Clayton, Staffordshire

Today

Clayton lies on the boundary between urban and rural Staffordshire, not far from Newcastle's border with the Borough of Stafford. The older part of the village stands on top of a hill, Northwood Lane, and some of these older houses were once gardeners' cottages on the Staffordshire estates of the Duke of Sutherland, who owned the Trentham Estate.

One famous resident of Clayton was Clarice Cliff, the potter, who lived in a house at the top of Northwood Lane for many years.

Towards Trent Vale is the Clayton Wood Training Ground and the football academy of Stoke City F.C.

Education

Clayton has one secondary school, Clayton Hall Academy. It has been developed on the site of the 19th century Clayton Hall and has around 1000 pupils from all over Newcastle-under-Lyme. Until 2005 it was named Clayton High School. Then the school became a specialist school in Business & Enterprise and Modern Languages and was renamed Clayton Hall Business and Language College. The school converted to academy status in 2015 and was renamed again to Clayton Hall Academy.

Religion

The Catholic Church in Clayton is Our Lady and St Werburgh which has over 500 regular worshippers and the primary school judged by Ofsted as 'outstanding' in every category. The parish runs three youth groups, an over 55s group, a parents and toddlers group, various parish house groups as well as running LinkLine. LinkLine is a charity that rings up housebound elderly people for a regular weekly chat to show that they are loved and offer help in various ways.

There is also, based in the Parish Hall, one of the longest running Before and After School Clubs in the area, Wise Owls Care Club which provides Before and After School Care and a Holiday Scheme for the children who attend the school.

Within Clayton is St James Church which has a blue/green roof - originally copper, over the years with weather conditions has become this natural colour. This is an Anglican church where there is a Sunday School for children of any age. The school is held in the church hall at the same time as the main service is taken.

Another nearby church is the United Reformed Church (URC). Brownies and Guides are normally held in the annex and Beavers, Cubs and Scouts are held in the den along with Explorers. These are held on a week night and there are two scout groups to go to; on Monday the Spitfires and Wednesday the Harriers. They were named after planes and are used to tell the two groups apart as they are both called 79th URC Scouts. In Explorers the Duke of Edinburgh award can be taken.

Other amenities

There is a hospital and two hotels on Clayton Rd (the A519).

The hospital is the Nuffield Health North Staffordshire Hospital. It was opened in 1978 and is a purpose-built, well-equipped, private healthcare facility with two operating theatres, one minor/endoscopy suite and 40 en suite bedrooms.

Close to Junction 15 of the M6 is the Holiday Inn The other hotel (next to the Nuffield) used to be called the Ramada Clayton Lodge Hotel and then the Great National, Clayton but is now thought to have changed ownership again. Guests' feedback about this hotel on Trip Advisor is consistently enlightening.

At the top of Northwood Lane is the Clayton Community Centre which has two rooms for hire, one for dancing and one for meetings.

Buses

Bus services are operated by First Potteries (number 72) as well as D&G Bus (number 9).

Road

The A519 south to Eccleshall and Newport, Shropshire runs through Clayton between Newcastle-under-Lyme and the M6 motorway at junction 15, where the A500 (located on the southern ouskirts of Clayton) runs to Stoke-on-Trent. To the west, in the nearby ward of the Westlands is the A53, which runs to Market Drayton and Shrewsbury.