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101-591: Meir Heath is a village just at the southern tip of Stoke-on-Trent , Staffordshire situated on a hilltop between Meir and Rough Close , 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 miles from Barlaston and only 5 miles from Stone . The population as taken at the 2011 census can be found under the ward of Fulford, Stoke-on-Trent. It is located in the Borough of Stafford . Meir Heath is said to be the highest conurbation in Staffordshire, due to its altitude it often experiences higher than

202-416: A conurbation around the city. The city is polycentric , formed from the federation of six towns in 1910. It took its name from the town of Stoke-upon-Trent where the main centre of government and the principal railway station in the district were located. Hanley is the primary commercial centre. The other four towns which form the city are Burslem , Tunstall , Longton and Fenton . The home of

303-559: A temperature inversion to occur. As such, the Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle areas are generally not susceptible to severe frosts. The nearest Met Office weather station is Keele University , about four miles west of the city centre. The absolute high temperature is 36.1 °C (97.0 °F), recorded in July 2022. More typically the average warmest day of the year should be 27.0 °C (80.6 °F). Just under fourteen days per year have

404-416: A transit , a surveyor tried to achieve straightness by looking along the rods and commanding the gromatici to move them as required. Using the gromae they then laid out a grid on the plan of the road. If the surveyor could not see his desired endpoint, a signal fire would often be lit at the endpoint in order to guide the surveyor. The libratores then began their work using ploughs and, sometimes with

505-516: A city. The public announcement of the elevation to city status was made by the king during a visit to Stoke in June 1925. The county borough was abolished in 1974. Stoke became a non-metropolitan district of Staffordshire. Its status as a unitary authority was restored in April 1997. It remains part of the ceremonial county of Staffordshire. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region (code UKG23). Since

606-975: A complex in the city which houses its commercial head office, training centre and a truck tyre re-treading facility. Sainsbury's supermarket and The Co-operative Pharmacy have large warehouses in the city. Vodafone has a large call centre on Festival Park and the UK subsidiary of the lubricant manufacturer Fuchs Petrolub has its head office at its factory in Hanley. There is a steel foundry owned by Goodwin Steel Castings Ltd in Joiner's Square. Premier Foods make Mr Kipling slices and Cherry Bakewells in Trent Vale. The Co-operative Travel had its head office in Burslem, before it merged with Thomas Cook in 2010. Roman roads At

707-407: A directional straightness. Many long sections are ruler-straight, but it should not be thought that all of them were. Some links in the network were as long as 55 miles (89 km). Gradients of 10%–12% are known in ordinary terrain, 15%–20% in mountainous country. The Roman emphasis on constructing straight roads often resulted in steep slopes relatively impractical for most commercial traffic; over

808-463: A great public service like that of the roads. Gaius Gracchus , when Tribune of the People (123–122 BC), paved or gravelled many of the public roads and provided them with milestones and mounting-blocks for riders. Gaius Scribonius Curio , when Tribune (50 BC), sought popularity by introducing a Lex Viaria , under which he was to be chief inspector or commissioner for five years. Dio Cassius mentions that

909-549: A large retailer of mobile phones started by John Caudwell , until it ceased trading in September 2014. Stoke City Football Club has been a major symbol of the city since the early 20th century, having spent most of its history in the highest two divisions of the English league, constantly attracting large crowds and signing or launching the careers of many high-profile players – most notably Stanley Matthews and Gordon Banks . The club

1010-517: A layer of fine concrete, the nucleus, went onto the pavement or statumen . Into or onto the nucleus went a course of polygonal or square paving stones, called the summa crusta . The crusta was crowned for drainage. An example is found in an early basalt road by the Temple of Saturn on the Clivus Capitolinus . It had travertine paving, polygonal basalt blocks, concrete bedding (substituted for

1111-441: A museum two years after its closure in 1976. The museum closed in 1991 and the site became a local nature reserve . It was declared a scheduled monument by English Heritage in 1993. The abandoned subterranean mines are inaccessible, though they still add complications to many building projects and occasionally cause minor tremors, detectable only by specialised equipment. The iron and steel industries occupied important roles in

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1212-513: A regulation width (see Laws and traditions above), but actual widths have been measured at between 3.6 feet (1.1 metres) and more than 23 feet (7.0 metres). Today, the concrete has worn from the spaces around the stones, giving the impression of a very bumpy road, but the original practice was to produce a surface that was no doubt much closer to being flat. Many roads were built to resist rain, freezing and flooding. They were constructed to need as little repair as possible. Roman construction took

1313-426: A road, though privately constructed, became a public road when the memory of its private constructors had perished. Siculus Flaccus describes viae vicinales as roads " de publicis quae divertunt in agros et saepe ad alteras publicas perveniunt " (which turn off the public roads into fields, and often reach to other public roads). The repairing authorities, in this case, were the magistri pagorum or magistrates of

