Description
Book SynopsisComprehensive and authoritative history of north-west Staffordshire, including Keele, Trentham and Audley. Covering the hilly north-west part of the county from the Cheshire border to the valley of the river Trent south of Newcastle-under-Lyme, this volume treats parishes that lie mostly on the North Staffordshire coalfield and where both coal and ironstone mining and iron-making became important, especially in the nineteenth century. A rich archive has been used to illustrate the origins of this industrial activity in the Middle Ages, when the area was characterised by scattered settlements, with an important manorial complex and a grand fourteenth-century church at Audley, a hunting lodge for the Stafford lords at Madeley, a small borough at Betley, and at Keele and Trentham religioushouses which became landed estates with mansion houses after the Dissolution. In the nineteenth century Trentham gained fame for its spectacular gardens created by the immensely rich dukes of Sutherland, and Keele rose to prominence in 1950 as the site of Britain's first campus university. After coalmining ceased in the twentieth century several villages and mining hamlets acquired large housing estates, which in Trentham parish were absorbed into Stoke-on-Trent. Nigel Tringham is a Senior Lecturer in History at Keele University, with special responsibility for researching and writing the volumes of the Staffordshire Victoria County History.
Trade ReviewThis volume maintains the VCH's excellent standards of accuracy, precision and coverage. * ARCHIVES *
A first class first piece of work * JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENT RESEARCH GROUP, 2013 *
Dr Tringham, in laying out the foundations, has set a standard of scholarship, displayed a comprehensive grasp of the width and depth of information available to local family historians, and provided such a wealth of material on which other historians can now build that it is impossible to fully express admiration and gratitude. * LOCAL HISTORIAN, January 2014 *
This volume will have something for everyone [.] The editor has maintained his very high standards throughout this volume and is to be congratulated. * WEST MIDLANDS ARCHAEOLOGY, January 2014 *
Table of ContentsIntroduction Audley Betley Keele Madeley Trentham
