Detail from the Old Map of Staffordshire
The rivers of Staffordshire were the lifeblood of the county and the only sure
way of travelling.
Staffordshire was a poor farming county with its mineral
deposits even more important than its farmland. Large deposits of coal and
iron were near the surface and were obtained by open cast mining. This type
of mining had a great effect on the landscape of the county creating many shallow
pits in close proximity to one another. This formed a wilderness of water filled
pits and smoking waste heaps.
None of the counties 13 market towns were
prosperous and this poverty under the Tudors and the Stuarts can be seen by
the smallness of its mediaeval churches and modest timber structures. | 
