Travel Chell, Staffordshire Map

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Chell, Staffordshire history

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There is no mention of Chell in the Domesday Book, it is believed to have come under the lands of Wolstanton. The earliest written record of Chell comes from 1212, by which time Chell had already been split into Little and Great Chell. Prior to 1212 the lord of the manor was Adam de Audley. He was succeeded by his son Henry de Audley who in 1212 confirmed in writing his father’s decision to award one third of Chell to Robert Blund when giving him a further 14 acres ‘in the wood between Chell and Thunstal’. Henry de Audley later gave the remaining two-thirds of Chell to Richard of Hanley, who is recorded under the name Richard Chell c.1230. Chell is now a common family name in north Staffordshire. There are few records of Little Chell manor after 1344 suggesting it had merged with Great Chell manor. However, the earliest confirmation of this is in 1679 when the Sneyd family, owners of Great Chell Manor, are known to have also taken over Little Chell Manor. The Sneyd family held these manors into the 19th century. William Henry Duignan traced the etymology of Chell back to Ceolegh. “Ceole” meant throat or narrow valley in Old English and Chell is situated at the edge of a ridge of land by a narrow valley. Another possibility is that the township was named after a person known as Ceol- Ceol’s Lea, lea meaning meadow. In 1666 surveys conducted for the then recently implemented Hearth Tax recorded a total of ten households in Chell as being liable for payment of the tax on a total of 15 hearths. No households were recorded as being too poor to pay the tax. Chell receives a mention in William White’s 1851 History, gazetteer, and directory of Staffordshire: “CHELL (GREAT AND LITTLE) form a liberty of 740 acres and 737 souls. Great Chell is on an eminence 2 ½ N. by E. of Burslem, and is occupied chiefly by potters. The Primitive Methodists have a chapel here, built in 1823, and enlarged in 1830 and 1841. The Union Workhouse is at Great Chell.” Twenty years later Chell receive another mention in John Marius Wilson’s grander Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales, compiled 1870–72: “CHELL, a township in Wolstanton parish, Stafford; 2 miles north of Burslem. Population, 1219. Houses, 215. It contains the Wolstanton and Burslem workhouse; and its inhabitants are chiefly colliers and potterers.” In 1772 the celebrated canal engineer James Brindley died at his home, Turnhurst Hall, on what is now Turnhust Road, Great Chell. Little Chell Water-Mill is first mentioned in 1539, as having belonged to the Colclough family for several generations. It is believed to have been situated on Scotia Brook, where it enters what is now Victoria Park, and ground corn. In 1757 the then owner, Thomas Baddeley of Newfield, contracted James Brindley to fit the mill with machinery for grinding flint and also pumping water out of a neighbouring mine. By 1832 the water-mill had been decommissioned and demolished, only the attached farmstead remained. Chell Lodge, on the south side of Little Chell Lane, also known as Little Chell Hall, was built by wealthy potter Thomas Cartlich in the late 1830s. It was demolished in the 1920s to make way for the houses on Sproston and Scott Roads. Sited on the north side of Little Chell Lane, was Little Chell Farm, first documented in 1775. Blessed William Southern Roman Catholic County Secondary was built on this site in 1957 and was renamed St Margaret Ward’s Catholic School in 1970. The school was renamed St Margaret Ward Catholic Academy in 2013. The Local Government Act 1894 put Chell under Wolstanton Rural District from its creation in 1895 to its abolition in 1904. Parts of Great Chell had by then already been transferred to Tunstall Urban District Council. Little Chell and Chell Heath were transferred to Smallthorne Urban District, which did not join the federation of Stoke-on-Trent until 1922, making Chell one of the last additions to Stoke-on-Trent. Barnett Grove and Stross Avenue, in Little Chell, off Little Chell Lane are named after Barnett Stross a former city councillor and MP for Hanley constituency from 1945 to 1950, and its replacement Stoke-on-Trent Central from 1950 to 1966. He is noted for founding and championing the global Lidice Shall Live campaign that sought to raise awareness of, and rebuild, the Czech village of Lidice, destroyed by the Nazis in 1942 in revenge for Reinhard Heydrich’s murder by British trained Czechs. Chatterley Whitfield Colliery is a disused coal-mine on the eastern outskirts of Chell. It was the largest mine in North Staffordshire and in 1937 it became the first colliery in the UK to produce 1,000,000 tons of saleable coal in a year. In 1976 coal drawing at Chatterley Whitfield came to an end, with the coal worked from Wolstanton Colliery, via a four-mile underground passageway, until it too closed in 1981. On 28 April 2014, Greene King Brewery opened a new £4.5m pub named The Chatterley Whitfield on the western outskirts of Chell.

Chell Workhouse

The Wolstanton And Burslem Union Workhouse was opened in 1839 at a cost of £6,900 to house 400 inmates. The workhouse remained in use beyond the Federation of Stoke-on-Trent whereupon the newly formed county borough took over the running of the facility. It finally closed in 1922, eight years before the workhouse system was abolished by act of parliament.

  

Chell, Staffordshire map & travel guide with history & landmarks to explore

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Tourist Guide to Chell, Staffordshire Map

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