SILVERDALE is a large village, and with part of KNUTTON and SCOTHAY, was formed Dec. 14, 1855, into an ecclesiastical parish from the civil parishes of Wolstanton, Keele and Trentham, and into a civil parish in 1893, by the "Local Government Act, 1894". There is a station here on a branch of the North Stafford railway from Stoke to Market Drayton, and the village is 1½ miles west from Newcastle-under-Lyme, in the North Western division of the county, hundred and petty sessional division of Pirehill North, county court district of Newcastle-under-Lyme, union of Wolstanton, rural deanery of Newcastle-under-Lyme, archdeaconry of Stoke-upon-Trent and diocese of Lichfield. The church of St. Luke, consecrated October 28th, 1853, is an edifice of stone in the Gothic style, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and a tower at the east end with spire, containing a clock and one bell: the church was restored in 1888 at a cost of £600, and affords about 520 sittings, 320 being free. The register dates from the year 1853.

The living is a vicarage, gross yearly value £300, net £227, with residence, in the gift of the Vicar of Wolstanton, and held since 1892 by the Rev. Charles David Rae M.A. of Christ's College, Cambridge, and rural dean of Newcastle-under-Lyme. The Mission church at Scothay is an edifice of brick, consisting of apsidal chancel, nave, west porch and a turret containing one bell, and will seat 100 persons. The Catholic church of the Sacred Heart in Victoria street, formerly used as a school, is served from Newcastle. There are also Congregational, Wesleyan, Primitive Methodist, Free Methodist and Methodist New Connexion chapels and a temperance hall. A cemetery of 3 acres was formed in 1886, at a cost of £1,200: it has a mortuary chapel of iron and is tinder the control of the Parish Council.

The Conservative Club, in Church street, was erected in 1876 at the expense of the late Rev. Walter Sneyd and comprises reading, billiard, dining and refreshment rooms. Here are extensive iron and coal works, the principal being those of the Butterley Co. Limited. Ralph Sneyd esq. who is lord of the manor, and the representatives of the late Luke Bennett esq. are the principal landowners. The population in 1881 was 5,920 and in 1891 was 6,077; rateable value, £20,479.

POST, M.O. & T.O., S.B., Express Delivery & Annuity & Insurance Office.- John Holland Wrench, sub-postmaster.

Letters arrive through Newcastle-under-Lyme at 6.30 a.m. & 5.30 p.m.; dispatched at 9.40 a.m. 7 & 8.45 p.m.; sundays, arrive at 8 a.m. & dispatched at 9.40 a.m. WALL LETTER BOXES, near Railway station, cleared at 6.50 p.m. week days only; Crown street, 9.45 a.m. & 6.30 p.m.; sundays, 9.30 a.m

Police Station, John Whitehouse, sergeant in charge & 3 constables

SCHOOLS:-
Wolstanton Board (boys' & girls' school erected in 1877 & infants' in 1886), for 420 boys, 380 girls & 250 infants; average attendance, 275 boys, 280 girls & 217 infants; Ralph Downing, master; Miss Ellen Gaskell, girls' mistress; Miss Mercy Drury, infants' mistress

National, built in 1831, at the expense of the late Ralph Sneyd esq. & enlarged in 1894, for 180 boys, 180 girls & as many infants; average attendance, 145 boys, 145 girls & 120 infants; Caleb John Yates, master; Miss Elizh. Taylor, mistress; Miss Mary Flack, infants' mistress

North Staffordshire Railway Station, Richard Phillips Williams, station master & goods agent
[Kelly's Directory of Staffordshire, 1896]