Longton, with Lane-End

LONGTON, with Lane-End, a market-town and district parish, in the parish and union of Stoke-upon-Trent, N. division of the hundred of Pirehill and of the county of Stafford, 4 miles (E. S. E.) from Newcastle-under-Lyme, 14 (N.) from Stafford, and 150 (N. W. by N.) from London; containing 12,407 inhabitants, of whom 1690 are in Lane-End. This place, which is situated at the southern extremity of the district called "The Potteries," and on the road between Newcastle and Uttoxeter, has risen to opulence and importance, in consequence of the flourishing state of the earthenware and china manufacture established here within the last half century. It consists of spacious and wellbuilt streets, and is supplied with water from several springs on an eminence about a mile to the southeast, where a large reservoir has been formed by the Duke of Sutherland. A subscription library was established in 1807, and a newsroom was opened in 1833. Coal and ironstone are found in abundance, with manganese, and coloured marl and clay; and there are extensive collieries throughout the whole of Longton, and in the vicinity. About 900 persons are engaged in the potteries, and 300 in the collieries. The Trent and Mersey canal, to which the district parish extends, passes about two miles westward of the town, with which it is connected by a horse-railway. The market is held on Saturday, for provisions, the supply of which is very good; and there are fairs for woollen-cloth, hardware, and pedlery, on February 14th, May 29th, July 22nd, and November 1st. The town had formerly two market-places; one at the upper part, called the Union market-place, but never generally used; and the other at the lower part of the town, which has been enlarged, and over the covered portion of which, a handsome public room has been erected. The area of the district parish is 1900 acres.

By an act of parliament relating to the rectory of Stoke, passed in 1827, provision was made for endowing a new church at Longton, with not less than £10,000, nor more than £15,000, at the option of the patron of Stoke rectory, from the proceeds of tithes to be sold and invested in lands. Dr. Woodhouse, the late rector, likewise gave £1000 (with its accumulations until appropriated) towards providing a parsonage-house, besides allotting to national schools at Lane-End and Longton a portion of the yearly income arising from his munificent donation of £3000 to national schools in the parish of Stoke. The church was erected in 1834, by the Parliamentary Commissioners, at an expense of £9633; it is in the later English style, with a tower, is dedicated to St. James, and will accommodate more than 1900 persons. The living has been endowed, and made a district rectory, conformably with the act of parliament; patron, the Executor of the late John Carey, Esq. The chapel at Lane-End, a neat brick edifice with a tower, built about 1760 by Mr. John Bourne, has been enlarged, and now contains 1200 sittings, including 450 free sittings, for which the Incorporated Society granted £800: the living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £154; patrons, certain Trustees appointed under an act obtained in 1792. A church district named Edensor was formed in 1846, by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners: the living is in the gift of the Crown and the Bishop of Lichfield, alternately. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, Calvinistic Methodists, Methodists of the New Connexion, Wesleyans, and other dissenters; also a Roman Catholic chapel. A charity school was founded in 1760, and endowed by Mr. Bourne with property producing £66 per annum, which sum is applied towards the support of a national school. Attached to the chapel of Lane-End is another national school, supported almost entirely by subscription; and there are schools attached to some of the dissenters' places of worship.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.