Uttoxeter | EPFL Graph Search

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Uttoxeter (juːˈtɒksᵻtər , ˈʊtʃᵻtə ) is a market town and civil parish in East Staffordshire, England, near to the Derbyshire county border. The town is from Burton upon Trent via the A50 and the A38, from Stafford via the A518, from Stoke-on-Trent via the A50, and from Derby via the A50 and the A38, and north-east of Rugeley via the A518 and the B5013. The population was 14,014 at the 2021 Census. The town's literary connections include Samuel Johnson and Mary Howitt. Uttoxeter's name has been spelt at least 79 ways since it appeared in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Wotocheshede": it probably came from Anglo-Saxon Wuttuceshǣddre, meaning "Wuttuc's homestead on the heath". Some historians have pointed to pre-Roman settlement here; axes from the Bronze Age discovered in the town are now on display in the Potteries Museum in Stoke-on-Trent. It is possible that Uttoxeter was the location of some form of Roman activity, due to its strategic position on the River Dove and its closeness to the large garrison forts at Rocester between 69 and 400 AD, and the recently discovered fort at Stramshall. However, little corroborating archaeological evidence has been found. Uttoxeter saw the last major royalist surrender of the English Civil War, on 25 August 1648, when James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton surrendered to Parliamentarian General John Lambert. Perhaps the most famous historical event to have occurred in Uttoxeter is an act of penance by Samuel Johnson. Johnson's father ran a bookstall on Uttoxeter market, and young Samuel once refused to help out on the stall. When Johnson was older, he stood in the rain without a hat, as penance for his failure to assist his father. The event is commemorated by the Johnson Memorial, which stands in the town-centre Market Place. He is also remembered in the name of Johnson Road. Mary Howitt, the Quaker writer of the poem "The Spider and the Fly", grew up in Uttoxeter. The town influenced some of her poems and novels and fuelled her love of natural history, which also featured in her books.

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Related concepts (3)

Burton upon Trent

Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. In 2011, it had a population of 72,299. The demonym for residents of the town is Burtonian. Burton is located south-west of Derby, north-west of Leicester, west-south-west of Nottingham and south of the southern entrance to the Peak District National Park. Burton is known for its brewing. The town grew up around Burton Abbey.

Stafford

Stafford (ˈstæfərd) is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 in the 2021 census, It is the main settlement within the larger borough of Stafford which had a population of 136,837 (2021). Stafford means "ford" by a staithe (landing place). The original settlement was on a dry sand and gravel peninsula that offered a strategic crossing point in the marshy valley of the River Sow, a tributary of the River Trent.

Peak District

The Peak District is an upland area in England, at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire and includes the Dark Peak, moorland dominated by gritstone, and the White Peak, a limestone area with valleys and gorges. The Dark Peak forms an arc on the north, east and west sides; the White Peak covers central and southern tracts. The Peak District was the first of the national parks of England and Wales in 1951.