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Stone is a town in Staffordshire, England, situated about seven miles north of Stafford, and around seven miles south of the city of Stoke-on-Trent. It is the second town, after Stafford itself, in the Borough of Stafford, and has long been of importance from the point of view of communications. Stone gave its name to both an urban district council and a rural district council before becoming part of the borough in 1974. In 2001 it had a population of 14,555.
Early history
Stone was the capital of early Mercia, a powerful Anglian kingdom that later expanded over most of what is now the West Midlands. Christianity arrived via monks from Lindisfarne around the year 650, King Penda of Mercia having invited them in. The capital was later moved to Stafford, and then to Tamworth.
Meaning of place-name
The place-name means what it says, 'stone', from Old English stan 'stone'. Precisely what stone referred to is unknown. It could be a boundary stone or a milestone; given that Stone is along the A34 to Stafford. Equally, it could have referred to a stone building by the roadside. Most places of this name (like the village of the same name in Worcestershire are on a river, although this does not necessarily make interpretation of the name easier for toponymists. The similar-sounding Staines in Surrey means the same thing.
One argument is that the town was named after the pile of stones raised on the graves of the Princes killed in 665 AD by their father, King Wulfhere of Mercia, because of their conversion to Christianity. The Church, built over these stones in 670 AD, was replaced in 1135 AD by an Augustinian Priory which survived until its dissolution in the reign of Henry VIII. The building collapsed in 1749 and the present church of St. Michael's was built in the 1750's.
Growth in Population
| Stone, Staffordshire Population by year |
| 1801 - 2,843 |
History of communications
Roads
Stone stands in the valley of the River Trent, and was an important stopping-off point for the coaches on one of the roads turnpiked in the 18th century. A directory for 1851 says that Stone was a very lively town, and a great thoroughfare for coaches, carriers and travellers … No fewer than 38 stage coaches passed through the town daily. The road was later to become the trunk road (the A34) from Birmingham to the North, but Stone is now by-passed by the M6 motorway.
The Trent & Mersey Canal
The River Trent, which runs through the town, had been used for cargo-carrying vessels since Roman times but the further inland, the smaller the boats that could be used. Seasonal fluctuations in water depth proved insurmountable, although cargo could be carried from the sea as far south as Wilden Ferry (SE of Derby), where the River Derwent joins the Trent and increases the quantity of water, then onwards by road.
James Brindley, the canal builder, put forward the scheme to build what he called the Grand Trunk Canal to connect the two rivers, Mersey and Trent in 1766. It was backed by Josiah Wedgwood who saw that it offered an efficient way to bring raw materials to the potteries and to transport finished wares to his customers.
By 29 September 1772 (Brindley died on 27 September), 48 miles of the Grand Trunk Canal (now known as the Trent & Mersey Canal) from Wilden Ferry to Stone was navigable - the length past Burton-on-Trent being completed in 1770.
Stone became the Headquarters of the canal company with its office at Westbridge House, sited then below Star Lock on what is now Westbridge Park. The offices were moved later to Stoke on Trent.
John Joules Brewery brewed beer from 1758, although it is now closed. The canal playing a great part in their export. They once owned a pair of boats that delivered coal to the brewery and as late as the 1950s had the telephone number ‘Stone 1’. Joules bottle store remains an imposing building on the canal.
The Star Public House was fully licensed in 1819 although the building predates the canal by some 200 years. The building has in its time been a butcher’s shop and slaughterhouse. Stabling for boat horses was available up to the 1950s and the business relied heavily on the canal for trade.Soon to have the M6 flowing through it
Railways
The coming of the railway was to end Stone’s era as a poaching town. The North Staffordshire Railway opened its main line from Congleton through Stone to Norton Bridge on 3 April 1848; the following year a branch line from Stone to Colwich began operating.
Stone today
Stone parish church, dedicated to St Michael the Archangel, is at the south end of the town. It was commenced in 1753, and finished in 1758. Christ Church stands on the north side of the town, where the population is still increasing. It was erected in 1839.
The M6 motorway bypasses the town, as does the West Coast Main Line rail route.
The canal still dominates the town, as witness the following:
- Many canal side sites have in recent times been taken over for modern day use including ‘The Moorings’ a development of apartments based on the old Stubbs warehouse and also apartments and housing surround the old Trent Hospital, once the Workhouse. Housing developments also border the canal.
- Commercial traffic has now been replaced by the leisure craft that pass through Stone each year. The Canal Cruising Company today operates from the historic site of the canal maintenance and boat building operations of the Trent & Mersey Canal Company. This restored docks complex with its workshops, by Yard Lock, continues to be used for the maintenance of pleasure craft and historic boats.
Yarnfield Park Training & Conference Centre just outside the town is a major training centre for the UK telecommunications industry. It is owned by BT Group and run by Accenture.
Personalities
- Stan Collymore, Born in Stone in 1971
- James Brindley, the Surveyor-General of the Trent & Mersey Canal.
- L. T. C. Rolt, author of ’Narrowboat’ which helped to promote the canal network of today, plus several engineering biographies and other works.
- Cedric Price, architect, was born in Stone in 1934.
- Rendel Wyatt the founder, in 1948, of the Canal Cruising Company in Stone.
- Eva Morris, the oldest person in the world from December 1999 to her death in November 2000, lived in Stone.
- Chris Birchall, a soccer player who plays for Port Vale F.C. Birchall was born in 1984 and plays international football for Trinidad and Tobago, as his mother was born there.
External links
"Stone, Staffordshire"