Meir, Staffordshire

Meir Park
Meir Park  Meir Park shown within Staffordshire
OS grid reference	SJ927427
Unitary authority	Stoke-on-Trent
Ceremonial county	Staffordshire
Region	West Midlands
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	Stoke-on-Trent
Postcode district	ST3
Dialling code	01782
Police	Staffordshire
Fire	Staffordshire
Ambulance	West Midlands
EU Parliament	West Midlands
UK Parliament	Stoke-on-Trent South
List of places UK England Staffordshire

Coordinates: 52°58′40″N 2°06′18″W / 52.9779°N 2.1051°W / 52.9779; -2.1051

Meir is a suburb in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire situated between Lightwood and Longton.^[1][2] Meir Park estate extends from Meir uphill to the Blythe Bridge village hall, located in Meir Heath.

Meir Aerodrome

Meir Aerodrome closed in the early 1970s^[3] and the site has now become the Meir Park housing estate. The earlier parts have mainly aviation-associated street names. The last official flight was on 16 August 1973 when Fred Holdcroft flew a Piper Tri-Pacer carrying a Sentinel journalist to Manchester.^[4] The last unofficial flight "a year or two" later by Eric Clutton was in a home-made folding machine called FRED (Flying Runabout Experimental Design) which the pilot towed home behind his car.^[5][6] The light planes used to be parked on the grass alongside the A50 road, opposite the Airport Garage, which remains. Staffordshire Potteries had a factory (now demolished) beside the aerodrome.

Schools

• Crescent Primary School
• Longton High School
• Meir Heath Primary School
• Sandon High School
• St Augustine's R.C. Primary School
• Sandon Primary Academy

Transport

Meir is situated along the A50. At the centre sits the junction with the A520. Once a notorious traffic jam site, a tunnel was built in 1997 to take the A50 underneath. The twin tunnels are walled with ceramic panels which were reported to have cost about £1000 each when they began to come loose through rusting of their attachments after a few years.

Meir was served by a railway station from 1894 to 1966.

Nearest Places

• Barlaston
• Blythe Bridge
• Lightwood
• Longton
• Trentham

References

1. ↑ Cartlidge, Nicholas Jon (1996). A Meir Half Century. Photographs and news both church and secular from the years 1889 to 1939 covering the Meir and its near neighbours. Leek: Churnet Valley Books. ISBN 1-897949-15-4. 
2. ↑ Cartlidge, Nicholas (2004). Meir Today, Gone Tomorrow. An affectionate portrait from within living memory. Leek: Churnet Valley Books. ISBN 1-904546-22-6. 
3. ↑ Lycett-Smith, Roger (1998). Airfield Focus 34: Stoke on Trent (Meir). Peterborough: GMS Enterprises. ISBN 1-870384-68-7. 
4. ↑ Holdcroft, Geoff (9 May 2006). "My father made last flight from Meir". The Sentinel. 
5. ↑ Cartlidge, Nicholas (15 May 2006). "FRED deserves flight accolade". The Sentinel. 
6. ↑ Clutton, Eric (2003). An Aeroplane called FRED. Tullahoma, Tennessee.