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| Stoke-on-Trent Districts: Bank Top |
The Hamlet of Sneyd - it origins and history:
Note: This summary of the origins of this area of Stoke-on-Trent is taken from Ward 'The borough of Stoke-on-Trent' 1842.
"In the year 1612, Samuel Tellwright was Constable of the Manor of Tunstall; and in 1616, enfranchised his Copyhold Estate in the hamlet of Sneyd, consisting of a messuage, three cottages, and twenty eight customary acres of land , from Ralph Sneyd Esq., the then Lord of the Manor. This estate was, latterly, for many years enjoyed by Mr. John Tellwright, who died at Stanfields, in Sneyd, (the ancient family residence), and in the year 1828, aged 88 years and upwards... The chief part of the family estate now belongs to his eldest son, Mr. William Tellwright, of Biddulph, originally a Tilewright by trade, now a respected yeoman.
The landed property was formerly copyhold, or the Manor of Tunstall, but has all been treated as freehold for more than two centuries past; having been generally enfranchised in the reign of James I by Ralph Sneyd, Esq., who built Keele Hall.
The Hamlet of Sneyd, which lies on the west side of the township of Burslem… contains about 550 acres of land…. This Hamlet we have supposed to have given name to the eminent family of Sneyd in the olden time…
We believe Sneyd to have been included in the woodland parts of Chell…
The earliest mention we find of Sneyd, is in the Foundation charter of Hulton Abbey (A.D. 1223), in which the wood of Sneyd, (boscus de Sneade) was granted to the abbot and monks, along with the vills of Hulton and Rushton; and, though the hamlet has now lost its woodland features, they existed, partially, within living memory, and are still retained in various local names, viz. A farm called, THE WOOD, and lands called, the Chell-oaks (corrupted into Chellocks), and the Pen-oaks, (Pinnochs). We presume, too, that the proper name of the hamlet, when analysed, bespeaks its sylvan character; Sned, or Sneyd, being the past participle of the Anglo-Saxon verb Snidan, to cut; (the word Sned is still used in Scotland. Burns sends one of his coters to sned besoms on the moors.) and it may have denoted the place which supplied fire-wood, or bush-wood, for the use of the neighbourhood; perhaps for the earliest potteries existing here, before coals were introduced…..
The scythe, the armorial device of the lords of this and the adjoining townships, gives a sort of rebus of their surname, and affords a specimen of the ingenuity of the old heralds….
The principle estate in the hamlet of Sneyd is a farm of 150 acres or upwards, called emphatically "The Sneyd," belonging to the Earl of Macclesfield; and abounding, like all the rest of the hamlet, with mines of coal and ironstone, consisting of many separate strats, lying at various depths; five or six of which crop out, (i.e. rise to the surface)……"