1414-541: A temperature of 25.1 °C (77.2 °F) or above. The absolute minimum temperature stands at −13.3 °C (8.1 °F), recorded in January 1963. In an average year, 48.3 air frosts are registered. Rainfall averages around 806 mm a year. Stoke is at the centre of the Stoke-on-Trent Green Belt, which is an environment and planning policy that regulates the rural space in Staffordshire surrounding

1515-456: Is Trentham Monkey Forest , which houses 140 Barbary macaques in a 60-acre (240,000 m ) enclosure that visitors can walk through. The Alton Towers Resort is 10 miles (16 km) east of Stoke-on-Trent and is one of the United Kingdom's best-known attractions. The Waterworld indoor swimming complex on Festival Park near Hanley is also a significant children's attraction. Each of

1616-512: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke ) is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire , England, with an area of 36 square miles (93 km ). In 2022, the city had an estimated population of 259,965. It is the largest settlement in Staffordshire and is surrounded by the towns of Newcastle-under-Lyme , Alsager , Kidsgrove and Biddulph , which form

1717-487: Is also one of four counties or unitary districts that compose the Shropshire and Staffordshire NUTS 2 region. Stoke-on-Trent is often known as "the city of five towns", the name given to it by local novelist Arnold Bennett , and is the only polycentric city in the UK. In his novels, Bennett used mostly recognisable aliases for five of the six towns, although he called Stoke "Knype". Bennett said that he believed "Five Towns"

1818-462: Is the largest body of water in Stoke-on-Trent and has a nature reserve. Queens Park or Longton Park in Dresden is one of the city's heritage parks and is famous for its horticulture and lakes. It houses several buildings including a clock tower and three bowling pavilions. Stoke-on-Trent was a world centre for fine ceramics—a skilled design trade has existed in the area since at least the 12th century. In

1919-468: Is unknown which of these was intended here, and all are plausible. The most frequently suggested interpretations derive from a crossing point on the Roman road that ran from present-day Derby to Chesterton or the early presence of a church , said to have been founded in 670 AD. Because Stoke was such a common name for a settlement, some kind of distinguishing affix was usually added later, in this case,

2020-560: The 2011 census , the population of the city was 249,008. This was a modest increase from the 240,636 recorded in the 2001 census . 50.2% of the population is female. 91.68% of the population of Stoke-on-Trent were born in the UK. 86.43% of the population identified themselves as White British , 4.19% identified as British Pakistani , and 1.88% identified as Other White . 1.35% identified as Other Asian and 1.36% as Black . Regarding religion, 60.89% described themselves as Christian , 6.02% as Muslim and 25.19% had no religion. 14.28% of

2121-601: The A50 road – Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton. Although the city is named after the original town of Stoke, and the City Council offices are located there, the city centre is usually regarded as being in Hanley, which had earlier developed into a major commercial centre. As well as Newcastle-under-Lyme , other nearby towns include Crewe , Nantwich , Congleton , Biddulph , Kidsgrove , Stafford , Uttoxeter , Eccleshall , Cheadle , Stone and Leek . As well as

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2222-478: The Etruscans . The Viae terrenae were plain roads of leveled earth. These were mere tracks worn down by the feet of humans and animals, and possibly by wheeled carriages. The Viae glareatae were earthen roads with a gravel surface or a gravel subsurface and paving on top. Livy speaks of the censors of his time as being the first to contract for paving the streets of Rome with flint stones, for laying gravel on

2323-518: The Second Triumvirate obliged the Senators to repair the public roads at their own expense. The second category included private or country roads, originally constructed by private individuals, in whom their soil was vested and who had the power to dedicate them to the public use. Such roads benefited from a right of way in favor either of the public or of the owner of a particular estate. Under

2424-754: The Wall in Britain ; run along the Rhine , the Danube , and the Euphrates ; and cover, as with a network, the interior provinces of the Empire. A road map of the empire reveals that it was generally laced with a dense network of prepared viae . Beyond its borders there were no paved roads; however, it can be supposed that footpaths and dirt roads allowed some transport. There were, for instance, some pre-Roman ancient trackways in Britain, such as

2525-415: The cantons . They could require the neighboring landowners either to furnish laborers for the general repair of the viae vicinales , or to keep in repair, at their own expense, a certain length of road passing through their respective properties. With the conquest of Italy, prepared viae were extended from Rome and its vicinity to outlying municipalities, sometimes overlying earlier roads. Building viae

2626-424: The censor who had ordered their construction or reconstruction. The same person often served afterwards as consul, but the road name is dated to his term as censor. If the road was older than the office of censor or was of unknown origin, it was named for its destination or the region through which it mainly passed. A road was renamed if the censor ordered major work on it, such as paving, repaving, or rerouting. With

