The Settlement of Uttoxeter

Saxon settlers took over the area from the Celts some time before 600 AD. Their settlement, beginning as a farmstead amongst the heath and woodland of the West bank of the River Dove, lay within the Kingdom of Mercia. The manor was confiscated from the Earl of Mercia by William the Conqueror in 1069 and was listed under the lands of the King in the Doomsday Book of 1086 as ‘Wotochesede’. This may be interpreted as ‘Wot’s homestead on the heath’, but there are many other possibilities and the name of the town has been spelt in no less than 78 different ways since! The taxable value of the manor was £8, making it one of the most valuable in this part of Staffordshire.

Shortly after the survey, William gave Uttoxeter to Henry de Ferrers, Lord of Tutbury, a staunch supporter. It was Henry who rebuilt Tutbury Castle and founded a priory there. He was succeeded by his son Robert, who in 1138 was created Earl of Derby by King Stephen. His successor held the Manor of Uttoxeter until 1266 when it was confiscated for rebellion, along with the family’s other estates, and given to Edmund, Earl of Lancaster.

Development of the Town

The Earls of Derby had greatly enhanced the economy of the manor. The 1st Earl introduced iron working and made the village a trading centre as  part of his plan to develop new communities in cleared areas of the Needwood Forest. In 1251 King Henry III granted a Charter to William the 7th Earl, whose Charter to Uttoxeter was dated 12th August 1252. The Charter gave toll free trading to the Burgesses (Townsmen) throughout the de Ferrers lands, it also gave them the right to determine who would be allowed to trade in Uttoxeter and to set their own standards and conditions of trade. The Burgesses were expected to keep good order in the town and to collect tolls and taxes due to their Lord. The charter not only established Uttoxeter as a trading centre, but also allowed the Burgesses of the town a fair degree of self-administration.

The Market Place became the physical and economical ‘heart’ of the town and it was during the medieval period that Uttoxeter took on the layout that it still has today, with the houses and workshops around the Market Place and Church.

Increased prosperity in the town brought about the rebuilding of the Church in decorated style and revenues from the Church land were partially used to endow an Abbey at Darley near Derby. Under Edward III (1327-88) the Dean and Canons of Windsor became patrons of St. Mary’s. Such prosperity was temporarily halted by the Black Death in the 1340s and by internecine conflicts, notably the War of the Roses, as well as fluctuations in the growth and supply of crops, but the town quickly recovered and thrived.

The Burgesses of the town had a fair amount of independence, subject to their obligations to their Lord, whose steward lived in a house to the West of the Market Place which stood approximately on the site of the present Post Office in Carter Street. Close to the present Talbot Inn in the Market Place, was the Court Leet building and the Parish ovens, the dues of which went to the Lord of the Manor, as did the market tolls.

Uttoxeter was rarely involved in events of national significance, but it was, of course, affected by them. At the Reformation, the Parish Church was audited by the King’s Commissioners and all of it’s ‘Popish’ trappings were removed or rather what was left of them after the townspeople had sold off the best in advance of the Commissioners!

The Civil War

When Charles I, anxious to raise money without calling Parliament in 1626, sold his Manor of Uttoxeter to four speculators for £3,129, plots and messuages of land were eventually bought by local tradesmen and land owners. By this the town managed to achieve an even greater degree of self-government. During the English Civil War, the town did not declare itself for either King or Parliament. When Charles I arrived in Uttoxeter in 1642, he was met by a deputation that urged him to sue for a peaceful settlement with Parliament.

During the course of the Civil War, the town was occupied by both belligerent forces, which regarded Uttoxeter as a source of revenues and food and supplies for their armies. For a brief period the King’s Ordnance was housed in the town. Later, large detachments of the Parliamentary Army were encamped at the Heath and in the Town Meadows, roughly where the racecourse is today.

