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Stoke upon Trent, Staffordshire

Historical Description

Stoke-upon-Trent, a market-town, a municipal and parliamentary borough, head of a poor-law union and county court district, and a parish in Staffordshire. The town stands on the Trent and the Trent and Mersey and Cauldon canals, 2 miles E of Newcastle-under-Lyme, 3 S of Hanley, 4 S of Burslem, and 145½ by railway from London. It has a head post office and an important station on the North Staffordshire railway, the chief offices of the railway company being situated here. Stoke-upon-Trent is the centre of the pottery district. It is a straggling town, but contains some good streets, and is well supplied with water. The town-hall is a large and handsome building, and was enlarged in 1888; it comprises municipal offices, a spacious assembly room, court rooms for petty sessions and county courts, and a police station. The market-hall was erected in 1883, and comprises a red-brick building and a quadrangle roofed in with glass. The Free Library and Muaeum was opened in 1878; the museum contains ancient and modern pottery and a picture gallery, in addition to a geological and entomological collection. The School of Science and Art is a handsome building, erected in 1856 by subscription in memorial of the late Herbert Minton. Commodious public baths are adjacent. The church of St Peter ad Vincula was built in 1830, is in the Early English style, and has a pinnacled tower 112 feet high. It contains a mural monument to Josiah Wedgwood the celebrated potter, with a bust by Flaxman. There are Roman Catholic, Baptist, Congregational, New Connexion, and Primitive Methodist and Wes-leyan chapels. The cemetery is at Hartshill, covers an area of 26 acres, and has two mortuary chapels; it was formed in 1883. The railway station and offices form a long range of buildings of red brick in the Elizabethan style. The North Staffordshire Hotel is opposite the railway station, and in the square is a fine bronze statue of Wedgwood, erected by public subscription in 1863. The workhouse was erected in 1883, and has been much enlarged. Stoke-upon-Trent contains some of the largest and most important porcelain and earthenware manufactories in the Pottery district-among the best known being those of the Mintons and the Copelands. Markets are held on Saturdays. The municipal borough comprises the townships of Penkhull and Boothen. Acreage, 1720; population, 24,027. It is divided into three wards, and is governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen, and 16 councillors, who act as the urban sanitary authority. The parliamentary borough, as constituted by the Reform Act of 1832, returned two members to the House of Commons; but by the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, its limits were restricted and it lost one member, the parliamentary borough of Hanley being constituted out of the old borough of Stoke-upon-Trent. Acreage, 5555; population, 75,352. The parish extends 7½ miles in length, and comprises fifteen townships. Acreage, 12,785; population, 121,459. A large portion of the parish forms the county borough of Hanley, with a population of 54,946. The ecclesiastical parish of St Peter ad Vincula has a population of 21,658. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Lichfield; net value, £1500 with residence. The civil parish contains also the ecclesiastical parishes of Bucknall, Edensor, Etruria, Fenton, Hanley, Hartshill, Hope, Longton, Northwood, Penkhull, Shelton, Trent Vale, and Wellington.

Transcribed from The Comprehensive Gazetteer of England & Wales, 1894-5

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Ancient CountyStaffordshire 
Ecclesiastical parishStoke-upon-Trent St. Peter ad Vincula 
HundredPirehill 
Poor Law unionStoke-upon-Trent 

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.


Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.


Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Stoke upon Trent from the following:


Land and Property

A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Staffordshire is online.


Maps

Online maps of Stoke upon Trent are available from a number of sites:


Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Staffordshire newspapers online:


Villages, Hamlets, &c

Boothen
Bucknall
Clayton
Fenton
Hartshill (Stoke upon Trent)
Penkhull
Seabridge
Trent Vale