Description:Milton is situated in the north - east of the Potteries conurbation, south of the parish of Norton in the Moors and on the east side of the A53, the main road from Cobridge to Leek. A prominent hard sandstone ridge, the Ten Feet Rock, lies between Milton and Norton. It is just south of Milton that the Trent, until then little more than a stream, merges with Ford Green Brook to become the River Trent proper. The name Milton derives from the Old English, ‘mill tun’.
Milton was formerly a hamlet mainly situated in the parish on Norton in the Moors but with a small part in the township of Hulton Abbey. The ecclesiastical parish was formed in 1865 and the civil parish in 1894. Milton was incorporated into what was then the county borough of Stoke on Trent in 1922.
The building of the Caldon Canal through Milton in 1777 was important to the village’s later development. In particular packing houses for finished pottery ware were established at Milton adjacent to the canal. One of the major companies to transport finished ware from their factory in Hanley to Milton was Johnson Brothers. Until the later 20th century, Johnsons used three narrowboats, all incorporating Milton in their name: The Milton Queen, The Milton Maid and The Milton Princess.
From the late 19th century Milton had a number of industries. Prominent among these was Bullers Ltd who established a new factory at Milton in 1920. Bullers were manufacturers of electrical porcelain, essential to the pottery industry as a whole. However, as well as producing insulators and other associated products, Bullers also had a thriving art pottery studio until the early 1950s. Many ceramic artists who produced art porcelain at Bullers were also associated with the Burslem School of Art. The company was later consolidated into Allied Insulators, which ceased production at Milton in 2001.
There were also aluminium works, the British Aluminium Company, and chemical works, Josiah Hardman Ltd, at Milton. The Hardman Institute, which included a reading room, was established in 1895 by Josiah Hardman.
The opening of the railway from Milton the Cheddleton in 1867 extended Milton’s transport infrastructure and provided the village with a local station.
The parish church is dedicated to St Philip and St James. It was built in 1865 in the Early English style. Congregationalism was also established early in Milton with a house being registered for worship in 1806. A Congregational chapel was built in 1819 and later replaced by a larger building in 1880 on the corner of Millrise Road and Adam Street. It was closed in 1922.
Schools for boys, girls and infants opened in 1874. They were originally board schools and following the Education Act of 1902 became council or public elementary schools.