxon arch of very elegant architecture. It contains eight bells and a clock with chimes. 

The Church was, until lately, only a chapel of ease to the parish of Stoke-upon-Trent, but in 1807, an Act of Parliament passed by which five new Rectories, of which Newcastle is one, were created out of that parish. The Rev. Clement Leigh is now the Rector, and the Patronage is at present vested in the Rev. Charles Simeon, of King's College, Cambridge. The Living is now small, but will be soon considerably augmented by a commutation of the Tithes of the Town-Fields. 

There are four Meeting-Houses for Dissenters from the Established Church, one of which, for Presbyterians, has been shut up many years. 

On an elevated situation near the north-west end of the town, stands a large brick building, containing Alms-houses for the reception of twenty poor widows.

A Free Grammar School, for teaching Latin and Greek to the sons of the burgesses, and of the poor inhabitants of the Borough, has been long established. The present School, erected in 1722, stands in a damp and inconvenient situation adjoining the churchyard, and it is intended to remove it to another part of the town. The Corporation are the trustees of the revenues of the school, but the right of presentation, to two turns out of three, belongs to the family of William Cotton, Esq. of Bellaport, in Shropshire, and of Etwall, in Derbyshire. The Corporation present upon every third vacancy, and have lately exercised that right on occasion of the resignation of the Rev. John Blunt, the late master. 

Another Free School, for teaching children of the poor inhabitants of Newcastle to read, write, and cast accounts, was founded in 1704, by Edward Orme, Clerk. This school, and a house for the master, which is attached to it, adjoin the west side of the church-yard. Sixty boys are educated here, and £5. a-year is appropriated for putting two of them out as apprentices. 

According to the returns to Parliament in 1811, this town contained 1354 inhabited houses, and a population of 6175 inhabitants, of whom 2940 were males and 3235 females. The families were classed as follows, viz. 1207 engaged in trade, 47 in agriculture, and 100 not falling in either of these descriptions. At the present period, 1817, the population would not be over-rated at 8000.