IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Tilson Avenue, STOKE-ON-TRENT, ST4 7JZ

The west front and main entrance to The Mount, a mansion built by Josiah Spode II. The house was built on the site of an old farmhouse between Penkhull and Hartshill around 1803-04 and is now a grade I listed building. Later the site of the North Staffordshire School for the Blind and Deaf (from 1897), it became the Willows Primary School in 2003. Neville Malkin's "Grand Tour" of the Potteries No.16 http://www.thepotteries.org/tour/016.htm

Built as a Primitive Methodist Chapel by public subscription in 1836, extended in 1876, closed in October 1996, restored 1998-99. So says the plaque http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5129592

For the chapel itself see http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5129599

The stone reads :- This stone marks the entrance to the former Iron Age Fort and the Domesday Village of Pinchetel a Royal Manor from 1086 to the time of Edward II The hill-top village of Penkhull was probably the earliest inhabited place within the area now known as the Potteries, being settled by the Celts, Romans and Anglo-Saxons in turn. It was ideally situated by reason of its wooded hunting grounds, its clear views over the surrounding countryside and its closeness to the streams in the Lyme Valley on the western, and the Trent Valley on the eastern side. The village may have been protected by a primitive hill-fort, although no remains of such a construction have been discovered. In 1086, the Domesday Book described the Manor of Penkhull (which it called "Pinchetel") as a village of great size, with over 1,000 acres of arable land stretched out over parts of present-day Newcastle-under-Lyme, Hanley, Shelton, Stoke and Boothen. However, soon after this survey was taken, Penkhull began to decline in importance with the building of a New Castle nearby. A market town quickly grew up within sight of this castle and by the year 1173, the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme ("New Castle under the Elm Trees") had been established. This borough was to remain the largest centre of population and leading market town in the area for the next 600 years until the rise of the six towns now called Stoke-on-Trent. Domesday Listed as :- PENKHULL. Earl Algar held it. 2 hides, with its dependencies. Land for 11 ploughs. In lordship 2; 17 villagers and 6 smallholders with 8 ploughs. Meadow, 2 acres; woodland 1 league long and 2 furlongs wide. Value £6.