| Etruria | |
|---|---|
  Etruria Location within Staffordshire | |
| OS grid reference | SJ867468 |
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | STOKE-ON-TRENT |
| Postcode district | ST1 |
| Dialling code | 01782 |
| Police | Staffordshire |
| Fire | Staffordshire |
| Ambulance | West Midlands |
| UK Parliament | |
Etruria is a suburb of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England.
Etruria was the fourth and penultimate site for the Wedgwood pottery business. Josiah Wedgwood, who was previously based in Burslem, opened his new works in 1769. It was named after the Italian district of Etruria, home of the Etruscan people who were renowned for their artistic products. The site covered 350 acres (140 ha) and was next to the Trent and Mersey Canal. As well as Wedgwood's home, Etruria Hall, it included the Etruria Works which remained in use by the Wedgwood enterprise until 1950. The Wedgwood factory is now in Barlaston, a village about six miles to the south of the Etruria site.
Etruria Hall was the site of the substantial invention of photography by Thomas Wedgwood in the 1790s.
Much of Etruria became derelict with the move of Wedgwood after the Second World War and the subsequent closure of the nearby Shelton Bar steelworks. Large-scale regeneration began in the 1980s with the Stoke-on-Trent Garden Festival. Since the Festival closed at the end of 1986, the site has been given over to the Festival Park commercial and retail development. Etruria was also formerly home to The Sentinel, the local evening newspaper for the Stoke-on-Trent area. The press hall there was responsible for printing several newspaper titles, including The Sentinel, and many northern editions of The Daily Mail . The Sentinel had previously been based in Hanley, and upon the site's closure it moved back. The site was bought by Bet365 and demolished to make way for new offices.
Etruria was served by a railway station which was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway on 9 October 1848, but it was closed on 30 September 2005. [1] In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Etruria Railway Station was used as a base for Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show. His reason was, that as it was in the Midlands, it was central to the whole country (and possibly a cheaper rent or lease for the sidings) and it was thus easier to get around the whole country than travelling completely from the south to the north and vice versa. Many of the performers in his show were often seen around the locality of May Bank and Wolstanton in their Native Indian attire, as it was the only clothes that they owned. There is local folklore which states that an elephant used in the show, died and is buried in the vicinity of the railway station.
Etruria is home to the Etruria Industrial Museum, a scheduled ancient monument, which includes a working steam engine called Princess. The museum buildings were originally a bone and flint mill built in 1857 to grind materials for the pottery industry. Inside visitors can see displays on the history of the site and original machinery. On the first weekend of each month the museum's 1903 coal-fired boiler provides steam to operate Princess which then turns the grinding machinery.
Etruria Canals Festival takes place annually at Etruria Industrial Museum on the first weekend in June.
Etruria remains connected by public transport. First Potteries operates bus routes 4 and 4A along Forge Lane and Festival Way between Hanley and Newcastle-under-Lyme; the 4 continues to Crackley while the 4A continues to Talke Pits. [2]
Staffordshire is a landlocked ceremonial county in the West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the south-east, the West Midlands county and Worcestershire to the south, and Shropshire to the west. The largest settlement is the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and the county town is Stafford.
The Trent and Mersey Canal is a 93+1⁄2-mile (150 km) canal in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire in north-central England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities to the east of Burton upon Trent and north of Middlewich, it is a wide canal.
Stoke-upon-Trent, also called Stoke, is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Burslem, Fenton, Longton and Tunstall form the city of Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire, England.
Stoke-on-Trent is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of 36 square miles (93 km2). In 2021, the city had an estimated population of 258,400. It is the largest settlement in Staffordshire and is surrounded by the towns of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Alsager, Kidsgrove and Biddulph, which form a conurbation around the city.
The Etruria Works was a ceramics factory opened by Josiah Wedgwood in 1769 in a district of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which he named Etruria. The factory ran for 180 years, as part of the wider Wedgwood business.
Hanley is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England.
The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall, which is now the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. North Staffordshire became a centre of ceramic production in the early 17th century, due to the local availability of clay, salt, lead and coal.
Burslem is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is often referred to as the "mother town" of Stoke on Trent.
Tunstall is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Hanley and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It was one of the original six towns that federated to form the city. Tunstall is the most northern, and fourth largest town of the Potteries. It is situated in the very northwest of the city borough, with its north and west boundaries being the city limit. It stands on a ridge of land between Fowlea Brook to the west and Scotia Brook to the east, surrounded by old tile-making and brick-making sites, some of which date back to the Middle Ages.
The Stoke-on-Trent National Garden Festival was the second of Britain's national garden festivals. It was held in the city from 1 May to 26 October 1986, and was opened by the Queen. Preparation of the site involved the reclamation of land formerly occupied by the Shelton Bar steelworks (1830–1978), about two miles north-west of Stoke-on-Trent city centre, between Hanley and Burslem. British Steel's adjacent Shelton Bar steel rolling mill remained in use, finally closing in 2000.
Stoke-on-Trent railway station is a mainline railway station serving the city of Stoke-on-Trent, on the Stafford to Manchester branch of the West Coast Main Line. It also provides an interchange between local services running through Cheshire, Staffordshire and Derbyshire.
Longton is one of the six towns which amalgamated to form the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910, along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Burslem and Stoke-upon-Trent. It is in the ceremonial county of Staffordshire, England.
Barlaston is a village and civil parish in the borough of Stafford in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is roughly halfway between the city of Stoke-on-Trent and the small town of Stone. According to the 2001 census the population of the parish was 2,659, rising at the 2011 Census to 2,858.
Etruria station is a closed station in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which served the areas of Etruria and the larger district of Newcastle-under-Lyme. It closed on 30 September 2005.
Etruria Hall in Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England is a Grade II listed house and former home of the potter Josiah Wedgwood. It was built between 1768–1771 by Joseph Pickford. The hall was sold by the Wedgwoods in the 19th century and is now part of a hotel.
Shelton is an area of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England, between Hanley and Stoke-upon-Trent.
Basford is a suburb which sits on high ground between Newcastle-under-Lyme and Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England.
Cliff Vale is a district of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and lies to the immediate south of Etruria and just east of Basford and Hartshill. Cliffe Vale is in the valley of the Fowlea Brook, now better known as Etruria Valley. There are industrial and employment uses along the A500, and new residential developments along the Trent and Mersey Canal. The Shelton New Road (B5045) passes through from east to west. The area is sometimes called Cliff Vale by the city council, and is part of the Hartshill electoral ward.
The Etruria Industrial Museum is located in Etruria, Staffordshire, in England. The museum is a typical and well-preserved example of a nineteenth century British steam-powered potter's mill. It is situated between the Trent and Mersey Canal and the Etruria staircase locks of the Caldon Canal. The museum has a modern entrance building, leading into a Grade II* listed building which was formerly the Etruscan bone and flint mill. The mill is also a scheduled monument.
Colin Melbourne was an English sculptor, ceramicist, painter and academic. He is known particularly for several statues that stand in various locations in Stoke-on-Trent.
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