Bignall Hill, Staffordshire is a prominent local landmark, and forms part of an escarpment ridge four miles north-west of Newcastle-under-Lyme. There is a large stone monument on the summit, to John Wedgwood (1760-1839) a former local employer and coal mine owner. Wedgwood's monument was initially an immense obelisk erected in 1845 . Following storm damage in 1976 it was reduced to a quarter of its original size, although the base is still substantial. 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.
Below the hill are the remains of the Wedgwood-owned colliery - now a Nature Reserve and Historic Site of Biological Interest Grade 2 - where there were notable coal mining disasters in 1836, 1874 1895 and 1911 and 1912.
c. 1955 map of Red Street, showing the
location of the Wedgwood Memorial