Description:TALKE ON THE HILL, sometimes known as Talk o’ the Hill, is situated on high ground, with extensive views of the surrounding area. Talk occurs in the Domesday Book in 1086 as Talc, when it was held by Gamel. At that time it consisted of one ‘virgate’, a standard mediaeval land holding consisting of up to 30 acres, with arable land enough for a single plough team. At that time the woodland in Talke was estimated to amount to 1440 acres. The name, Talk, may be derived from ‘tulach’, an Irish word for hill, or from the Welsh word, ‘twlch’, which means the same. By the mid -12th century, Talke formed part of the possessions of the Audley family. A weekly market was granted in 1253 by Henry III to be held on Wednesdays and a three day fair to be held annually at the feast of St Martin. In 1577 Audley and its townships, including Talke, were sold to the Gerards of Gerard’s Bromley. The hearth tax returns for Talke of 1666 list 31 houses with hearths which were chargeable for tax, the largest, with 12 hearths, being occupied by Simon Unwin. In 1782 a double disaster of a major fire and a massive explosion of gunpowder, both of which caused extensive damage, led to a national collection throughout England for the relief of the sufferers in the village.
Until 1741, Talke was a chapelry of Audley parish and it was re-founded as an ecclesiastical parish in 1859. St Martin’s church was built in 1794, replacing the former chapel of ease. It is of brick with Victorian additions. St Saviour’s, built in 1879, was designed by FW Hunt, a London architect. It was demolished in 1971 and the architectural historian Nickolaus Pevsner comments that this was a pity, since it was an inventive design, being built out of roughcast and timber with three large gabled dormer windows to allow the light to stream in. A mission church was built at Talke Pits in 1887. The Primitive Methodists first built a chapel at Talke in 1813 and the Wesleyans in 1846.
As early as the 16th century it was noted that “ the area abounds in coal”. By the late 19th century there were extensive collieries in Talke, mainly belonging to the Talk o’ the Hill Colliery Company. Talke had become a mining village with coal as the major employer. As such, like many others in North Staffordshire, it was the scene of major pit disasters. In 1866, 91 men and boys were killed and in 1875 42 were killed at the Bunkers Hill Colliery as the result of an explosion. £3,000 was raised in the relief appeal for the families of the victims of the Bunker's Hill disaster.