The North Staffordshire Tramways operated a steam tramway service from 1881 to 1898 in the

Staffordshire Potteries The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall, which is now the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. North Staffordshire became a centre of cer ...

area.

History

The North Staffordshire Tramways Company Limited was formed on 4 December 1878. The ''Stoke-on-Trent, Fenton, Longton and District Tramways Order'' of 1879 was sanctioned by the Tramways Order Confirmation Act of 11 August 1879 to build four routes of tramway. The company acquired the assets of the

Staffordshire Potteries Street Railway Company The Staffordshire Potteries Street Railway operated a horse-drawn tramway service between Hanley and Burslem from 1862 to 1880. History The prospectus for the company was issued in October 1861. The tramway was pioneered by George Francis Trai ...

on 2 March 1880 and continued to operate it between

Hanley Hanley is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. Hanley is the ''de facto'' city centre, having long been the ...

and

Burslem Burslem ( ) is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is often referred to as the "mother town" of Stoke on Trent. T ...

until it rebuilt it in 1882. The North Staffordshire Tramways Order of 1880 sanctioned the building of five additional routes. Both acts of parliament sanctioned the use of steam engines, and this was the company's selected method of motive power. The first routes to be constructed ran from Stoke centre to Longton Market Place via Fenton, with branches along Longton High Street and Trentham Road. These were inspected by Major General

Charles Scrope Hutchinson Major-General Charles Scrope Hutchinson (8 August 1826 – 29 February 1912) was Chief Inspecting Officer for Railways from 1892 to 1895. Family Hutchinson was born in Hythe, Kent, son of Scrope Hutchinson, M.D. He was educated at University C ...

of the Board of Trade on 4 January 1881. However some issues must have been found as it required a further inspection which happened on 22 April 1881. The company did not have authority under the Act of Parliament to operate steam engines on the branch lines and the approved Longton terminus of the Stoke route at Bank House was not even at the Market Place. The company was also in dispute with the

North Staffordshire Railway The North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) was a British railway company formed in 1845 to promote a number of lines in the Staffordshire Potteries and surrounding areas in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shropshire. The company was based i ...

Company in relation to the rebuilding of canal bridges in Hanley and Stoke. The tramway company had provided the girders, but an impasse was reached. It was only with the intervention of Major General

in August 1881 who found in favour of the tramway company that the deadlock was broken. The line from Stoke to

was inspected by Major-General Hutchinson of the Board of Trade on 19 December 1881 and opened for public service on 21 December 1881. It closed a few days later for work required at Hanley, and opened again at the end of January 1882. From Hanley to Burslem the change of gauge from to meant that for a short while in 1882 the horse tram line ran at the side of the road whilst the steam tram line was in the middle of the road waiting for Board of Trade sanction. Horse drawn tramcars were replaced by steam around June 1882. The company obtained a number of steam engines by Merryweather and also Manning Wardle. However, these proved to heavy for the rails, weighing in around 13 to 15 tons each. They were also costly to operate at around 14d per mile, with a daily working of 67½ miles per engine. At the company's annual meeting for the 31 December 1882, the shareholders agreed to obtain 15 Wilkinson type engines which weighed in at 8 tons with an operating cost of 8d per mile. By 1892 the company was running over 5¾ route miles comprising one main route from Longton-Fenton-Stoke-Hanley-Burslem with a one-mile cross-town route in Stoke.

Fleet

The original list of locomotives is recorded by H.A. Whitcombe.

Closure

In 1895 the licence to operate steam engines expired, and the Board of Trade inspection recommended conversion to another method of propulsion. The

Potteries Electric Traction Company The Potteries Electric Traction Company operated a tramway service in The Potteries between 1899 and 1928. History British Electric Traction incorporated a new company on 27 June 1898, called the Potteries Electric Traction Company. Its pu ...

was formed by

British Electric Traction British Electric Traction Company Limited, renamed BET plc in 1985, was a large British industrial conglomerate. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Rentokil in 1996, and the merged company is now known as Rent ...

to take over the assets of the North Staffordshire Tramways Company. The company was acquired on 27 June 1898 and conversion to overhead electric followed shortly afterwards.

References

Sources

* {{Historic UK Trams Tram transport in England 1878 establishments in England Transport in Stoke-on-Trent