Hanley

Hanley, a market town and parliamentary borough of Staffordshire, England, in the Potteries district, 148 m. N.W. from London, on the North Staffordshire railway. Pop. (1891) 54,946; (1901) 61,599. The parliamentary borough includes the adjoining town of Burslem. The town, which lies on high ground, has handsome municipal buildings, free library, technical and art museum, elementary, science and art schools, and a large park. Its manufactures include porcelain, encaustic tiles, and earthenware, and give employment to the greater part of the population, women and children being employed almost as largely as men. In the neighbourhood coal and iron are obtained. Hanley is of modern development. Its municipal constitution dates from 1857, the parliamentary borough from 1885, and the county borough from 1888. Shelton, Hope, Northwood and Wellington are populous ecclesiastical parishes included within its boundaries. That of Etruria, adjoining on the west, originated in the Ridge House pottery works of Josiah Wedgwood and Thomas Bentley, who founded them in 1769, naming them after the country of the Etruscans in Italy. Etruria Hall was the scene of Wedgwood’s experiments. The parliamentary borough of Hanley returns one member. The town was governed by a mayor, 6 aldermen, and 18 councillors until under the “Potteries federation” scheme (1908) it became part of the borough of Stoke-on-Trent (q.v.) in 1910.

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