2727-459: The civil engineer looked over the site of the proposed road and determined roughly where it should go, the agrimensores went to work surveying the road bed. They used two main devices, the rod and a device called a groma , which helped them obtain right angles. The gromatici , the Roman equivalent of rod men, placed rods and put down a line called the rigor . As they did not possess anything like

2828-771: The pottery industry in England, it is known as The Potteries . It is a centre for service industries and distribution centres . It formerly had a primarily heavy industry sector. The name Stoke is taken from the town of Stoke-upon-Trent , the original ancient parish , with other settlements being chapelries . Stoke derives from the Old English stoc , a word that at first meant little more than place , but which subsequently gained more specific – but divergent – connotations. These variant meanings included dairy farm , secondary or dependent place or farm , summer pasture , crossing place , meeting place and place of worship . It

2929-644: The repair shops of the North Staffordshire Railway and was the home of independent railway locomotive manufacturers Kerr, Stuart and Company from 1881 to 1930. Shelton Steel Works and the mining operations were heavily involved in the World War II industrial effort. Central to the RAF 's success was the Supermarine Spitfire designed by Reginald Mitchell who, whilst born at 115 Congleton Road in

3030-476: The "Six Towns" were brought together. The county borough of Hanley, the municipal boroughs of Burslem, Longton, and Stoke, together with the urban districts of Tunstall and Fenton now formed a single county borough of Stoke-on-Trent. In 1919, the borough proposed to expand further and annex the neighbouring borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme and the Wolstanton United Urban District , both to

3131-433: The 17th century, the area has been almost exclusively known for its industrial-scale pottery manufacturing. Companies such as Royal Doulton , Dudson , Spode (founded by Josiah Spode ), Wedgwood (founded by Josiah Wedgwood ), Minton (founded by Thomas Minton ) and Baker & Co. (founded by William Baker) were established and based there. The local abundance of coal and clay suitable for earthenware production led to

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3232-550: The 1980s Florence Colliery in Longton repeatedly set regional and national production records; in 1992 the combined Trentham Superpit (Hem Heath and Florence) was the first mine in Europe to produce 2.5 million saleable tonnes of coal. Today the mines are all closed, though the scars of mining remain on the landscape. Slag heaps are still visible on the skyline, now covered with flora and fauna. The Chatterley Whitfield site reopened as

3333-521: The City boundaries as recently as the 1990s. However, 1994 saw the last pit to close as the Trentham Superpit was shut. The Stoke mining industry set several national and international records. Wolstanton Colliery, when modernised, had the deepest mining shafts in Europe at 3,197 ft. In 1933, Chatterley Whitfield Colliery became the first Colliery in the country to mine one million tons of coal. In

3434-565: The Ridgeway and the Icknield Way . The Laws of the Twelve Tables , dated to about 450 BC, required that any public road (Latin via ) be 8 Roman feet (perhaps about 2.37 m) wide where straight and twice that width where curved. These were probably the minimum widths for a via ; in the later republic, widths of around 12 Roman feet were common for public roads in rural regions, permitting

3535-703: The Six Towns, there are numerous suburbs. These include Abbey Hulton , Stockton Brook , Adderley Green , Ball Green, Baddeley Green , Bentilee , Birches Head , Blurton , Bucknall , Bradeley , Chell , Cliffe Vale , Cobridge , Dresden , Etruria , Fegg Hayes, Florence, Goldenhill , Hartshill , Heron Cross , Meir , Meir Park, Meir Hay, Middleport , Milton ,Newstead,Normacot, Norton le Moors , Oakhill, Packmoor, Penkhull , Sandyford, Shelton , Smallthorne , Sneyd Green , Trentham , Trent Vale and Weston Coyney . Blythe Bridge , Werrington and Endon , although outside

3636-584: The Trentham and Goldenhill golf courses, Hem Heath Wood Nature Reserve, Meir Heath, Barlaston Common, Caverswall Cricket Club, Park Hall Nature Reserve, Chatterley Whitfield Country Park and Enterprise Centre, the villages of Baddeley Edge and Ravenscliffe, Bucknall Reservoir, Caldon Canal, the River Blythe, and the Head of Trent, Wedgwood Museum and estate , Strongford Treatment Works and Trent Vale Pumping Station. In

3737-831: The area come from the 13th century. The Potteries Coalfield (part of the North Staffordshire Coalfield) covers 100 square miles (300 km ). Striking coal miners in the Hanley and Longton area ignited the nationwide 1842 General Strike and its associated Pottery Riots . When coal mining was nationalised in 1947, about 20,000 men worked in the industry in Stoke-on-Trent. Notable Collieries included Hanley Deep Pit, Trentham Superpit (formerly Hem Heath, Stafford and Florence Collieries), Fenton Glebe, Silverdale , Victoria, Mossfield, Parkhall, Norton, Chatterley Whitfield and Wolstanton . The industry developed greatly, and new investments in mining projects were planned within

