Staffordshire , Administrative (pop., 2001: 806,737), geographic, and historic county, west-central England. Staffordshire’s northern moorlands form the southern tip of the Pennines, and it encompasses the coalfield region known as The Potteries. Traces of Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age settlements remain. The Romans built roads through the area; it was the centre of the kingdom of Mercia in the 7th–9th centuries. The Danes ravaged it at the end of the 9th century. Staffordshire has mined coal and iron since the 13th century. Its pottery industry became famous in the 18th century with the innovations of Josiah Wedgwood. The seat of the administrative county of Staffordshire is Stafford.
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