Butterton
| Butterton | |
|---|---|
 Butterton Village and Ford |
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 Butterton
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| Butterton shown within Staffordshire | |
| Population | 213 |
| OS grid reference | SK073566 |
| Civil parish |
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| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LEEK |
| Police | Staffordshire |
| Fire | Staffordshire |
| Ambulance | West Midlands |
| EU Parliament | West Midlands |
Butterton is a small village in the Staffordshire Peak District of England (grid reference SK075565). It overlooks the Manifold Valley and Ecton Hill, which rises 1,212 feet above sea level. Butterton lies 5 miles east of Leek and roughly 8 miles from Alton Towers theme park. The village is just west of the limestone area, and so is mainly built of local sandstone. It contains a Grade II listed church. In the centre of Butterton there is an unusual ford where the Hoo Brook runs along the village street.
Butterton was served by a railway station which was opened by the Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway on 27 June 1904, whilst being entirely operated by the North Staffordshire Railway. The line closed in 1934, and the route of the railway past the station is now designated the Manifold Way, a walk and cycle-path. Butterton is one of the Thankful Villages that suffered no fatalities in the Great War of 1914–1918.
According to the 2001 census, the population of Butterton was 213, with a near equal number of males and females. This was lower than in 1841, where the population was 388. Nowadays most of the houses in Butterton are detached or semi-detached and owner-occupied, with the largest age category being 45 to 64.
The name ‘Buterdon’ or ‘Butterton’ comes from ‘butere’, meaning butter, and ‘dun’ meaning hill, and was given this name as the area had good pasture. Butterton is also known as Butterton-in-the-Peak to differentiate it from Butterton in Trentham parish, near Newcastle-under-Lyme. In the 1850s, a small brook at the foot of the village was a sulphurous spring which was said to be beneficial in scorbutic cases. Although Butterton was in Mayfield parish it was physically separated from the remainder of the parish by nine miles. The parish was enlarged on 1 April 1934 by 205 acres to include part of Bradnop and Cawdry. In 1966, however, the parish broke up into smaller segments, and so now Butterton is a parish of its own.
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Wikipedia