England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Burslem St John the Baptist

The Parish

Burslem sits in northwestern Staffordshire roughly 3 miles north of the industrial town of Stoke on Trent. Burslem's status changed during the period of this transcript, prior to 1807 it was a chapelry of Stoke on Trent and whilst licensed for marriages a great many would have taken place at the mother church, subsequent to 1807 Burslem became a full parish. Burslem sits on the A50 road which links Stoke on Trent with Knutsford in Cheshire. Whilst Burslem was only a chapelry for the majority of the time it was nevertheless a market town and one of the famous 6 towns that make up Staffordshire's Potteries. Indeed Burslem can lay claim to have been making pottery since Saxon or even Roman times. That early pottery made use of local clays and had a local distribution, it wasn't until the 17th century that slip-ware began to be manufactured. The most famous of all industrial pottery makers, Josiah Wedgewood, was a citizen of Burslem but made his works at nearby Etruria. The rise of Burslem and the other towns to pottery fame cane through the application of industrial methods, the abundance of high quality coal in the area and superior clays from Devon & Dorset. The explosion in activity created a landscape dominated by the iconic kilns, many of which are preserved as industrial heritage. Expansion of the industry was also faciliated by the arrival of modern developments in particular the arrival of canals, the Trent & Mersey Canal in particular which connected the area to the main canal network enabling such fragile ware to be safely transported nationally including to the capital. Today much of the industrial pottery works have closed but Burslem remains a market town with a spacious market in its centre, light industry now employs most folk but potting continues at Longport, Middleport & Cobridge. Such has been the expansion of the area that Burslem now sits as part of a large conurbation stretching for over 12 miles from Kidsgrove in the northwest to Blyth Bridge to the southeast. Modern developments abound, the canal were soon followed by railway lines with both freight and passenger lines across the area, Burslem's station is to the west at Middleport. A great improvement to cross-town movements is the upgrading of the A500 road through, alongside the canal and railway , as a fast dual-carriageway highway. Burslem is drained mostly subsurface until the infant Trent is met south of Stoke on Trent, that mighty river crosses the entire north Midlands before eventually turning north beyond Newark to meet the Yorkshire Dales rivers and exit to the North Sea through the Humber Estuary. Burslem is sited at between 120 metres above the sea at Middleport with its centre sitting on a knoll at 160 metres, land continues rising northeastwards where several suburbs sit just above the 200 metre contour as local high spots. From the vast parish of Stoke on Trent roughly 3,000 acres became assigned to Burslem parish, that newly formed parish harboured a rapidly growing population reaching almost 16,100 by the end of the transcript period, the volume of marriages recorded here is much lower than might be expected due to the impact of that growth during the 70 years of this coverage and also by the impact of marriages in the mother parish prior to 1807. Domesday Burslem was recorded but as a tiny settlement of just 5 households, held by Robert of Stafford it mustered just a single plough and a 2 acre wood.

The Church

St John's church sits a little to the south of the centre of Burslem at the junction of Cross Hill and Woodbankd Street, in 2024 it faced a scene of major building redevelopment as kilns were being replaced. The church has ceased being an Anglican church and has been transferred to the New Testament Church of God sect. As can readily be seen there are two distinct ages represented in the build the more recent contriving to present a rather modern almost brutalist appearance to the main body. The medieval is, however, still present and represented finely by the western tower which dates from the later Perpendicular period of the 15th century (given all of the transformation of Burslem Pevsner speculates whether that tower is the oldest piece of a building in the town). The main body of the church dates from 1717 contemporary with the explosion of growth for the pottery industry, the 1717 building was extended further east in 1788 to form a 6-bay nave and comes complete with an eastern apse. The finish to the building is one that divides opinion but it is certainly striking. For the visit a substantial car park sits at the southern end of the site which is open and unobstructed with all angles available to the photographer.