Abbey Hulton, Stoke-on-Trent

Abbey Hulton takes its name from the former Hulton Abbey, which was located about half a mile from Milton, on the east side of the road from Stoke to Leek.
In the Domesday Book, Hulton is recorded as ‘Heltone’ meaning ‘hill town’
The abbey, dedicated to St Mary, belonged to the Cistercian order, the White Monks. It was founded in 1223 by Henry de Audley in what was then a remote part of the county, in keeping with the traditional kind of site which the Cistercians chose for their religious houses. The Audleys continued to be benefactors of the abbey during the Middle Ages, although it was always poor with only ever a small number of monks.
Following the economic pattern of the Cistercians, the monks of Hulton Abbey were engaged in sheep farming and they had sheepfolds at Normacot and at Mixon in the middle of the 13th century, as well as granges at Hulton and Rushton in Burslem. They were also producing tiles at Hulton in the 14th century.
Sir James de Audley, who was notable for how courageously he fought under the Black Prince at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, was buried in the choir of the abbey church in front of the high altar with his wife. There is a tradition that, when the abbey church was demolished and the tombs opened, the lady’s hair had continued to grow luxuriantly.
Hulton Abbey was surrendered to the Crown on 18th September 1538 by which time it was worth only £200 per year and had only nine monks including the abbot. It was always one of the poorest of Staffordshire’s monasteries.
The abbey site and its lands were sold to Sir Edward Aston of Tixall, near Stafford, in 1543. He later sold to the Sneyds of Keele in the early 17th century. Excavations of the abbey site took place in 1884 and again in the early 1930s. Stone from the abbey complex was used in a number of buildings in the vicinity, including Abbey Farm.
A manor house at Hulton is shown on the map, which accompanies Dr Robert Plot’s ‘Natural History of Staffordshire’ published in 1686. In the hearth tax returns of 1666, 30 houses are listed, a little different to the Abbey Hulton of today.
It was the Housing Act of 1919, which was to transform the area. This facilitated the beginnings of much-needed housing development in many parts of Stoke on Trent, including Abbey Hulton, which helped to re-house families from Burslem, and later in the 1930s from Hanley, under slum clearance programmes.
In 1922 Abbey Hulton became officially part of the County Borough of Stoke on Trent. Originally part of Burslem ecclesiastical parish, Abbey Hulton now has its own church, St John’s, built in 1963.

Staffordshire Past Track

The Lordship of Abbey Hulton situated to the north-west of the Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent - Ward's map of 1843

It was not until 1922 that Abbey Hulton became officially part of the County Borough of Stoke on Trent.

The lordship of Hulton lay within the parish of Burslem.
It comprised Sneyd Green, Birches Head, and part of Milton. Woodhead Farm, the Hot Lane Brook, part of the Trent, and its tributary the Foxley Brook all fell withing Hulton.
Hulton was grouped with Rushton in the Domesday Book of 1087.
Granted to the new abbey of St. Mary in 1223. The monastery was dissolved in 1538.
The population of Hulton lordship rose from 477 in 1821 to 945 in 1871. Even in the late 1870's the built up area was around Sneyd Green and that part of Milton which lay on the Hulton side of the road from Sneyd Green to Bagnall.

1890 map of Abbey Hulton - the Abbey, various farms and features are highlighted

Although the lordship of Hulton was also called 'Abbey Hilton' by the late 16th century, the modern suburban district known as Abbey Hulton lies south of the former lordship boundary.

The area is crossed by Leek Road (A5009) which runs from Stoke to Endon which was built by 1842.
The old lordship of Hilton was also crossed by the ancient road which runs from Great Chell to Hanley via Sneyd Green, turnpiked in 1770. (Hanley Road and High Lane).
Birches Head Road runs from the Carmountside area over the Trent to Birches Head and Hanley.
Sneyd Street together with Milton Road and Foxley Lane form another road from Cobridge to Sneyd Green, Milton, and Bagnall - this road was formerly part of the main road from Newcastle-under-Lyme to Leek.
The stretch which runs through the Holden Lane area and Sneyd Street is thought to have been part of a pathway way between Hulton Abbey and the associated grange at Rushton near Cobridge.

The Caldon Canal from Etruria to Froghall was opened in 1779 and runs through Abbey Hulton.

Alongside the canal is the former Biddulph Valley railway line which was opened in 1864.

1890 map of Abbey Hulton

The River Trent and Caldon Canal are highlighted in Blue
running alongside the canal is the Biddulph Valley Branch of the North Staffordshire Railway

Yellow = Leek Road
Purple = Greasley Road (note 'Greasleyside' to the right of the map)
Green = Abbey Road
Red = Abbey street
Salmon = Birches Head Road
Dashed Red = Redhills Road
Dashed Purple = Woodhead Road

the site of the Cistercian Abbey
the site of the Cistercian Abbey

the extent of the remains of the walls of the Abbey buildings

Excavations of the abbey site took place in 1884 and again in the early 1930s.
Stone from the abbey complex was used in a number of buildings in the vicinity, including Abbey Farm.

the remails of the walls of the west end of the Abbey Church
the remails of the walls of the west end of the Abbey Church

The abbey, dedicated to St Mary, belonged to the Cistercian order, the White Monks.

