Isolated from the main railway network that was constructed in
the 1830s, North Staffordshire’s pottery industry had to rely on
canals for raw materials and to distribute its products. During
1835, leading industrialists made plans to build a railway
linking The Potteries to the national network. These plans were
forgotten when North Staffordshire was hit by a recession.
Factories and mines closed. There were strikes and lock outs
culminating in the Chartist Riots and the Battle of Burslem in
1842. Two years later, pottery manufacturer William Copeland,
who was also a Member of Parliament, called a series of meetings
to discuss building railway links to Manchester, Liverpool and
Birkenhead. The North Staffordshire Railway Company was formed
to construct the Churnet Valley Line and lines running from
Macclesfield and Crewe through The Potteries to Norton Bridge,
Colwich and Burton-on-Trent. The company’s first line ran from
Stoke to Norton Bridge. Opened for goods traffic on April 3rd,
1848, the line started c