History Staffordshire Potteries

214 PIREHILL HUNDRED.

HIGH CoNSTABLES.-Mr. P. Goodall, or Silverdale, Newcastle, for the North Divi­ sivn; and Mr D. Bresnan, of Stafford, for the South DimsiUttoxeter; 7, in Lichjield; 8, in Congleton; 9, in Drayton Market; 10, in JYewport; and 11, in J..eek Union. These Unions are described with the parishes from which they have their n&mes, except Coneleton, Dra.yton, and Newport, which are mostly in Shropshire. The number of paupers in the Union Workhouses in this Hundred in July. 1841, was 623, viz. :-Stafford, 118; Stoke, 246; Wolstrtnton and Burslem, 135; and New~a.stle, 124. These eleven Unions give nc~me to County CXJ'art Districts, except Stoke and \Volstanton and Burslem, which form the Hanley District, except Clayton and Seabridge, which are in the Newcastle Distri~t . .~ BucknaU-cum-Bagnall keeps its poor as part of Stoke parish, though it is a dis· trlet rectory, like Longton. There are also nine pp.ryetual curacies in Stoke parish,­ three in Burslem, three in Eccleshall, six in Wolstanton, ancl four in Stone pari!!h. Of the 138,007 inhabitants in Pirehill Hundred in 18-!1, the males numbered 68,577, and the females 69,4:31), living in 26,184 houses, besides which, there were 1650 nnoccu• pied houses and 191 builrlingwhen the cen~us was taken. 32,135 of the males, and 32,663 of the females, were then 21) years of age or upwards; and 14,847 of the inhabitants were not born in this county, The Polling Places in thi~ Hundred, for the Northern Division of the County, are Staf· ford, Eccleshall, Stone, Abbot's Bromley, Hanley, Tuns tall, Burslem, Newca.stle-under­ Lyme, and Longton .

• HISTORY

OF THE STAFFORDSHIRE POTTERIES. This grand seat of the porcelain and earthenware manufactures has increased its population, during the last fifty years, from 27,659 to upwards of 80,000 souls, and comprises a chain of towns and vil­ lages, connected by a continuity of modern streets and buildings, and extending, in a serpentine figure, nearly ten miles in length, through the parishes of Stoke-upon-Trent, Burslem, and \Volstan­ ton ; in the vale, and on the picturesque declivities of the hilld from which the river Trent receives several tributary streams within a few miles of its source, on the north·western ..side of Staffordshire; having the moorlands on the east and north, the beautiful scat of Trenthamon the south, and the town and borough ofNewcastle-under­ Lyme on the west. By the Reform Act of 1832, the Potteries are enfranchised, and send two representatives to Parliament, under the name of the Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent. This pormlous district is traversed by the Trent and lJfersey Canal, and the North Stafford­ shire Railway; the latter of which has its head offices and station at Stoke, whence the Potteries extend about 5 miles north, and 4 miles S.E., Hanley and Shelton forming the largest and most central town. In passing through the Potteries, from south to north, the towns and suburbs of this busy scene of industry may be visited as follows: 1st, LANE END, LoNGTON, and the Foley; 2nd, FENToN; 3rd, STOKE, with Penkhull and Boothen ; 4th, HANLEY and SHELTON, with Etruria, Vale Pleasant, Oobridge, and Sneyd Green; 5th, BuRSLE:M, with Hot Lane, Hamill, aud Longport; and 6th, TuNSTALL, with Brown Hills, and Golden Hill. This now extensive and densely populated seat of the china and earthenware manufactures, consisted, about 150 years a.go, merely of several detached hamlets, with a few scattered potteries,

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