3838-454: The causeway to more than 5 feet (1.5 metres) above the marsh. In the provinces, the Romans often did not bother with a stone causeway but used log roads ( pontes longi ). The public road system of the Romans was thoroughly military in its aims and spirit. It was designed to unite and consolidate the conquests of the Roman people, whether within or without the limits of Italy proper. A legion on

3939-432: The censorial responsibility passed to the commanders of the Roman armies and later to special commissioners, and in some cases perhaps to the local magistrates. In the provinces, the consul or praetor and his legates received authority to deal directly with the contractor. The care of the streets and roads within the Roman territory was committed in the earliest times to the censors. They eventually made contracts for paving

4040-725: The charges for using the roads. Costs of services on the journey went up from there. Financing road building was a Roman government responsibility. Maintenance, however, was generally left to the province. The officials tasked with fund-raising were the curatores viarum . They had a number of methods available to them. Private citizens with an interest in the road could be asked to contribute to its repair. High officials might distribute largesse to be used for roads. Censors, who were in charge of public morals and public works, were expected to fund repairs suâ pecuniâ (with their own money). Beyond those means, taxes were required. A via connected two cities. Viae were generally centrally placed in

4141-414: The city and Newcastle-under-Lyme, and extending into Cheshire. It is in place to prevent urban sprawl and minimise further convergence with outlying settlements such as Kidsgrove and Biddulph . First defined in 1967, the vast majority of area covered is outside the city. There are some landscape features and places of interest that are covered by the designation, mainly along its fringes. These include

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4242-423: The city proper) who were both part of the collegia known as the vigintisexviri (literally meaning "Twenty-Six Men"). Augustus, finding the collegia ineffective, especially the boards dealing with road maintenance, reduced the number of magistrates from 26 to 20. Augustus abolished the duoviri and later granted the position as superintendent (according to Dio Cassius) of the road system connecting Rome to

4343-412: The city wall and the first milestone beyond. In case of an emergency in the condition of a particular road, men of influence and liberality were appointed, or voluntarily acted, as curatores or temporary commissioners to superintend the work of repair. The dignity attached to such a curatorship is attested by a passage of Cicero . Among those who performed this duty in connection with particular roads

4444-417: The city's boundaries, are part of the built-up area. Stoke-on-Trent, as with all of the United Kingdom, experiences a temperate maritime climate , lacking in weather extremes. The local area is a little more elevated than much of Staffordshire and Cheshire, resulting in cooler temperatures year-round compared to the nearby Cheshire Plain. On calm, clear nights this is often reversed as cold air drainage causes

4545-508: The city. Fine china manufacturer Dudson have premises in Hanley and Burslem. Churchill China have their main factory in Tunstall. Hotelware manufacturer Steelite is based in Middleport at the former Dunn Bennett site. About 9,000 firms are based in the city. Amongst the more notable are Bet365 , founded by local businessman and Stoke City chairman Peter Coates , and formerly Phones4U ,

4646-517: The club's successful profile. On Hilderstone Road, the main road of the village, is a football club named Meir K.A.F.C. Who plays in the Potteries and District Sunday League, a local football league for Stoke-On-Trent and the surrounding area [REDACTED] Media related to Meir Heath at Wikimedia Commons 52°57′29″N 2°06′25″W  /  52.958°N 2.107°W  / 52.958; -2.107 This Staffordshire location article

4747-487: The condition of the public highways. Their names occur frequently in the inscriptions to restorers of roads and bridges. Thus, Vespasian , Titus , Domitian , Trajan , and Septimius Severus were commemorated in this capacity at Emérita. The Itinerary of Antoninus (which was probably a work of much earlier date and republished in an improved and enlarged form under one of the Antonine emperors ) remains as standing evidence of

4848-524: The construction of sewers and removed obstructions to traffic, as the aediles did in Rome. It was in the character of an imperial curator (though probably armed with extraordinary powers) that Corbulo denounced the magistratus and mancipes of the Italian roads to Tiberius . He pursued them and their families with fines and imprisonment and was later rewarded with a consulship by Caligula , who also shared

4949-469: The countryside. The construction and care of the public roads, whether in Rome, in Italy, or in the provinces, was, at all periods of Roman history, considered to be a function of the greatest weight and importance. This is clearly shown by the fact that the censors, in some respects the most venerable of Roman magistrates, had the earliest paramount authority to construct and repair all roads and streets. Indeed all

5050-514: The description of the road system is as follows: With the exception of some outlying portions, such as Britain north of the Wall, Dacia , and certain provinces east of the Euphrates, the whole Empire was penetrated by these itinera (plural of iter ). There is hardly a district to which we might expect a Roman official to be sent, on service either civil or military, where we do not find roads. They reach

