Historical geographer Betty Martin, who died in 2023, founded North Staffordshire Heritage to research the region’s economic and social history.
North Staffordshire Heritage, a not-for-profit foundation, extended its research beyond the Potteries. To reflect this, the foundation’s name was changed to Mercian Heritage Research.
Betty met her husband, David, when they were working on projects in Tunstall. She was researching the history of Forster Street School, where her brother, Neil, was the headteacher. David was writing an article about Tunstall Court Leet, an Anglo-Saxon Territorial Court. The court tried criminal offences committed in Kidsgrove, Mow Cop, Harriseahead, Brindley Ford, Newchapel, Chell, Goldenhill, Tunstall, Burslem and Cobridge.
Betty was educated at Brownhills High School in Tunstall and studied historical geography at the University of Manchester, where she wrote her thesis on the development of Stoke-on-Trent’s pottery industry.
Because she went to school in Tunstall, the town always had a special place in her heart. Betty undertook extensive research into its history. She wrote a historical analysis of Tunstall’s architectural heritage that was praised by English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Betty was a prolific writer. She wrote about the North Staffordshire Coalfields’ industrial heritage and Britain’s aviation industry. Her posts about John Lloyd, Stoke-on-Trent’s forgotten aircraft designer, were popular in Canada, Australia and the United States. Some of her articles will be posted on our website.
Mercian Heritage Research plans to publish a series of books based on North Staffordshire Heritage’s research.
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(July 2026)
Mercian Heritage Research 