Around Britain
Jonathan Scott returns to historic Staffordshire, the Black Country and the Potteries
Find Staffordshire resources with our expert’s guide
Staffordshire’s archival collections include unique items stretching back more than 1,000 years. Indeed one of the most precious documents preserved at the county headquarters in Stafford is a royal confirmation signed by Æthelred II, better known as Æthelred the Unready. It grants extensive estates to a Mercian nobleman named Wulfric Spot in order to help found Burton Abbey (c1004). The witnesses listed include the king’s sons, both archbishops, 10 bishops and 12 abbots, as well as the numerous ealdormen and thegns who were gathered at the royal court, perhaps for Easter or Christmas.
Jump forward five centuries and one of the first registers to survive comes from Alrewas, a village and civil parish in the Lichfield district of Staffordshire. Entitled Annales Aldervasenses and covering 1547–1747, the volume contains references to local and national events, including the baptisms, marriages and burials of villagers.
Staffordshire was transformed during the Industrial Revolution. The region known as the Potteries was made up of six North Staffordshire towns – Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall – which now form districts in the modern city of Stoke-on-Trent. The ceramic industry grew rapidly here during the 18th century. At one time about 4,000 bottle kilns dominated the landscape, fuelled by locally mined coal, and producing fine ceramic goods that were transported along the
Trent and Mersey Canal, which opened in 1777.
There were three major coalfields in the county – North Staffordshire, Cannock Chase and South Staffordshire – and the most heavily industrialised region became known as the Black Country. Alongside coal mines, coke works, iron foundries, glass factories, brickworks and steel mills, Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton were home to metal-working trades, transport and heavyengineering firms. Walsall, for example, became synonymous with saddlery, while Burton upon Trent was a major centre for the brewing industry, as Sandwell was for glass. Stafford itself was home to boot- and shoe-making, as well as the production of railway engines and rolling stock.
Unfortunately, whether your roots lie in the Black Country, the Potteries, historic Staffordshire or the wider West Midlands, this can be a complicated region to research. Some southern areas of historic Staffordshire, for example, are now within the cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton. So while the main county collections might be your first stop, you also need to consider other city, borough and museum collections.
‘At one time about 4,000 bottle kilns dominated the landscape’
For remote researchers the most important resource is the vast Staffordshire Collection available through findmypast. co.uk. Originally launched with 2.8 million parish records, the collection now comprises more than six million searchable records with images, covering all Anglican parish registers up to 1900, including Stoke-onTrent, Wolverhampton, and the boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall. The collection also includes Diocese of Lichfield wills and inventories from between 1521 and 1858, as well as marriage bonds and allegations (1636–1893). Remember that the diocese covers parts of Derbyshire, north Shropshire and north Warwickshire.
One major change on the ground has been the closure of the old Lichfield Record Office. In 2018, following the relocation of Lichfield Library, the collections formerly held here were transferred to Staffordshire Record Office.
Once you’ve moved beyond civil registration, the census and parish material, there is a host of online tools to help you delve further. The county catalogue ‘Gateway to the Past’ at archives.staffordshire.gov.uk offers descriptions of holdings at Staffordshire Record Office as well as Stoke-on-Trent City Archives, the William Salt Library in Stafford and Staffordshire County Museum, while you can search historic objects and documents cared for by museums and archives across the Black Country at blackcountryhistory.org.
Senior archivist Tim Groom says: “Stoke-on-Trent City Archives holds superb collections relating to the pottery industry in
North Staffordshire, including the archives of the world-renowned Minton, Royal Doulton and Spode companies.”
Meanwhile the William Salt Library holds unpublished
antiquarian and genealogical notes and pedigrees of use to the family historian, as well as a wide range of material relevant to researching local history.
Another useful website is Staffordshire Name Indexes staffsname indexes.org. uk, which contains nearly 20 indexes to sources that include calendars of prisoners, quarter sessions and tithe awards.
“The indexes have been created by a large number of volunteers, or donated by private researchers,” says Tim. “New indexes are added each year, and the number of entries overall now exceeds 500,000.” One recent addition is an index to the records of tyre firm Michelin UK. Meanwhile new images of local businesses are constantly being added to the Staffordshire Pasttrack website staffs pasttrack.org. uk, which has images from the County Museum, as well as other museums and members of the public, together with maps from the 1900s and 1940s. Tim says: “With the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund we are currently at the start of a new project, ‘Placing
Heritage at the Heart of the Community: The Staffordshire History Centre’. The project will produce a creative blend of exhibitions, engagement activities, and learning and volunteering opportunities that will engage individuals and community groups to discover their own histories, reimagining our collections and spaces to reflect their relevance to the lives of Staffordshire people.”
Another project, ‘A Case for the Ordinary’ funded by medical charity the Wellcome Trust, is investigating the experiences of patients at Staffordshire’s County Asylums, 1818–1960: staffordshire asylumrecords.wordpress.com.
Finally the ‘Bawdy Courts’ project, funded by the Archives Revealed funding programme, is cataloguing the case papers from the Consistory Court of Lichfield.
Tim adds, “Its tag-line says it all really: ‘Scandal laid bare, strife uncovered and beautiful buildings revealed.’ ” Learn more at lichfield bawdycourts.wordpress.com.