5151-404: The development of artistic talent throughout the local community and raised the profile of Staffordshire Potteries . This was spearheaded by one man, Josiah Wedgwood , who cut the first sod for the canal in 1766 and erected his Etruria Works that year. Wedgwood built upon the successes of earlier local potters such as his mentor Thomas Whieldon and along with scientists and engineers, raised

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5252-463: The development of the city, both before and after the federation. Especially notable were those mills located in the valley at Goldendale and Shelton below the hill towns of Tunstall , Burslem and Hanley. Shelton Steelworks ' production of steel ended in 1978—instead of producing crude steel, they concentrated on rolling steel billet which was transported from Scunthorpe by rail. The rolling plant finally closed in 2002. From 1864 to 1927 Stoke housed

5353-557: The early (initially limited) development of the local pottery industry. The construction of the Trent and Mersey Canal (completed in 1777) enabled the import of china clay from Cornwall together with other materials and facilitated the production of creamware and bone china . Other production centres in Britain, Europe and worldwide had a considerable lead in the production of high-quality wares. Methodical and highly detailed research and experimentation, carried out over many years, nurtured

5454-603: The firm's Indonesian factory. Portmeirion is based in Stoke town, and now owns the Spode and Royal Worcester ceramics brands. Ceramics firm Emma Bridgewater is based in Hanley. Burleigh Pottery is in Middleport. Wade Ceramics is in Etruria. Moorcroft and Royal Stafford are based in Burslem. Aynsley China is in Longton, and is one of the last remaining manufacturers of bone china in

5555-463: The gravel), and a rain-water gutter. Romans preferred to engineer solutions to obstacles rather than circumvent them. Outcrops of stone, ravines, or hilly or mountainous terrain called for cuts and tunnels. An example of this is found on the Roman road from Căzănești near the Iron Gates . This road was half carved into the rock, about 5   ft to 5   ft 9   in (1.5 to 1.75   m);

5656-416: The habit of condemning well-born citizens to work on the roads. Under the rule of Claudius, Corbulo was brought to justice and forced to repay the money which had been extorted from his victims. Special curatores for a term seem to have been appointed on occasion, even after the institution of the permanent magistrates bearing that title. The emperors who succeeded Augustus exercised a vigilant control over

5757-538: The heading of viae privatae were also included roads leading from the public or high roads to particular estates or settlements; Ulpian considers these to be public roads. Features off the via were connected to the via by viae rusticae , or secondary roads. Both main or secondary roads might either be paved or left unpaved with a gravel surface, as they were in North Africa. These prepared but unpaved roads were viae glareae or sternendae ("to be strewn"). Beyond

5858-450: The help of legionaries , with spades excavated the road bed down to bedrock or at least to the firmest ground they could find. The excavation was called the fossa , the Latin word for ditch. The depth varied according to terrain. The method varied according to geographic locality, materials available, and terrain, but the plan or ideal at which the engineer aimed was always the same. The road

5959-453: The huge Chatterley Whitfield Colliery as a mining museum since it has been given scheduled monument status. The Elizabethan Ford Green Hall is a 17th-century farmhouse which is now a historic house museum in Smallthorne . Although Trentham Gardens is in the Borough of Stafford , it is just south of the city and is considered by many locals to be part of Stoke-on-Trent. Next door

6060-519: The late 1980s and 1990s Stoke-on-Trent was hit hard by the general decline in the British manufacturing sector. Numerous factories, steelworks , collieries , and potteries were closed, including the renowned Shelton Bar steelworks. This resulted in a sharp rise in unemployment in the 'high-skilled but low-paid' workforce. The pottery firm Wedgwood and its subsidiary Royal Doulton are based nearby Barlaston , although much production now takes place in

6161-510: The locally average snow fall probably attributed to its windy nature and snow drifts, hence the reason for locating the windmill there. The village features a well known public house named The Windmill, the car park of which contains a windmill with a new boat cap, door new windows new beams making it safe to go inside. Sporting Meir Heath Cricket Club was formed in 1946 and continues to offer cricket tuition to boys and girls of all ages. The club also features men's and women's teams who continue

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6262-807: The major pottery companies based in Stoke-on-Trent have factory shops and visitor centres. The £10 million Wedgwood Museum visitor centre opened in the firm's factory in Barlaston in October 2008. The Dudson Centre in Hanley is a museum of the family ceramics business, which is partly housed in a Grade II listed bottle kiln. It is a volunteer centre. Burleigh in Middleport is the world's oldest working Victorian pottery. There are smaller factory shops, such as Royal Stafford in Burslem, Moorcroft in Cobridge and Emma Bridgewater in Hanley. There are ambitious plans to open

