Goldenhill

Its altitude is 700 feet (210 m), the highest point in Stoke-on-Trent.

History

Goldenhill is not mentioned in the Domesday Book. The village existed by 1670, and is shown in Robert Plot's map of Staffordshire dated 1682. In 1775 it was nearly as large as Tunstall, and grew further during the 19th century.

It is thought there was pottery manufacture of coarse ware in Goldenhill during the 16th century. At the beginning of the 19th century there were six potteries works. During the century pottery manufacture became more concentrated in Tunstall, which had 13 potteries by 1834, compared with two in Goldenhill; in 1863 there were 19 potteries in Tunstall and one in Goldenhill, which closed soon afterwards.

There was coal mining on a small scale in the 1700s. James Brindley, builder of the Harecastle Tunnel in the 1770s, built a branch canal from the tunnel to an underground wharf of a colliery in Goldenhill in which he had a share; by 1820 this had become unsafe and was closed. The Goldenhill Colliery, in Colclough Lane, excavating coal and ironstone, was owned by Robert Williamson in the mid 19th century. It was still operating in the 1920s, but was closed by 1931.

The Potteries Waterworks Company, formed in 1847, supplied water to Goldenhill and Kidsgrove by pumping water from a steam pumping plant in Tunstall, built in 1854, to a new reservoir on the higher ground at Goldenhill.

The Potteries Loop Line, built in 1873, was extended to Goldenhill in 1874 and Goldenhill railway station was opened. The Loop Line, including Goldenhill station, was closed to passengers in 1964.

Goldenhill was formerly a chapelry in the parish of Wolstanton, from 1894 Goldenhill was a civil parish in its own right, on 1 April 1922 the parish was abolished and merged with Stoke on Trent. In 1921 the parish had a population of 5046.