Elford

Swynnerton lies about three miles south of Trentham. It was Roger de Swinnerton, Lord of the Manor, who obtained a charter from Edward I to hold a market here every Wednesday and an annual fair on the feast day of Our Lady’s assumption.The manor later passed into the hands of the Fitzherbert family, and the church was once under the patronage of Oxford University.
An extract from from"Staffordshire Pocket Album".

Cheshire and their Welsh allies were in armed revolt, and still were so when Edward died at Farndon in AD924. During Ethelred the Unready’s reign, Cheshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire became what was in effect an independent land, ruled by the Earls of Mercia, free from royal control. Apart from an attempt by Edmund Ironside to restore the royal writ, the three counties enjoyed their autonomous status until the eve of the Norman Conquest.
An extract from from"Staffordshire Pocket Album".

By the 10th century pottery was being manufactured in and around Stafford, but it would be Burslem that would rise to become the main centre of this industry during the 13th and 14th centuries. By the mid to late 13th century, forges were established at Cannock, Rugeley and Sedgley. These early forges smelted iron ore in a bloomery, which was often little more than an open hearth fired by charcoal. By Tudor times, the first blast furnaces were being introduced; the blast was provided by water powered bellows.Water wheels also provided the motive power for the early drop hammers and the first slitting mills, which cut iron rods into workable lengths for nail makers.
An extract from from"Staffordshire Pocket Album".

1873. They spent a fortune on the place, extending the size of the operation and installing railway sidings throughout. The business survived for nearly one hundred years; it was acquired by Grand Metropolitan Hotels in August 1971, who then closed it down. One last Staffordshire industry that hardly gets a mention is railway locomotive manufacturing. The county had, at one time or another, four firms building locomotives on a commercial basis, and two main line locomotive workshops. In Burton were the Baguley Cars and Thornewill & Wareham. Baguley started up in 1903 as the Rykneld Engine Co, changing its name in 1911. They built a few steam locomotives, but their main product range consisted of petrol and diesel locomotives mainly for industrial use; they also turned out units for the growing miniature railway and pleasure gardens market, and they built locomotives for the Drewery Car Co.
An extract from from"Staffordshire Pocket Album".

At this time boys were often in their teens before they got a pair of long trousers. Jeans were unheard of, and the design of children’s clothes had hardly changed for thirty years. The three boys on the left could have stepped straight out of the late 1920s. Jeans did not become readily available until around 1960, when they could be bought for as little as 7s 6d a pair.
An extract from from"Staffordshire Pocket Album".