Hide

Stoke-upon-Trent History

hide
Hide

The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland - 1868

STOKE-UPON-TRENT
Description and History from 1868 Gazetteer

"STOKE-UPON-TRENT, a populous parish, market town, and parliamentary borough, in the N. division of Pirehill hundred, county Stafford, 2 miles E. of Newcastle-under-Lyne, and 16 N.W. of Stafford. It is intersected by the Uttoxeter, Stoke, and Crewe section of the North Staffordshire railway, and has also short branch lines to Silverdale, Hanley, and Congleton. It is situated in the midst of "The Potteries," on the banks of the river Trent, and is traversed by the Trent and Mersey and Caldon canals, which here unite.

It is a place of recent growth, having sprung up with the potteries established by Wedgwood, and was created a borough by the Reform Bill. The parish extends 7½ miles in length from N.W. to S.E., by over 3 in breadth at the widest part, and includes, beside the borough of Stoke, the newly-created municipal borough of Hanley, containing 31,953 inhabitants, and the townships or liberties of Boothen, Botteslow, Bucknall, Edensor, Fenton Culvert, or Great Fenton, Fenton Vivian, or Little Fenton, Hartshill, Northwood, Lane End, Longton, Penkhull, Shelton, Trent Vale, and Wellington. Previous to 1807, it also included the market towns of Newcastle-under-Lyne, Burslem, Norton-on-the-Moors, and Whitmore.

The town, which is built on a regular plan, contains some good houses, and numerous wharves and warehouses. The streets have their footpaths paved with brick, and are lighted with gas; and the houses are well supplied with water. The townhall and market-house was erected in 1834, the N. wing serving as the townhall and station of the county constabulary, and the centre being occupied by the meat market, below, and by the Stoke Athenæum, above, with a museum, library, and laboratory. Another conspicuous building is the railway station and hotel, built in the Tudor style, at a cost of £150,000. It is laid with Minton's tesselated pavement, and is the head office of the North Staffordshire Railway Company. There are also the union poorhouse, a branch bank, gas and water works, and extensive factories for porcelain and pottery, including the firms of Minton and Alderman Copeland, once Spode.

A large portion of the population are engaged in the several processes connected with the manufacture of china, earthenware, porcelain, statuary, and ornamental and encaustic tiles, for which this parish is famous; there are also a considerable number of engravers, makers of crates from the hazel-wood cut in the neighbourhood, workers in iron and steel, engineers, and coal and iron miners. The population of the parish in 1861 was 71,308; but of the parliamentary borough, which includes, besides the greater part of the parish, parts of Penkhull, Tunstall, Rushton Grange, Sneyd, and other adjoining hamlets, 101,207, having increased in the decennial period from 1851, by 17,180 inhabitants.

The borough returns two members to parliament, the returning officer being chosen by the sheriff of the county. The town of Stoke, not being incorporated, is governed by commissioners, who elect annually a chief bailiff. It gives name to a deanery in the archdeaconry of Stafford. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Lichfield, value £2,907. The church, dedicated to St. Peter ad Vincula, is a modern Gothic structure, with a tower 112 feet high, containing a peal of eight bells. It has tombs of Wedgwood, who died in 1795, at Etruria, and of Spode, of "The Mount," also a celebrated potter.

In addition to the parish church, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have within the last few years established the following district churches, viz:, Fenton, Hartshill, Edensor, Penkhull, Trent Vale, Etruria, Northwood, Wellington, (or St Luke's, Hanley), and Hope, the livings of which are all perpetual curacies, varying in value from £220 to £100. Several of these churches have been noticed more fully under the head of the townships where they are situated. There are chapels for the Baptists, Independents, Wesleyans, New Connexion Methodists, and other Dissenting communions in various parts of the parish; also many National and other schools, including Lane End school, which has an endowment of £70 per annum, and Allen's school, with an endowment of £12. The parochial charities produce about £110 per annum.

In the vicinity of the town are Trentham Hall, a seat of the Duke of Sutherland; Etruria, the seat of the Wedgwood family; Stoke House, of the Fentons, of which family was the poet Fenton, born here in 1683. Dr. Lightfoot, the Hebrew scholar, was also born here in 1602. Stoke Heath is a meet for the North Staffordshire hounds. The Stoke Poor-law Union consists mainly of the parish of Stoke, which also forms a superintendent registry district. It is divided between the Hanley and Newcastle county courts. Market day is on Saturday"

 

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]