x Roads and Canals through Staffordshire 93 



the potters employed only the clays in their own 

 neighbourhood, and their trade was of but small extent, 

 their situation was tolerable ; but when the trade 

 increased, and they began to draw their heavy raw 

 materials clays, flint stones, and porcelain earth from 

 remote parts of the kingdom, and to send back their 

 bulky manufactured goods in great quantities, the 

 expenses of the conveyance and reconveyance, together 

 with the carriage of coal, became a heavy import tax, 

 and tended to retard the consumption of stoneware in 

 most parts of the kingdom. 



To redress this great inconvenience, Wedgwood en- 

 deavoured to get some of the worst parts of the roads 

 improved, and placed in connection with the adjoining 

 turnpike roads. A public meeting was held for the 

 purpose, but the proposal was strongly resisted. When 

 it was proposed to improve the chief road from Liver- 

 pool to the potteries, the inhabitants of Newcastle- 

 under-Lyme bitterly opposed it. The innkeepers 

 believed that the new road would take the drinking 

 and other traffic away from their town. 



When Wedgwood first proposed, at a public meeting 

 at Burslem, to make four miles of road from that village 

 towards Liverpool, he could not carry his resolution. 

 Yet the road or lane, in its then state, was so bad that 

 the common carriers used to make the distance double 

 by making a wide circuit so as to get round the muddy 

 holes and ruts, and avoid miscarriages and upsets during 

 their journey. The old and stupid objection was brought 



