A Description of the Country From Thirty to Forty Miles Round Manchester, a book published in 1795, was compiled by Dr John Aikin. The book tells us about Newcastle-under-Lyme and North Staffordshire’s pottery towns and villages in the 1790s.
This edited extract from the book describes the Potteries in the 1790s.
The Staffordshire Potteries commence about a mile from the Cheshire border at a village called Goldenhill.
From there it extends to Lane End [Longton], a distance of more than seven miles. Many of the towns and villages that form the Potteries are linked by houses and factories. The traveller is left with the impression that he is journeying through one town with different names. Manufacturing pottery is the primary business of this extensive and populous area. It is believed that the number of inhabitants or houses has increased threefold over the last twenty years. The towns and villages that make up the Potteries are likely to merge to create one town with one name. Many people who live nearby already call the area The Pottery.
North Staffordshire Heritage 