6363-489: The march brought its own baggage train ( impedimenta ) and constructed its own camp ( castra ) every evening at the side of the road. Milestones divided the Via Appia even before 250 BC into numbered miles, and most viae after 124 BC. The modern word "mile" derives from the Latin milia passuum , "one thousand paces ", each of which was five Roman feet, or in total 1,476 m (4,843 ft). A milestone, or miliarium ,

6464-536: The minute care which was bestowed on the service of the public roads. Ancient Rome boasted impressive technological feats, using many advances that were lost during the Middle Ages . Some of these accomplishments would not be rivaled in Europe until the Modern Age . Many practical Roman innovations were adopted from earlier designs. Some of the common, earlier designs incorporated arches . Roman road builders aimed at

6565-555: The name of the river . The motto of Stoke-on-Trent is Vis Unita Fortior which can be translated as: United Strength is Stronger, or Strength United is the More Powerful, or A United Force is Stronger. An early proposal for a federation took place in 1888 when an amendment was raised to the Local Government Bill which would have made the six towns into districts within a county of "Staffordshire Potteries". On 1 April 1910

6666-464: The nearby village of Butt Lane , had his apprenticeship at Kerr, Stuart and Company's railway works. The Michelin tyre company has a presence in Stoke-on-Trent, and in the 1920s built their first UK plant in the city. In the 1980s nearly 9,000 workers were employed at the plant. In 2006 about 1,200 worked there. RAF Meir was located on the outskirts of the city. Stoke-on-Trent is between Manchester , Wolverhampton and Birmingham and adjoins

6767-491: The office of curator of each of the great public roads a perpetual magistracy rather than a temporary commission. The persons appointed under the new system were of senatorial or equestrian rank, depending on the relative importance of the roads assigned to them. It was the duty of each curator to issue contracts for the maintenance of his road and to see that the contractor who undertook said work performed it faithfully, as to both quantity and quality. Augustus also authorized

6868-436: The passing of two carts of standard (4 foot) width without interference to pedestrian traffic. Actual practices varied from this standard. The Tables command Romans to build public roads and give wayfarers the right to pass over private land where the road is in disrepair. Building roads that would not need frequent repair therefore became an ideological objective, as well as building them as straight as practicable to construct

6969-413: The paving of the streets of Rome or at least shared that responsibility with the quattuorviri viarum . It has been suggested that the quaestors were obliged to buy their right to an official career by personal outlay on the streets. There was certainly no lack of precedents for this enforced liberality, and the change made by Claudius may have been a mere change in the nature of the expenditure imposed on

7070-567: The peak of Rome's development, no fewer than 29 great military highways radiated from the capital, and the empire's 113 provinces were interconnected by 372 great roads. The whole comprised more than 400,000 kilometres (250,000 miles ) of roads, of which over 80,500 kilometres (50,000 mi) were stone-paved. In Gaul alone, no less than 21,000 kilometres (13,000 mi) of roadways are said to have been improved, and in Britain at least 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi). The courses (and sometimes

7171-621: The population was retired and 5.61% were students. The city's ceramics collection is housed in the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Hanley. Etruria Industrial Museum on the Caldon Canal , and Gladstone Pottery Museum in a former potbank in Longton are dedicated to the city's industrial heritage. There is Stoke Minster which is located in the Stoke-upon-Trent area and is the only official church with Minster status . Most of

7272-410: The pottery business to a new level. Josiah Spode introduced bone china at Trent in 1796, and Thomas Minton opened his manufactory. With the industry came a large number of notable 20th-century ceramic artists including Clarice Cliff , Susie Cooper , Charlotte Rhead , Frederick Hurten Rhead and Jabez Vodrey . North Staffordshire was a centre for coal mining. The first reports of coal mining in

7373-618: The quaestors. The official bodies which first succeeded the censors in the care of the streets and roads were: Both these bodies were probably of ancient origin. The first mention of either body occurs in the Lex Julia Municipalis in 45 BC. The quattuorviri were afterwards called quattuorviri viarum curandarum . The extent of jurisdiction of the duoviri is derived from their full title as duoviri viis extra propiusve urbem Romam passus mille purgandis . Their authority extended over all roads between their respective gates of issue in

7474-408: The rest of Italy and provinces beyond. In this capacity he had effectively given himself and any following emperors a paramount authority which had originally belonged to the city censors. The quattuorviri board was kept as it was until at least the reign of Hadrian (117 to 138 AD). Furthermore, he appointed praetorians to the offices of "road-maker" and assigning each one with two lictors , making

7575-616: The rest of the road, above the Danube , was made from wooden structure, projecting out of the cliff. The road functioned as a towpath, making the Danube navigable. Tabula Traiana memorial plaque in Serbia is all that remains of the now-submerged road. Roman bridges were some of the first large and lasting bridges created. River crossings were achieved by bridges, or pontes . Single slabs went over rills. A bridge could be of wood, stone, or both. Wooden bridges were constructed on pilings sunk into

