Category: Mow Cop

A Walk from Kidsgrove to Biddulph via Mow Cop

Mow Cop’s craggy high point is crowned with Mow Cop Castle, an artfully ruined folly, constructed on the instruction of Randle Wilbraham, the lord of nearby Rode Hall ,in 1754. Since 1937 the castle and the gritstone rocks it sits upon have been owned and managed by the National Trust. These days the site is a country park.

Beneath Mow Cop Castle, it is very evident where gritstone was quarried over the centuries. These days, the village appears to be a quietly affluent place, but historically, quarrying meant that it was once an industrial hub.

Kidsgrove – Biddulph

Mow Cop, the birthplace of the Primitive Methodist Church, and Biddulph Grange Gardens will help to make North Staffordshire’s Industrial Landscape a World Heritage Site.

Friday NewsDesk

Friday NewsDesk is a new regular weekly post that will tell you about North Staffordshire Heritage’s activities.

Worldwide interest has been shown in Chatterley Whitfield’s future. The creation of a circular heritage tourist trail linking Burslem, Ford Green Hall, Chatterley Whitfield and Biddulph Grange with Mow Cop and Kidsgrove.

North Staffordshire Heritage is continuing to research Mercia and its legal system. This is a long-term project, which is expected to last for eight or nine months.

Our new series of posts about the Township of Tunstall starts in September, and we will give you more details at the end of August.

We hope you all have a relaxing and enjoyable weekend. Take care and stay safe. We’ll see you again on Tuesday.

Image of Biddulph Grange Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)

It’s Friday again…

Another working week is almost over. It will soon be time to close the office for the weekend.

North Staffordshire Heritage welcomed the news that the Heritage at Risk Fund has given £1.5 million to help save Bethesda Church and Burslem’s Indoor Market.

We are still concerned about the future of the former colliery at Chatterley Whitfield.

If Chatterley Whitfield had been on the South Wales Coalfield, it would have been made a World Heritage Site many years ago.

It is not too late to save Chatterley Whitfield and make it an international tourist attraction. Regenerating the site and breathing new life into its derelict buildings would revitalise Tunstall, Burslem, Biddulph and Kidsgrove.

With imagination and initiative, Chatterley Whitfield can be the starting point of a North Staffordshire Tourist Trail. A circular trail linking Middleport Pottery, Burslem’s Historic Town Centre, Ford Green Hall and Biddulph Grange with Mow Cop, the Trent & Mersey Canal and the Harecastle Tunnels at Kidsgrove.

We hope you have an enjoyable weekend. Take care and keep safe. See you again on Monday.

Daimler buses ran from Mow Cop to Tunstall

After the First World War, former soldiers and sailors set up small bus companies and ran bus services from towns and villages on the North Staffordshire Coalfield to Tunstall.
A forty-horsepower Daimler Bus

In 1914, the Potteries Electric Traction Company started running bus services from Biddulph and Mow Cop to Tunstall, using forty-horsepower Daimler Buses.

During the First World War (1914-1918), the government requisitioned the buses and services were suspended. The buses were sent to France, where they were used to take troops to the front line. When the war ended, the buses were returned to the company, and the services resumed.

After the First World War, former soldiers and sailors formed bus companies. The companies ran services to Tunstall that competed with those run by the Potteries Motor Traction Company.

Rowbotham’s was a bus company with a garage in Sands Road, Harriseahead. The firm ran a service from The Bank, a hamlet in South Cheshire, to Tunstall. Its buses ran through Mount Pleasant, Dales Green, The Rookery, Whitehill, Newchapel Packmoor, Chell and Pitts Hill.

The Potteries Electric Traction Company operated another service from The Bank to Tunstall. Its route ran through Mount Pleasant, Dales Green, The Rookery, Whitehill, Kidsgrove, Goldenhill and Sandyford.

Stanier’s was a bus company based in Newchapel. It ran a service from Mow Cop to Tunstall via Harriseahead, Newchapel, Packmoor, Chell and Pitts Hill.