Uttoxeter in 1872

UTTOXETER, a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Staffordshire. The town stands on the Uttoxeter canal, at a forking of railways, near the river Dove, 13 miles NE of Stafford; was known to the Saxons as Uttocceaster; was given, at the Norman conquest to H. de Ferrers; passed to John of Gaunt and to the Talbots; was the scene of some military operations in the civil wars of Charles I.; suffered severely from fire in 1672; had, for natives, the antiquary Sir S. Degge, the famous seaman Admiral Lord Gardner, and the mathematician Allen; is a seat of petty-sessions and a polling-place; publishes a weekly newspaper; carries on brewing, cork-cutting, glue and leather manufacture; comprises several good streets, with a central market-place; and has a post-office under Stoke-on-Trent, a railway station with telegraph, two banking-offices, a town-hall of 1855, built at a cost of about £4,000, an ancient six-arched bridge, a modern church, with ancient tower and spire, four dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, a grammar-school, national and infant schools, a workhouse, alms-houses, considerable charities, a weekly market on Wednesday, four annual cheese fairs, and five other annual fairs. Pop. in 1861, 3,645. Houses, 796. The parish includes also three hamlets, and is divided into five constablewicks. Acres, 8,973. Real property, £18,699. Pop., 4,847. Houses, 1,047.

The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £300. Patrons, the Dean and Canons of Windsor. The perpetual curacy of Stramshall is a separate benefice. The sub-district contains 7 parishes. Acres, 24,807. Pop., 8,008. Houses, 1,683. The district includes also Abbots-Bromley and Sudbury sub-districts, and comprises 62,890 acres. Poor-rates in 1863, £6,453. Pop. in 1851, 15,140; in 1861, 14,787. Houses, 3,102. Marriages in 1363, 97; births, 412, of which 36 were illegitimate; deaths, 307, of which 94 were at ages under 5 years, and 12 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 910; births, 3,992; deaths, 3,028. The places of worship, in 1851, were 19 of the Church of England, with. 6.747 sittings; 3 of Independents, with 630 sittings; 1 of Baptists, with 70 sittings; 1 of Quakers, with 110 sittings; 9 of Wesleyans, with 1,311 sittings; 11 of Primitive Methodists, with 1,184 sittings; 2 of Roman Catholics, with 135 sittings; and 1 of Latter Day Saints, with 65 sittings. The schools were 26 public day-schools, with 1,410 scholars; 34 private day-schools, with 750 scholars; 31 Sunday schools, with 1,668 scholars; and 1 evening school for adults, with 5 scholars. 

An 1872 Gazetteer description of the following places in Uttoxeter is to be found on a supplementary page.

• Crackmarsh
• Creighton
• Loxley
• Spath
• Stramshall
• Woodgate

. [Description(s) from The Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72) - Transcribed by Mike Harbach ©2020]