Erecting
a bridge in Stoke-on-Trent 21st April
1924. Despite our best efforts we have been
unable to locate the copyright owner of this
image: if you have any information please
contact us thorough our feedback
form.
Railways were
an important means of transport in the Potteries
area throughout much of the nineteenth century.
From 1846 onwards the locomotives of the North
Staffordshire Railway worked alongside the canal
barges to move goods around the area and
together they provided a fully intergrated
transport network.
During the nineteenth century most towns,
collieries and main factories in the area were
served by the North Staffordshire Railway, which
was formed in 1846 by the merging of the
Staffordshire Potteries and Churnet Valley
Railways. The first section of the north
Staffordshire Railway, between Stoke and Norton
Bridge, opened for goods and passengers in April
1848. Massive expansion followed, facilitating
the movement of raw materials, from local
collieries and elsewhere, to pottery factories,
ironworks and steelworks. The railways also
provided a fast and reliable means of taking
finished goods to the rest of the world.
