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

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.