7676-407: The river, or on stone piers. Stone arch bridges were used on larger or more permanent crossings. Most bridges also used concrete, which the Romans were the first to use for bridges. Roman bridges were so well constructed that many remain in use today. Causeways were built over marshy ground. The road was first marked out with pilings. Between them were sunk large quantities of stone so as to raise

7777-457: The roads outside the city, and for forming raised footpaths at the sides. In these roads, the surface was hardened with gravel, and although pavements were introduced shortly afterwards, the blocks were laid on a bed of small stones. Examples include the Via Praenestina and Via Latina . The best sources of information as regards the construction of a regulation via munita are: After

7878-739: The roads referred to were probably at the time little more than levelled earthen tracks. Thus, the Via Gabiana (during the time of Porsena ) is mentioned in about 500 BC; the Via Latina (during the time of Gaius Marcius Coriolanus ) in about 490 BC; the Via Nomentana (also known as "Via Ficulensis"), in 449 BC; the Via Labicana in 421 BC; and the Via Salaria in 361 BC. In the Itinerary of Antoninus ,

7979-462: The secondary roads were the viae terrenae , "dirt roads". The third category comprised roads at or in villages, districts , or crossroads , leading through or towards a vicus or village. Such roads ran either into a high road or into other viae vicinales , without any direct communication with a high road. They were considered public or private, according to the fact of their original construction out of public or private funds or materials. Such

8080-445: The shortest possible roads, and thus save on material. Roman law defined the right to use a road as a servitus , or liability. The ius eundi ("right of going") established a claim to use an iter , or footpath, across private land; the ius agendi ("right of driving"), an actus , or carriage track. A via combined both types of servitutes , provided it was of the proper width, which was determined by an arbiter . The default width

8181-564: The six towns in Stoke-on-Trent has at least one park. At nine hectares, Burslem Park is one of the largest registered Victorian parks in the UK. Park Hall Country Park in Weston Coyney is a national nature reserve , and its sandstone canyons are a Site of Special Scientific Interest . Hartshill Park in Stoke is a nature reserve. Bucknall Park is home to the City Farm. Westport Lake in Longport

8282-430: The street inside Rome, including the Clivus Capitolinus , with lava, and for laying down the roads outside the city with gravel. Sidewalks were also provided. The aediles , probably by virtue of their responsibility for the freedom of traffic and policing the streets, co-operated with the censors and the bodies that succeeded them. It would seem that in the reign of Claudius the quaestors had become responsible for

8383-566: The surfaces) of many Roman roads survived for millennia; some are overlaid by modern roads. "The extraordinary greatness of the Roman Empire manifests itself above all in three things: the aqueducts, the paved roads, and the construction of the drains." Livy mentions some of the most familiar roads near Rome, and the milestones on them, at times long before the first paved road—the Appian Way . Unless these allusions are just simple anachronisms,

8484-598: The term viae regales compare the roads of the Persian kings (who probably organized the first system of public roads) and the King's Highway . With the term viae militariae compare the Icknield Way ( Icen-hilde-weg , or "War-way of the Iceni"). There were many other people, besides special officials, who from time to time and for a variety of reasons sought to connect their names with

8585-528: The terms via munita and vía publica became identical. Viae were distinguished according to their public or private character, as well as according to the materials employed and the methods followed in their construction. Ulpian divided them up in the following fashion: According to Isidore of Sevilla , the Romans borrowed the knowledge of construction of viae munitae from the Carthaginians , though certainly inheriting some construction techniques from

8686-635: The town of Newcastle-under-Lyme to the west. It lies on the upper valley of the River Trent at the south-west foothills of the Pennines , near the uplands of the Peak District to the north-east and the lowlands of the Midlands and Cheshire Plain to the south and west. The city ranges from 96 to 250 metres (315 to 820 ft) above sea level. For Eurostat purposes, it is a NUTS 3 region (code UKG23); it

8787-413: The urban administration, both abolished and created new offices in connection with the maintenance of public works, streets, and aqueducts in and around Rome. The task of maintaining the roads had previously been administered by two groups of minor magistrates, the quattuorviri (a board of four magistrates to oversee the roads inside the city) and the duoviri (a board of two to oversee the roads outside

8888-474: The various functionaries, including emperors, who succeeded the censors in this portion of their duties, may be said to have exercised a devolved censorial jurisdiction. The devolution to the censorial jurisdictions became a practical necessity, resulting from the growth of the Roman dominions and the diverse labors which detained the censors in the capital city. Certain ad hoc official bodies successively acted as constructing and repairing authorities. In Italy,

