People from Stoke-on-Trent
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Rev John Hutchinson	[ Web Site Index ]

Rev John Hutchinson of Blurton.

He opposed the development of Dresden Estate in 1852.   

"Not everyone welcomed the new residents. The estate lay within the district of Blurton in the parish of Trentham. In a letter written to James Loch, the agent to the Duke of Sutherland on 16 January 1852, the Rev John Hutchinson of Blurton made clear their opposition to the new development: “When in the spring of last year I had an interview with you at Trentham, you expressed incidentally the regret that you felt that the Blurton quarter of Trentham parish was likely to have, I was about to say invaded (& with, I believe 60 or 70 houses already erected I may well say it) by a stranger population. Associated this very day, for 31 years, with a specific population, it is startling to me to find that the parishioners (originally 8 or 900) of Blurton will, in all probability, be doubled in 2 or 3 years, or sooner, and this after my adoption of more than 900 souls out of Normacot — making now a population of upwards of 2000 — soon to be 3000 or more under my charge. All this it were a bootless lament to dwell upon & I would have paused — but for a practical difficulty close at hand. Where there is life there is death. We shall not be long without applications to assign to this new population, in succession, graves in Blurton Churchyard and as they will be parishioners, shall have no liberty to refuse. As we were, the time did not seem distant, when our present yard would be full. Within 10 years with only our population of 8 or 900, much difficulty would arise here, for want of space, notwithstanding whatever care may be used to preserve the yard exclusively for inhabitants who like the old population are the Duke’s tenants. Few know what unpleasantness have been encountered in guarding the yard from the intrusion of strangers.” He went on to advocate the provision of a separate graveyard for the new estate and “the erection of some plain building to say the service in.” Largely as a result of his efforts the Duke of Sutherland provided land for a church and graveyard bordering on the edge of the Dresden estate at the bottom of Red Bank."