SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



opened up the beautiful valley of the Manifold by means of its light railway 

 from Waterhouses to Hulme End. 236 



It is probable also that work may be renewed in the now disused copper 

 and lead mines of Ecton, which have been worked since the seventeenth 

 century, and were at one time exceedingly productive. 



In that case the little hamlet of Ecton, which now contains about 

 seventy persons, will become a much more important and populous place than 

 it is at present. 



The extensive copper mines at Oakamoor in the Churnet Valley account 

 for the considerable population at Alton, which has risen from 818 in 1801 

 to 1,227 m I 9 OI > a d consists chiefly of the families of men concerned in 

 some way in the mining industry there. Biddulph, again, in the moorland 

 region of Pirehill Hundred, shows an increase of population from 1,180 to 

 6,247 in the century, a fact accounted for by the presence of coal in its 

 neighbourhood. 



In examining the census returns certain sudden rises in population are 

 noticeable which demand some explanation. For instance the sudden rise of 

 population in the country villages of High Offley, Church Eaton, Lapley, 

 and Gnosall in 1831 is due to the presence of a number of workmen who 

 were excavating the Birmingham and Liverpool Canal and settled here for 

 a time. 



At Leigh in 1851 the population was increased in a similar way, railway 

 workers being in this case substituted for canal labourers. The increase at 

 Whittington in 1881 is due to the establishment of a new military depot, 

 whilst the rise noticed in 1861 in Hopton and Coton township is traceable 

 to the enlargement of the county lunatic asylum and the building of a new one 

 at Coton Hill. The sudden rise of population at Cheddleton in 1901 is due to 

 the recent establishment of the county asylum in that parish. When the next 

 census is taken the returns will probably show a large permanent increase of 

 population in the parish of Cheddleton and the surrounding villages, as during 

 the last few years a rich coalfield has been discovered within half a mile of 

 this village, and the new colliery will probably be working shortly. The 

 site of the main shaft is well placed for purposes of transport, being near 

 a valley which runs direct to Wall Grange station and the canal. As 

 valuable deposits of clay and ironstone have been found near the coal it is 

 probable that at least three new industries may be established in the district, 

 and the inevitable result of that will be the growth of an industrial com- 

 munity round about the colliery. 



As there has been considerable poverty and lack of employment in the 

 district recently, this new development is to be welcomed from an economic 

 point of view, though from a different standpoint it is melancholy to see 

 another beautiful bit of country given up to the sway of the blast furnace, 

 the brick kiln, and the coke oven. 



The traveller in Staffordshire, passing through this district, will find 

 himself once again inverting a well-known motto of the Potteries : ' Out of 

 dirt we make beauty ' ; and will reflect with a certain sadness how much 

 beauty has in this county given place to dirt. 



136 This railway was opened in the summer of 1904, and worked for that year only by motor 'buses from 

 Leek till the completion of the heavy railway from Leek to Waterhouses in 1905. 



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