Barlaston

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Barlaston

Coordinates: 52.9457° N 2.1583° W
Population	2,659
OS grid reference	SJ894387
District	Stafford
Shire county	Staffordshire
Region	West Midlands
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Stoke-on-Trent
Postcode district	ST12
Dial code	01782
Police	Staffordshire
Fire	Staffordshire
Ambulance	Staffordshire
UK Parliament	Stone
European Parliament	West Midlands
List of places: UK • England • Staffordshire

Barlaston is a village and civil parish in the borough of Stafford in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is roughly halfway between the city of Stoke-on-Trent and the small town of Stone. According to the 2001 census the population of the parish was 2,659.

1 History
2 Education
3 Transport
4 Nearest Places
5 Reference
6 External link

[edit] History

The old parish church of Saint John is sited on the edge of the Wedgwood estate. It was built to the design of C. Lynam in 1886-8, retaining the west tower from the original medieval building, with the subsequent addition of a vestry in 1969. In 1981 the building had to be closed owing to mining subsidence and a temporary building next to the church took its place until the new church was built on Green Lane.

Wedgwood moved their pottery manufacturing business from Etruria, Staffordshire to a large modern factory in a new village in the north of the parish. The factory was planned in 1936 and built in 1938-40 to the designs of Keith Murray who was also a designer of Wedgwood pottery. The factory has a tourist visitor centre and has its own car-parks and a bus station. Wedgwood railway station was opened for the factory in 1940 but closed in 2004. Nearby is Barlaston Hall c1756 by Sir Robert Taylor (architect) and at one time a Wedgwood family home.

[edit] Education

Barlaston First School
The Wedgwood Memorial College in Barlaston is a Worker's Educational Association residential college, and also serves as the headquarters of the Esperanto Association of Britain

[edit] Transport

Close by the village are: the A34 road; the River Trent; the Trent and Mersey Canal; a route of National Cycle Network; and the railway - which all pass west of the village. Barlaston railway station, opened by the North Staffordshire Railway on April 17, 1848, is on the Manchester branch of the West Coast Main Line but inter-city trains do not stop and the local passenger service was replaced by a bus service in 2004.