The town was also the place chosen by the Duke of Hamilton to surrender his Scottish Army to the Parliamentarians in 1648. Prisoners were kept in the Church, causing damage to the fabric as Church Wardens’ records of the time show. However, compensation was paid to several townspeople who suffered damage or loss of property because of the war.

The Seventeenth Century

The late 17th Century has been called the ‘Golden Age of Uttoxeter’. The town flourished, not only because of its market, but also because it developed an important leather working industry as a by-product of its cattle market. Wills and inventories of the period show that by the standards of the day there were many wealthy people in the town, not only the tanners, but also mercers (merchants – particularly of cloth), ironmongers and tailors.

Uttoxeter was to establish itself as THE market for butter and cheese in the area. Merchants from London brought dairy products to resell in the capital. Later when the Industrial Revolution saw the rapid development of towns such as Birmingham and Wolverhampton, Uttoxeter’s beef and dairy products were in even greater demand.
Butter was sold at Uttoxeter market in earthenware crocks, made in Burslem (in what is now known as ‘the Potteries’). An official worked full time in the summer months to ensure that these crocks contained full measure and several traders were prosecuted for not complying with such standards.

The major cattle and horse fairs took place in the Autumn. Animals would be driven on the hoof from Wales, Shropshire, Cheshire and the Derbyshire Dales and fattened up on the pastures around the town before the sales. In August the Town Meadows were closed off and the grass allowed to grow, to provide pastures for these ‘imported’ beasts, whose owners were made to pay a grazing fee. The revenues were used to repair roads and bridges in the town.

Transport Developments

With the advent of the ‘Coaching Age’ Uttoxeter became a minor coaching centre. Through the town passed a major route between Derby and Newcastle. Uttoxeter also became a staging post for routes between Manchester, Birmingham and London and, as a result, several coaching inns developed in the town, notably The White Hart (Carter Street), The Cross Keys (High Street), the Red Lion (Market Place) and the Old Star (Queen Street).

Improvements to the road network not only enabled Uttoxeter’s dairy products to travel further and faster, but also brought goods into the market from further afield. However it was the much delayed opening of the Uttoxeter branch of the Cauldon Canal in 1811 which gave great hope for the town’s further economic development, but this was not to be fulfilled. The canal became to late to the town and was merely a branch, which terminated at Uttoxeter. Uttoxeter was too remote for the industrial conurbations of Lancaster, Yorkshire and the Midlands and despite attempts to establish a cotton industry, Uttoxeter remained essentially a Market Town.

The canal was short lived and replaced in 1848 by a Railway. Both the picturesque Churnet Valley Line, which linked Uttoxeter to the North-West, and the Stoke to Derby line were important lines in the railway network, which in turn made Uttoxeter a junction of some importance. The railway helped the development of the dairy industry, with milk trains travelling daily to London.  It did much to foster the town’s racecourse, opened in 1908 on the old Town Meadows, because it had direct access to the station for race-going crowds. Another local activity, which benefited greatly by the presence of the railway was the development of Bamford’s Agricultural Machinery.

Local Industry

In 1845 Henry Bamford, established an Ironmongers shop in the Market Place. In 1868 Henry introduced his son Samuel into the business and bought for him a small iron foundry at the old canal wharf. By 1876 Samuel had 30 men working for him making hot air stoves, cheese presses and curd mills, and had moved to a new foundry in the Leighton area of the town. The company grew making farm implements; pumps, taps and other agricultural attachments until it became internationally known. Henry Bamford’s great grandson, Joseph Cyril Bamford (J.C.B) sold his first product in Uttoxeter Market Place in 1945 – a trailer made of war surplus parts. From this was to develop the JCB Excavator Company with its award winning factory just a few miles north of Uttoxeter at Rocester.

Uttoxeter has experienced much in the time between Robert de Ferrers’ ironworking in the town in the 13th Century and Bamford’s activities in more recent times. Despite many social and economic changes, Uttoxeter has retained, as a thread running constantly through its history, its character and status as a Market Town.

For more historical information visit the Uttoxeter History web site.