8989-609: The water would flow out from between the stones and fragments of rubble instead of becoming mud in clay soils. According to Ulpian , there were three types of roads: The first type of road included public high or main roads, constructed and maintained at the public expense, and with their soil vested in the state. Such roads led either to the sea, to a town, to a public river (one with a constant flow), or to another public road. Siculus Flaccus , who lived under Trajan (98–117), calls them viae publicae regalesque , and describes their characteristics as follows: Roman roads were named after

9090-663: The west of Stoke. This never took place, due to strong objections from Newcastle Corporation. A further attempt was made in 1930, with the promotion of the Stoke-on-Trent Extension Bill. Ultimately, Wolstanton was instead added to Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1932. Although attempts to merge Newcastle, Wolstanton and Kidsgrove (north of Tunstall) were never successful, the borough expanded in 1922, taking in Smallthorne Urban District and parts of other parishes from Stoke upon Trent Rural District . The borough

9191-403: The years the Romans realized this and built longer but more manageable alternatives to existing roads. Roman roads generally went straight up and down hills, rather than in a serpentine pattern of switchbacks. As to the standard Imperial terminology that was used, the words were localized for different elements used in construction and varied from region to region. Also, in the course of time,

9292-428: Was Julius Caesar , who became curator (67 BC) of the Via Appia and spent his own money liberally upon it. Certain persons appear also to have acted alone and taken responsibility for certain roads. In the country districts, the magistri pagorum had authority to maintain the viae vicinales . In Rome each householder was legally responsible for the repairs to that portion of the street which passed his own house; it

9393-476: Was a circular column on a solid rectangular base, set more than 2 feet (0.61 metres) into the ground, standing 5 feet (1.5 metres) tall, 20 inches (51 centimetres) in diameter, and weighing more than 2 tons. At the base was inscribed the number of the mile relative to the road it was on. In a panel at eye height was the distance to the Roman Forum and various other information about the officials who made or repaired

9494-467: Was a military responsibility and thus came under the jurisdiction of a consul. The process had a military name, viam munire , as though the via were a fortification. Municipalities, however, were responsible for their own roads, which the Romans called viae vicinales . Roads were not free to use; tolls abounded, especially at bridges. Often they were collected at the city gate. Freight costs were made heavier still by import and export taxes. These were only

9595-697: Was based at the Victoria Ground in Stoke-upon-Trent from 1878 until 1997 when it moved to the Britannia Stadium (now the Bet365 Stadium ) at Trentham Lakes. This was one of the early stages of regeneration in the Trentham area of the city, which included the regeneration of Trentham Gardens several years later when retail and food outlets were added to the visitor attraction. Trentham Monkey Forest opened nearby in 2005. The Michelin tyre company has

9696-448: Was constructed by filling the fossa . This was done by layering rock over other stones. Into the fossa was placed large amounts of rubble , gravel and stone, whatever fill was available. Sometimes a layer of sand was put down, if it was locally avbailable. When the layers came to within 1 yd (1 m) or so of the surface, the subsurface was covered with gravel and tamped down, a process called pavire , or pavimentare . The flat surface

9797-463: Was granted city status in 1925, with a lord mayor from 1928. When the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent initially applied for city status in 1925, citing its importance as the centre of the pottery industry, it was refused by the Home Office as it had fewer than 300,000 inhabitants. The decision was overturned, when a direct approach was made to King George V , who agreed that the borough ought to be

9898-404: Was more euphonious than "Six Towns", so he omitted Fenton, now sometimes referred to as "the forgotten town". As it is a city made up of multiple towns, the city forms a conurbation . In this case, the conurbation is bigger than Stoke itself, because the urban area of Stoke is contiguous with that of administratively separate Newcastle. The six towns run in a rough line from north to south along

9999-504: Was the latitudo legitima of 8 feet. Roman law and tradition forbade the use of vehicles in urban areas, except in certain cases. Married women and government officials on business could ride. The Lex Julia Municipalis restricted commercial carts to night-time access in the city within the walls and within a mile outside the walls. Roman roads varied from simple corduroy roads to paved roads using deep roadbeds of tamped rubble as an underlying layer to ensure that they kept dry, as

10100-422: Was the duty of the aediles to enforce this responsibility. The portion of any street which passed a temple or public building was repaired by the aediles at the public expense. When a street passed between a public building or temple and a private house, the public treasury and the private owner shared the expense equally. The governing structure was changed by Augustus , who in the course of his reconstitution of

10201-400: Was then the pavimentum . It could be used as the road, or additional layers could be constructed. A statumen or "foundation" of flat stones set in cement might support the additional layers. The final steps utilized lime-based mortar , which the Romans had discovered. They seem to have mixed the mortar and the stones in the ditch. First a small layer of coarse concrete , the rudus , then

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