SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



The result was an enormous development in the output of coal in 

 Staffordshire and the other coalfields of England, followed by an immediate 

 revival in the coal and iron trades, which had greatly declined between 1737 

 and I74O. 97 



At the same time there was a series of important inventions affecting 

 the manufacture of iron, and as a result all the various branches of the hard- 

 ware trade received an immense impulse, and population grew rapidly in all 

 the towns and manufacturing villages of the district. 



In North Staffordshire a similar effect was seen in the mining and 

 pottery industries. In the latter, great progress had been made under the 

 influence and guidance of Wedgwood, especially since the introduction of 

 china clay from Devon, Dorset, and Cornwall had led to the establishment 

 of the porcelain manufacture in this county, and consequently to a vast 

 extension of the pottery trade there. 



Arthur Young, whose account of his northern tour through England 

 was published in 1771, speaks of the rapid increase of the industry and its 

 considerable export trade to Ireland, most of the European countries, America, 

 and the East Indies, despite the great obstacles arising from the extraordinary 

 difficulty of transporting the goods to the coast by means of wagons and 

 pack-horses along the narrow clayey roads which led out of the county. 98 



The success of Brindley's effort in 1758 in making a canal for the Duke 

 of Bridgewater's colliery at Worsley caused the progressive spirits among the 

 North Staffordshire manufacturers, led by Wedgwood, to agitate for a similar 

 enterprise in that district. 99 There was great opposition from the people of 

 Newcastle, as they feared the traffic might be diverted from their town, to the 

 detriment of their trade. But despite opposition the Grand Trunk or Trent 

 and Mersey Canal was opened in 1777, and very greatly increased the trade 

 of the Potteries, passing as it does through its chief towns, and connecting 

 these with the centres of the salt industry of Cheshire and with the ports on 

 the coast, notably Liverpool. Other canals followed in quick succession, 

 chief among them being the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal, projected to 

 unite the Severn with the Trent, and connected with the system now known 

 as the Birmingham Navigation, which in its turn connects Birmingham with 

 Wolverhampton, Bilston, and other centres of the iron and coal industry in 

 South Staffordshire, so that this district presents a perfect network of canals 

 with innumerable foundries, coal-pits, and other works clustered along their 

 banks for convenience of transport. 



Among other short branch canals may be mentioned one of eighteen 

 miles which runs from Uttoxeter up the Churnet Valley till it joins the one 

 at Caldon, and finally meets the Grand Trunk at Stoke on Trent. 



About the same time that canals were being constructed all over Stafford- 

 shire, the turnpike roads were undergoing great improvement, firstly by 

 means of Acts of Parliament which enabled tolls to be levied for their upkeep, 

 and afterwards owing to the improved methods introduced by Metcalfe, 

 Telford, and Macadam. 



There was an early system of primitive railways in this county, in con- 

 nexion with the mines, e.g. there was a system of wayleaves at Newcastle 



w De Gibbins, Industry in Engl. (1906), 352-3. 



98 Arthur Young, Tour through the North of England, iii, 253. " L. Jewitt, The Wedgwoods, 163. 



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