Oakamoor is a small village in north
Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
, England.
Although it is now a rural area, it has an industrial past which drew on the natural resources of the Churnet valley.
Iron was smelted from medieval times.
Copper and lumber were also important to the local economy.
In the nineteenth century Thomas Bolton's copperworks near the
River Churnet supplied copper wire for the first
transatlantic telegraph cable. The buildings of the Thomas Bolton factory were demolished in 1966.
Lightoaks Hall on Cheadle Road dates from the 1820s and was built for the Bolton family. Holy Trinity parish church, on Church Bank, was erected in 1832, at a cost of £1600, raised by subscription and a grant from the
Church Building Society
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* C ...
.
The
Churnet Valley line passed through Oakamoor.
Oakamoor railway station
Oakamoor railway station is a closed railway station in the Churnet Valley, Staffordshire. The station was opened in 1849 as part of the Churnet Valley Line constructed by the North Staffordshire Railway. Serving the village of Oakamoor th ...
was closed down in 1967. The railway track leading to
Alton Towers railway station has been converted to a footpath.
Media interest
In 2004 Oakamoor was the subject of a television programme in the
Channel 4 ''
Time Team'' archaeology series, which investigated the remains of
The Old Furnace
The Old Furnace is a colloquial name given to an historic site in Oakamoor, Staffordshire, England, that supported the development of medieval and post-medieval iron smelting.
The furnace was situated in the Churnet Valley in the Staffordshi ...
.
''Time Team'' fan site
Retrieved on 2008-06-09
See also
*Listed buildings in Oakamoor
Oakamoor is a civil parish in the district of Staffordshire Moorlands, Staffordshire, England. It contains 16 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. All the listed buildings are designated at Grade II, ...
References
Villages in Staffordshire
Towns and villages of the Peak District
Staffordshire Moorlands
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