 Staffordshire is bounded by Shropshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire. The county has 2 cities, 21 towns, 181 parishes and 670 villages. Stafford is the county town. In the north and south of the county it is very hilly with heaths and moors and areas of great natural beauty. The middle and southern parts are level and plain. The major city is Stoke-on-Trent although Lichfield is also a city but much smaller. Staffordshire is divided into districts with major towns including Burton upon Trent and Stafford itself. The principal rivers are the Trent, Dove, Sow, Churnet, Stour, Penk, and Manifold. Staffordshire is famous for its potteries, its inland navigations, and its foundries, blast furnaces, slitting mills, and various other branches of the iron trade. There are mines of copper and lead and also numerous quarries of stone, alabaster, and limestone. Throughout the county there are vast coal fields and in south there are deposits of rich iron ore. Clay makes up most of the soil and farming was not common until mechanisation. Pottery has been produced in the area since the 14th century when farm workers made handicrafts from local clay. In the 16th and 17th centuries the production of pottery became an industry and farmers improved their income by this work. By the 18th century ceramic production became a major occupation for local people. A variety of stone and earthen wares were being produced with clay from Devon and Cornwall. Geography Staffordshire is a county in the West Midlands and is landlocked. It adjoins Shropshire, Warwickshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire. Located in the heartland of Britain and easily accessible from all regions, Staffordshire combines natural beauty with a tradition of industry. The six towns of Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Longton, Tunstall and Fenton are all known as the Potteries. There are numerous castles and stately homes to visit and Lichfield Cathedral and Alton Towers Theme Park are very popular with visitors to Staffordshire. Industry Pottery had been made in north Staffordshire since Roman times. Coal and ironstone were being dug in the Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire area as early as 1282, and by 1467 the Great Row coal seam was being mined and used for firing pottery. The actual area where the coal is exposed at the surface is 70 square miles, which is small compared to other coalfields, but the thickness of the seams is much greater than that of any other English coalfield except Lancashire. Shortly after the Norman Conquest in 1066 William I came to Staffordshire to put down a revolt and when he was there chose to designate large areas including Cannock Chase for royal hunting. In the 19th century the pottery industry grew as did the population and almost trebled from 23,000 at the turn of the century to 63,000 by 1840. Development of this industry resulted in expansion and the Potteries was defined by town boundaries leading to the famous Stoke-on-Trent skyline of bottle ovens and chimneys being visible by the 20th Century. |
