Burslem in 1836
BURSLEM, a parish and market-town in the northern division of the hundred of Pyrehill, Staffordshire, 2 miles from Newcastle-under-Lyme, and about 137 miles direct distance N.W. from London. Burslem is a chief town in the important district called ‘The Potteries,’ the principal seat of the earthenware manufacture of England. The parish, which is in the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, has an area of 2,930 acres, with a population in 1831 of 12,714, of which 11,250 belonged to the town. The gross annual income of the living, which is a rectory, is stated at £530. The township of Halton Abbey and the hamlet of Sneyd are included in the parish.
Burslem has a market twice a-week, on Mondays and Saturdays. The market-house is a neat edifice of modern erection, surmounted by a clock. The district of ‘The Potteries’ is steadily advancing in improvement, and contained in 1831, a population of 53,000 ; but from the nature of the employment, the cheapness of building materials, and other circumstances, the number of houses of the annual value of £10 and upwards was only from 1,400 to 1,500. ‘The Potteries’ were enfranchised under the Reform Act, and constitute the borough of Stoke-upon-Trent. There were, in 1835, thirty-seven daily schools and eleven Sunday-schools in the parish of Burslem. |