Etruria Canal: Points of Interest

Above: Church Right:Mellor School Street Location

Etruria Canal Walk 1 Last Sunday in the month, 3pm from Costa Coffee, Festival Park, ST1 5SN

This route is suitable for wheelchairs/pushchairs. Toilets and refreshments are available at Costa Coffee, Festival Park, parking in nearby streets.

Hazards: Be aware of uneven ground, litter, tree roots mooring rings, the water’s edge, road/car park crossing, and other pathway users (e.g. cyclists, fishermen)

If you would like to extend this walk, why not try our “two canal walks,” available to download at www.closertohomewalks.org.uk

Images from www.potteries.org.uk. Points of information from original research by Local Historian Reg Edwards. www.closertohomewalks.org.uk 01782 683030 Etruria Canal: Points of Interest Directions

1. The Marina – This was part of the Steelworks football and cricket ground. Starting at Costa Coffee at Festival park, go left and head towards the China Before that in the 1940s photographs show it as waste land with pools of water. Garden (Toby Carvery) keeping to the pavement past the bowling alley. Once at the The bridge over the canal here is the on the route of the Loop Line railway. China Garden car park continue ahead and take the footpath onto the canal towpath 2. Wedgwoods Etruria Works and village – The only survivor of the original next to the iron bridge. Turn left, and continue along the towpath walking past the works is the Roundhouse, the purpose of which is unknown, but one of its uses China Garden on your left. may have been to house the factory fire engine. There was a similar building at the other end of the factory Continue ahead, walking over a wooden drawbridge at the marina mouth and past 3. Canal Bridge – The Factory was originally at the same level as the Canal, the Black Prince boat company, then take the ramp off the canal towpath taking you subsidence has caused the difference in the present level. up and onto the bridge, then turn right and walk and alongside the main Etruria Road. 4. Summit Lock – the junction of the Trent and Mersey and Caldon Canals – Shortly, turn right, to go down another ramp and back onto the towpath on the other the highest point on the system. Water flows into the Trent and Mersey via the side, next to The Sentinel and Roundhouse. Turn right and walk under the bridge. Caldon Canal. Continue along the towpath until you reach a set of locks and signs for the Etruria 5. Etruria Industrial Museum and the original Shirley’s Bone and Flint Mill Industrial Museum, cross over the bridge and continue straight, past the Museum on built in 1857 by a company dating from 1820. The company stopped using the your right, and on to a grassy area where the path forks. Take the right fork (away original Mill and its machinery in 1972, which was designated a scheduled Ancient from the canalside) which shortly bears gradually uphill to emerge on Bedford Street, Monument in 1975 and began to be restored in 1978. where you turn left, to go over the bridge taking you over the canal once more. 6. North Staffordshire Infirmary (House of Recovery) established 1802 which Continue ahead until you reach a junction with Etruria Vale Road, turn left here, was moved to Wood Hills overlooking Etruria Park in 1819. The building then and continue downhill on the pavement on the left hand sid, past the Bird In Hand became the headquarters of the British Coke and Gas Light Company when they Pub, then uphill past Pretoria, Kimberley, Ladysmith and Dundee Road on your left, opened their works in 1822. The original gasholder bases are visible on maps. up to the traffic lift at Clough Street. Cross over and continue straight into the 7. A tramway was built in 1802 from Etruria Wharf (Vale Pleasant) to Hanley entrance for Etruria Park. There are several paths through here, but continue straight, to transport goods to and from the Canal. It crossed Etruria Vale Road and ran past the children’s playground on your left, and diagonally downhill past a stone parallel to Etruria Road and then along the line of the later Loop Line to Miles fountain and toward the bottom corner of the park where you exit next a memorial to Bank in the centre of Hanley. Thomas Wedgwood. Turn left here along Etruria Road and on over the bridge, past 8. Etruria Park was opened in 1904, with a park fountain donated by the the bus stop, then take a ramp/steps to your left to descend down onto the canal Opposite this is the second site of the infirmary at Wood Hills. Shirley brothers. towpath. 9. Thomas Wedgwood, pioneer of Photography. Born in May 1771 in Turn left here to go under the road bridge, then onwards past the Roundhouse once Etruria, Staffordshire. Wedgwood is credited with a major contribution to more on your. After half a mile, exit the canal towpath by crossing over a black metal technology for being the first man to think of a method to copy visible iron bridge taking you over the canal and back towards the China Garden car park. images chemically to permanent mediums...the birth of photography as we Continue straight over and head back towards the Odeon cinema and Costa Coffee via know it today. This tribute to him was placed in Etruria Park in 1953. the pavement to the right hand side.