It was founded in 1223 by Henry de Audley in what was then a remote part of the county, in keeping with the traditional kind of site which the Cistercians chose for their religious houses.

The Audleys continued to be benefactors of the abbey during the Middle Ages, although it was always poor with only ever a small number of monks.

Hulton Abbey : Site Guide
Hulton Abbey : Site Guide

Hulton Abbey 1219 - 1538
Hulton Abbey 1219 - 1538

Abbey Farm on Birches Head Road

A bridge known as Abbey Bridge existed by 1733 - this is thought to be the bridge which carries Birches Head Road over the River Trent by Abbey Farm.

Abbey Farm to the west of the Abbey, beyond the Trent, was in existence by the early 18th century when it was the home of John Bourne, grandfather of the Primitive Methodist leader Hugh Bourne.

It appears to have been rebuilt early in the 19th century, but though mainly of brick it contains stonewalling which may possibly be of 17th-century origin. Stone from the abbey complex was used in a number of buildings in the vicinity, including Abbey Farm.

River Trent Path

River Trent Path

River Trent from the bridge near Abbey Farm

River Trent from the bridge near Abbey Farm

Fishpond Way

Fishpond Way off Birches Head Road
the site of Hulton Abbey is behind the trees in the background

The endowment of the abbey included a fishery, presumably in the Trent.

Traces of the abbey's fishponds near the river on the opposite side of the main road from the abbey site are still visible.

Fishpond Way runs by the location of these fishponds.

Abbey Hulton mill - from 'Ten Generations of a Potting Family' -William Adams, an Old English Potter

'The tiles and the better specimens of pottery of the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries were produced mainly by monks, as at Hulton Abbey, near Burslem.'

'After Hulton Abbey surrendered and was dissolved, in 1538, members of the Adams family worked the Potworks there for many years'

'...."car" - an iron-bearing clay deposited by spring water from strata rich in clay ironstone. Large deposits of such clay were found near Burslem, and possibly gave rise to the place named Carmountside, the site of Hulton Abbey'

Ten Generations of a Potting Family

There was a coal mine in Lee Field at Hulton worked by the abbey at the Dissolution and immediately afterwards leased by the Crown to a Thomas Foxe.
By the mid-17th century Thomas Adams of Birches Head was working a coal mine on his estate at Abbey Hulton, and this branch of the Adams family continued to mine on the Birches Head estate and elsewhere within the Sneyds' manor of Hulton until at least 1777.
Both the Hollins and the Adams families had an interest in the Abbey Hulton Colliery by 1800 which they then assigned to Walter Sneyd. This colliery was still in operation in 1804.
There was a tannery at Hulton towards the end of the 13th century belonging to the monks. At some time during the Middle Ages they evidently had a fulling mill there, presumably situated on the Trent and possibly connected with their sheep farming.
The monks also seem to have produced encaustic tiles during the Middle Ages. Early pottery-making in the area is mentioned elsewhere.

Abbey Street - a number of streets have names wich reflect the prior existance of the Abbey

Abbey Street - at the bottom of this street was a corn mill (shown on the 1890 map)

the arms of the Sneyd Family

The scythe is representative of the original woodland nature of the district.

The Fleur-de-lys was granted for deeds done in the French wars under the Plantagenet Kings.

Amongst others, the Sneyd family owned the large tract of land, in the parish of Burslem which bears the name of Sneyd. Bradwell, in the Manor of Tunstall was formally the chief seat of the Sneyds.

Hence the scythe from the Sneyd farms is found in both the Tunstall and Burslem arms.

The Sneyd Arms public house

The Sneyd family and Abbey Hulton

On its suppression in 1538 the abbey and its possessions passed to the king.

In 1539 the site, the demesne in Hulton and Stoke, and a coal mine in 'the field of Hulton' were leased to Stephen Bagot of London who had already purchased the abbey's movables at the Dissolution.

In 1543 the Crown granted the manor of Hulton, the site of the abbey, its demesne, and all its other possessions in Hulton, Sneyd, Baddeley, Milton, and Burslem to Sir Edward Aston.

Sir Edward's great-grandson Sir Walter Aston conveyed the manor to William Sneyd of Keele in 1611. The manor then remained in the Sneyd family.

Ralph Sneyd owning some 1,100 of the 1,400 or so acres in Abbey Hulton in 1838.

The150-acre Abbey farm, the 26-acre Mill farm, and the 78-acre Birches Head farm formed the only land there still owned by the family in 1951 and were offered for sale on the break-up of the Keele estate in that year.