The Town's wealthy beginnings start in Saxon times. If we have nothing else of Saxon Uttoxeter, we do at least have its name - always succeeding in proving a very strange one to outsiders. At the time of the Doomsday Book it was Wotocheschede, and over the years has corrupted itself to the form of 'Uttoxeter' we have now.

Very little remains of Norman Uttoxeter either, the first real signs are the 13th century Old Talbot in the Market Place, and the 14th century tower of the Parish Church.

Old Talbot Pub

Church Tower & War Memorial, Uttoxeter

 

The first market charter for the town was granted in 1252. During the Civil War, the town appears to have changed allegiances several times, with a predominance of Parliamentarian support. However, it was during its last stance in the Royalist camp in 1648 that an event happened that should have made the town famous. The Royalist Marquis of Hamilton, after a crushing defeat at Preston, retreated to Uttoxeter with a tattered remnant of the once 20,000 strong Scottish army, with which he was to overwhelm Cromwell and return the country to a peaceful monarchy.

St. Mary's Church, Uttoxeter

The army was met by General John Lambert for the Parliamentarians - but the battle of Uttoxeter never took place. Instead the Royalists surrendered, some were locked up in the Church, others were imprisoned in less local places. The last dying remnant of the Royalist army had capitulated in the market place right here in Uttoxeter, and with it saw the close of the Civil War.

Market Place, Uttoxeter

There was one famous act that did happen in the town though - well, I say famous. This act was Doctor Samuel Johnson's penance. The man, as a boy, simply refused to attend his father's stall on Uttoxeter market, and fifty years or so later came back to the town and stood bare headed in the rain as penance. That's all. Nothing else. Where is the monument to the last surrender of the English Civil War ?. Not here. However the commemorative kiosk definitely adds character to the town, and surely must rank as England's smallest shop !!.
 

 

Johnson Memorial