User:Neodarwinist/sandbox

{{Infobox UK place|
 * country =                England
 * official_name=            Butt Lane
 * population =
 * shire_district=         Newcastle-under-Lyme
 * shire_county=           Staffordshire
 * region=          West Midlands
 * constituency_westminster=     Stoke-on-Trent North
 * post_town=       Newcastle, Staffs
 * postcode_district=         ST7
 * postcode_area=ST
 * dial_code=     01782
 * os_grid_reference=    SJ825542

Name The origin of the name ‘Butt Lane’ is obscure. The village may have grown up along a lane that led to archery butts, possibly for the Lord of Audley. Alternatively, the village could have sprung up on a lane leading to strips of land worked by individual peasants, known as ‘butts’. History The village we know today began to grow around 1800, when local landowners, taking advantage of the improved roads and the Trent and Mersey Canal, began working larger coal mines to supply more distant markets. Sir John Edensor Heathcote opened the Woodshutts Colliery near Butt Lane in 1800, but a legal argument with John Gilbert of Clough Hall led to its closure in 1811. Other shafts opened up, however. Sir George Elliott with George and Samuel Parker-Bidder worked a dozen local pits from 1859 as the Woodshutts and Harecastle Collieries. By 1861 they were supplying over 40 gasworks with prime coking coal. These and other pits in Kidsgrove, Birchenwood, Mow Cop and Talke Pits provided the bulk of work for Butt Lane residents in Victorian times. Other employers included the iron foundries at Birchenwood and Hardingswood, limekilns, the gasworks, canals, railway and farms. These employment opportunities drew people to the village, whose population expanded from 500 in 1851 to 2,750 in 1901. Most growth occurred after 1850. Church Street was built on land bought from the Church Commissioners in 1865, while that for Chapel Street was purchased in 1869.