Stoke-upon-Trent in 1872

STOKE-UPON-TRENT, a town, a parish, and a district, in Stafford. The town stands on the river Trent, the Grand Junction canal, and the North Staffordshire railway, at or near junctions of four branch railways, 2 miles ESE of Newcastle-under-Lyne; grew around the pottery-works established by Wedgewood; was made a parliamentary borough by the reform act of 1832; consists, as a town, of the townships of Penkhull, Boothen, Clayton, and Seabridge; comprehends, as a borough, most of Penkhull township, all Boothen, Burslem, Fentons, Hanley, Longton and Lane-End, Shelton, and Tunstall townships, Rushton-Grange ville, and Sneyd hamlet.

It sends two members to parliament; may be regarded, in its borough capacity, as mainly identical with the Potteries region; and, as a town, has a head post-office, a railway station with telegraph, a banking office, six chief inns, a town hall and market house of 1834, a bronze statue of Wedgewood set up in 1863, a church rebuilt in 1826, six dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, an endowed school, the North Staffordshire infirmary built in 1866, a workhouse, and charities £110. The railway station is in the Tudor style, and was built at a cost of £150,000. The amount of property and income tax charged for the borough in 1863 was £29,375. Electors in 1833, 1,349; in 1863, 2,591. Pop. of the town proper, in 1851, 9,649; in 1861, 11,390. Houses, 2,240. Pop. of the borough, in 1851, 84,027; in 1861, 101,207. Houses, 19,855.

The parish contains the town-proper and the townships of Shelton, Hanley, Bucknall, Bucknall-Eaves, Bagnell, Fenton, Botteslow, and Longton and Lane-End; and is cut ecclesiastically into the sections of Stoke, Fenton, Hartshill, Penkhull, Trent-Vale, Hanley, Northwood, and Wellington. Acres, 10,490. Pop. in 1851, 57,942; in 1861, 71,308. Houses, 14,078. The head-living is a rectory in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £2,717. Patron, F.W. Tomlinson, Esq. The other livings are separately noticed. The district is conterminate with the parish; and is cut into the sub-districts of Stoke, Shelton, Hanley, Fenton, and Longton. Poor rates in 1863, £22,700. Marriages in 1863, 836; births, 3,178, of which 212 were illegitimate; deaths, 1,981, of which 1,638 were at ages under 5 years, and 22 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 7,404: births, 26,680; deaths, 16,940.

The places of worship, in 1851, were 16 of the Church of England, with 13,562 sittings; 1 of English Presbyterians, with 450 sittings; 6 of Independents, with 2,545 sittings; 3 of Baptists, with 485 sittings; 2 of Quakers, with 400 sittings; 8 of Wesleyans, with 4,197 sittings; 9 of New Connexion Methodists, with 5,516 sittings; 3 of Primitive Methodists, with 488 sittings; 1 of the Wesleyan Association, with 75 sittings; 1 of the New Church, with 35 sittings; 1 of Brethren, with 125 sittings; 1 undefined, with 50 sittings; and 2 of Roman Catholics, with 645 sittings. The schools were 29 public day-schools, with 3,539 scholars; 98 private day-schools, with 2,517 scholars; 43 Sunday schools, with 8,777 scholars; and 10 evening schools for adults, with 220 scholars.

An 1872 Gazetteer description of the following places in Stoke-upon-Trent is to be found on a supplementary page.

• Clayton
• Fenton
• Hartshill
• Trent Vale
• Wellington

[Description(s) from The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72) - Transcribed by Mike Harbach ©2020]