Maer is a rural village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

in the

Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme The Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme is a local government district with borough status in Staffordshire, England. It is named after the town of Newcastle-under-Lyme, where the council is based, but includes the town of Kidsgrove and village ...

, Staffordshire, England, to the west of the pottery manufacturing town of Stoke-on-Trent. Its main feature is the large 17th-century stone-built country house,

Maer Hall file:Maer Hall - geograph.org.uk - 207996.jpg, upright=1.35, Maer Hall Maer Hall is a large Grade II listed 17th-century country house in Maer, Staffordshire. The large stone-built country house and estate of Maer Hall dominates the village of Mae ...

, built on a slope above a small lake, or "mere", which gave the house and estate its name. The hall became the home of

Josiah Wedgwood II Josiah Wedgwood II (3 April 1769 – 12 July 1843), the son of the English potter Josiah Wedgwood, continued his father's firm and was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke-upon-Trent from 1832 to 1835. He was an abolitionist, and detested slav ...

and was frequently visited by his nephew

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

, who went on to marry Josiah's daughter Emma at St. Peter's Church, which stands higher on the hillside, close to the hall. When she was young, Emma helped her older sister Elizabeth with the Sunday School, which was held in Maer Hall laundry, giving sixty village children their only formal training in reading, writing and religion. The grave of Josiah Wedgwood II and his wife Elizabeth in the churchyard has a view down over the hall. Nearby is Berth Hill, an Iron Age hillfort.

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Villages in Staffordshire Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme {{Staffordshire-geo-stub

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