KidsgroveExtract from Kelly's Directory of Staffordshire, 1896.Transcribed by Rosemary Lockie, © Copyright 2012 KIDSGROVE is a small town and ecclesiastical parish, formed 11 Jan. 1853, and also a civil parish, formed 1895, from the parishes of Audley and Wolstanton, on the borders of the Trent and Mersey canal, with a station on the loop line of the North Staffordshire railway and one at Harecastle on the main line from Stoke-on-Trent to Manchester, and is 2 miles north-west from Tunstall, and in the North Western division of the county, hundred and petty sessional division of Pirehill North, union of Wolstanton and Burslem, county court district of Tunstall, rural deanery of Neweastle-under-Lyme, archdeaconry of Stoke-on-Trent and diocese of Lichfield. The "Local Government Act" of 1858 was adopted June 19, 1868, and the town from that date was governed by a local board, but under the provisions of the "Local Government Act, 1894" (56 and 57 Vict. cap.73), an Urban District Council has beep established. The town is lighted with gas by a company. The church of St. Thomas is a structure of brick, erected about 1843 by Thomas Kinnersley esq. of Clough Hall, and consists of chancel, nave, aisles and an embattled western tower containing a clock and 6 bells: the chancel windows are stained and the church affords 600 sittings; it has a detached cemetery, with a mortuary chapel. The register dates from the year 1837. The living is a vicarage, gross yearly value £400, net £372, with residence, in the gift of trustees, and held since 1890 by the Rev. Reginald Wm. Bickerton Moore M.A. of Hertford College, Oxford, and surrogate. The Catholic church of St. John the Evangelist, erected in 1893 by W.Y. Craig esq. of Alsager, is a structure of red brick with stone dressings and consists of chancel and nave: there are three stained windows and a reredos of bath stone, with carved panels, representing adoring angels: the church has 200 sittings. There is a Wesleyan chapel with attached cemetery; a Primitive Methodist chapel and a Free Gospel mission room. The Assembly Room, in High street, at which public and private meetings, concerts and other entertainments are held, is a commodious building. Clough Hall and grounds form a pleasure resort for the inhabitants of the pottery towns, Here are very extensive collieries and iron works belonging to the Birchenwood Colliery Co. Limited; and in the immediate neighbourhood are several other extensive collieries, worked by the Harecastle and Woodshutts Colliery and Coke Company. Capt. Justinian Heathcote Edwards-Heathcote, of 34 Ennismore gardens, London, who is lord of the manor, the trustees of the late William J. Percy Lawton esq. (d.1883) and the Kidsgrove Steel, Iron and Coal Co. Limited, are the principal landowners. The area is 1,008 acres; rateable value is £10,965. 18s.; the population of the urban district in 1891 was 3,841. POST, M.O. & T.O., S.B., Express Delivery & Annuity & Insurance Office, 21 Heathcote street. Thomas Wardle, sub-postmaster. Letters arrive from Stoke-upon-Trent at 6 a.m. & 3.15 p.m.; dispatched at 11 a.m. & 8.40 p.m.; sundays, arrive at 6 a.m. & dispatched at 8.10 p.m. only URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL. Medical Officer of Health, Jonathan Steele L.R.C.P.Edin, Ravenswood house Surveyor, Dennis Richmond, 61 Heathcote street Sanitary Inspector & Collector, Herbert Ernest Booth, Heathcote street PUBLIC ESTABLISHMENTS. Police Station, Liverpool road (sub-division), Sergeant Isaac Belfield & 3 constables SCHOOLS:- National (boys & infants), Liverpool road, built in 1853, for 180 boys & 130 infants; average attendance, 113 boys & 113 infants; John Shrives, master; Miss Emily Whitehurst, mistress Board (boys, girls & infants), built in 1879, for 250 boys, 250 girls & 200 infants; average attendance, 160 boys, 160 girls & 150 infants; William Cornforth Jones, master; Miss Edith Edge, mistress; Miss Lizzie Higginson, infants' mistress RAILWAY STATIONS:- |
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