Moreton House, Wolstanton

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No 27 - Moreton House, Wolstanton

Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge FRS
discoverer of wireless telegraphy
and
inventor of the spark plug
Lived here
during the 1870s

When Oliver Lodge was 12, the family moved from The Views in Penkhull to a larger residence, Moreton House, Wolstanton, where, in an outbuilding, he was able to undertake his first experiments.

In the same year, he left Newport Grammar School, Salop and went to Combs School, Suffolk, but at 14 his schooling was cut short and he had to help in his father's business. He attended classes at the Wedgwood Institute, Burslem, and at 20 matriculated to London University. With help from his mother and aunt - his father disapproved - he went to study at the Royal College of Science and University College, and eventually graduated D.Sc. in 1877.

In 1881 George BOULTON a Brick And Tile Manufacturer, employing 40 Men, 76 Boys, 5 Women was living at Moreton House, Wolstanton.

"As controversy rages over the future of Moreton House, Wolstanton, I thought I must go along and make some kind of record to help those who are not acquainted with it form some opinion about its aesthetic value. People familiar with the building will note that I have omitted the large wooden buttress on the north wall and the great ugly wooden patch that covers the left window on the ground floor.

The building, at the northern perimeter of the Marsh, next to the entrance to Wolstanton Colliery, was built in 1743 in the Georgian style, and is constructed mainly from brick with stone embellishments. Very little appears to be known about its origins but I imagine it takes its name from its first occupant. Ralph Moreton, a wealthy man who died in 1787. I make this presumption because, in an 1830s directory, it states that a Mrs. Sparrow and a Miss Moreton, sisters and co-heiresses of Ralph Moreton's estate, were among the chief proprietors of Wolstanton, and that Miss Moreton resided in an handsome house on the Marsh, which must surely be this one and possibly part of her inheritance.

During the early 19th century there were three other large houses in the township of Wolstanton: Basford Hall, occupied by a Mr. T. U. Hyatt and later by Edward Adams; Watlands House, occupied by Richard Bent, M.D., and Spencer Rogers' house at Porthill."

Neville Malkin 6th Aug 1975