SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY opened up the beautiful valley of the Manifold by means of its light railway from Waterhouses to Hulme End. 236 It is probable also that work may be renewed in the now disused copper and lead mines of Ecton, which have been worked since the seventeenth century, and were at one time exceedingly productive. In that case the little hamlet of Ecton, which now contains about seventy persons, will become a much more important and populous place than it is at present. The extensive copper mines at Oakamoor in the Churnet Valley account for the considerable population at Alton, which has risen from 818 in 1801 to 1,227 m I 9 OI > a d consists chiefly of the families of men concerned in some way in the mining industry there. Biddulph, again, in the moorland region of Pirehill Hundred, shows an increase of population from 1,180 to 6,247 in the century, a fact accounted for by the presence of coal in its neighbourhood. In examining the census returns certain sudden rises in population are noticeable which demand some explanation. For instance the sudden rise of population in the country villages of High Offley, Church Eaton, Lapley, and Gnosall in 1831 is due to the presence of a number of workmen who were excavating the Birmingham and Liverpool Canal and settled here for a time. At Leigh in 1851 the population was increased in a similar way, railway workers being in this case substituted for canal labourers. The increase at Whittington in 1881 is due to the establishment of a new military depot, whilst the rise noticed in 1861 in Hopton and Coton township is traceable to the enlargement of the county lunatic asylum and the building of a new one at Coton Hill. The sudden rise of population at Cheddleton in 1901 is due to the recent establishment of the county asylum in that parish. When the next census is taken the returns will probably show a large permanent increase of population in the parish of Cheddleton and the surrounding villages, as during the last few years a rich coalfield has been discovered within half a mile of this village, and the new colliery will probably be working shortly. The site of the main shaft is well placed for purposes of transport, being near a valley which runs direct to Wall Grange station and the canal. As valuable deposits of clay and ironstone have been found near the coal it is probable that at least three new industries may be established in the district, and the inevitable result of that will be the growth of an industrial com- munity round about the colliery. As there has been considerable poverty and lack of employment in the district recently, this new development is to be welcomed from an economic point of view, though from a different standpoint it is melancholy to see another beautiful bit of country given up to the sway of the blast furnace, the brick kiln, and the coke oven. The traveller in Staffordshire, passing through this district, will find himself once again inverting a well-known motto of the Potteries : ' Out of dirt we make beauty ' ; and will reflect with a certain sadness how much beauty has in this county given place to dirt. 136 This railway was opened in the summer of 1904, and worked for that year only by motor 'buses from Leek till the completion of the heavy railway from Leek to Waterhouses in 1905. 3'7
