A history of Blythe Bridge

A crossing on the River Blithe

The River Blithe gives Blythe Bridge its name. The different spellings are worth remembering when looking through catalogues. The district’s heritage assessment identifies a late fifteenth-century record of the settlement by the crossing. It suggests that an earlier reference to “Blye”, from about 1230, might also refer to this place.

Uttoxeter Road linked Blythe Bridge to Blythe Marsh further east. The route follows a much older alignment between Derbyshire and north Staffordshire. Farmhouses and coaching inns served travellers, with stables, smithies and other trades along the road. Forsbrook’s own centre was further north, on Cheadle Road.

Water and the railway

The river once powered a mill. In the late nineteenth century it was working as a corn mill, and the district’s heritage study identifies both the mill and its pond. Look for them on an old map to see the relationship between the watercourse and the buildings.

The North Staffordshire Railway arrived at Blythe Bridge in 1848. A second railway came much later. Built in 1892–93, the Foxfield line linked the coal workings at Dilhorne with the main railway. The Foxfield Railway’s own account describes railway employees building it at weekends using second-hand materials. When the pit closed in 1965, volunteers took up the work of preservation.

Reading the names on old records

If a family photograph is labelled Blythe Bridge, try Blythe Marsh, Forsbrook and Uttoxeter Road in a catalogue search too. All three communities were served by St Peter’s Church. Where a caption mentions a station, establish whether it shows the main-line station or the heritage railway at Caverswall Road before comparing the view with a map.