Bignall End

Audley and Bignall End railway station was a station on the North Staffordshire Railway, which operated in the West Midlands county of Staffordshire, in England.

The Diglake Colliery Disaster (also known as the Audley Colliery Disaster), was a coal-mining disaster at what was Audley Colliery in Bignall End, North Staffordshire, on 14 January 1895. A flood of water rushed into the mine and caused the deaths of 77 miners. Only three bodies were recovered, with efforts to retrieve the dead hampered by floodwater. 73 bodies are still entombed underground.

Audley and Bignall End was a ward in the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme, in the county of Staffordshire, England. It covered the villages of Audley and Bignall End. According to the 2011 Census it had a population of 5,927. In 2018 it was combined with part of Halmerend to form Audley ward.

Audley Urban District is a former administrative unit in Staffordshire created by the Local Government Act 1894. It contained the civil parish of Audley. In 1932 it was abolished, being absorbed into the Newcastle-under-Lyme Municipal Borough, Newcastle-under-Lyme Rural District and Kidsgrove Urban District.: 36 

Miles Green is a village in the civil parish of Audley Rural, in the Newcastle-under-Lyme district, in the county of Staffordshire, England and is about 5 miles (8 km) north west of Stoke-on-Trent. In 2021 it had a population of 865.

Audley is a large village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Audley Rural, in the Newcastle-under-Lyme district, in Staffordshire, England. It is the centre of Audley Rural parish, approximately four miles (6 km) north west of Newcastle-under-Lyme and 3 miles (5 km) from Alsager near the Staffordshire-Cheshire border. Audley is located on the B5500, the former A52 road. Just south of the A500, the village is approximately five minutes from the M6 motorway. The first mention of Audley is in the Domesday Book of 1086, when it was called Aldidelege, when the lands were held by a Saxon called Gamel. At this time, the area was very sparsely populated, and because of its distance from the major towns of Stafford and Chester there was little outside contact. There was a medieval castle at Audley Castle Hill during the late 13th century; only a low earthwork remains of the former motte. Excavations have yielded some stonework.

Parrot's Drumble is a nature reserve of the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. It is an area of woodland next to the village of Talke Pits, and about 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Newcastle-under-Lyme, in Staffordshire, England.

Bignall Hill, Staffordshire is a local landmark, and forms part of an escarpment ridge 4 miles (6.4 km) north-west of Newcastle-under-Lyme. It is classed as a sub HuMP. There is a large stone monument on the summit which is dedicated to John Wedgwood (1760–1839), a former local employer and coal mine owner. Wedgwood's monument was initially an obelisk erected in 1850. Following storm damage in 1976 it was reduced to a quarter of its original size, although the base is still substantial. The monument is a Grade II listed building. The monument is today reachable by footpaths, and is the highest point in the area. It affords sweeping 360-degree views: south to Cannock Chase and the city of Stoke-on-Trent; north across the Cheshire Plains to Jodrell Bank radio telescope; east to Mow Cop Castle and the Peak District; and west to the mountains of North Wales and Snowdonia. Bignall Hill is in the parish of Audley Rural. Around the base of the hill are the hamlets of Bignall End, Red Street and Waterhayes.

Halmerend was a ward of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme, in Staffordshire, England. The ward covered the villages of Alsagers Bank, Balterley, Betley, Halmer End, Scot Hay and Wrinehill, and in 2011 had a population of 3,764. When it was abolished in 2018 the western part, containing Balterley, Betley and Wrinehill, became part of the new ward of Madeley & Betley; the eastern part, containing Alsagers Bank, Halmer End and Scot Hay, was combined with Audley and Bignall End to form Audley ward.

Apedale Hall was a manor house near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire. The seat of the Heathcote family, it was rebuilt in 1826 in the Elizabethan style by the Staffordshire industrialist Richard Edensor Heathcote (1780–1850), but was demolished in 1934 due to subsidence from the coal mines underneath. Oswald Mosley, British politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) lived there for a time in the early 20th century with his divorced mother, Katharine Maud Edwards-Heathcote (1874–1950), and his paternal grandfather Sir Oswald Mosley, 4th Baronet, before its demolition.

Newcastle-under-Lyme is a constituency in northern Staffordshire created in 1354 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Aaron Bell of the Conservative Party. It was the last to be co-represented by a member of the Conservative Party when it was dual-member, before the 1885 general election which followed the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 coupled with the Reform Act 1884. In 1919 the local MP, Josiah Wedgwood, shifted his allegiance from the Liberal Party — the Lloyd George Coalition Liberals allying with the Conservatives — to the Labour Party and the seat elected the Labour candidate who has stood at each election for the next hundred years, a total of 29 elections in succession. Labour came close to losing the seat in 1969, 1986, 2015 and 2017, and eventually lost the seat in 2019. Its 2017 general election result was the fifth-closest result, a winning margin of 30 votes. In 2019, it was subsequently won by the Conservatives for the first time since its creation, by over 7,000 votes. Newcastle-under-Lyme is one of twelve Staffordshire seats won (held or gained) by a Conservative candidate in 2019 out of a total of twelve covering the county.

Halmer End is a small village in the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, neighbouring the small hamlet of Alsagers Bank and the larger village of Audley. Population details as taken in the 2011 census can be found under Audley Rural. The village is on the B5367. Historically, the village was dominated by the Coal Mining Industry, and several large coal mines were in operation in the vicinity of the village in the 19th and early 20th centuries. However, the village is remembered as being the site of the worst mining disaster in the history of the North Staffordshire Coalfield when, in 1918, 156 men and boys were killed in the Minnie Pit Disaster. Nowadays, the village remains semi-rural and residential with a school, convenience store and a Chinese takeaway.