Potteries Museum, Bethesda Street, Stoke-on-Trent - 01782 236 000 Market Place, High Street, Burton-upon-Trent - 01283 508000 tcm@staffordbc.gov.uk

Uttoxeter's name has had at least 79 spellings since it was mentioned in the Domesday Book as "Wotocheshede": it probably came from Anglo-Saxon Wuttuceshæddre = "Wuttuc's homestead on the heath". Some historians point to pre-Roman settlement here and Bronze Age axes have been discovered in the town (now in display in the Potteries Museum in Stoke-on-Trent). It is possible that Uttoxeter had some form of Roman activity due to its strategic position on the River Dove and closeness to the large garrison forts at Rocester between 69 and 400 AD, and the recently discovered fort at Stramshall, though little corroborating archaeology has been found.

Uttoxeter saw the last major royalist surrender of the English Civil War, on 25 August 1648, when James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton surrendered to Parliamentarian General John Lambert.

Perhaps the most famous event to have occurred in Uttoxeter is the penance of Samuel Johnson. Johnson's father ran a bookstall on Uttoxeter market, and young Samuel once refused to help out on the stall. When Johnson was older, he stood in the rain (without a hat) as a penance for his failure to assist his father. This event is commemorated with the Johnson Memorial, which stands in the Market Place, in the town centre and there is also an area of town called Johnson Road, which commemorates him.

Mary Howitt, the Quaker writer of the poem "The Spider and the Fly", lived in Uttoxeter for a long period of her life. The town influenced some of her poems and novels, as well as fuelling her love of natural history, which also featured in her books. Howitt Crescent, a residential road in the town, was named after her. The house where she lived is still standing in Balance Street.

Thomas Fradgley, Uttoxeter's own architect designed the Town Hall (1854); the Johnson Memorial (1854); St. Michael's Church, Stramshall; St.Lawrence Church, Bramshall (1835), St. Mary's Church, Uttoxeter; Marchington Church. He was involved with Pugin and other architects in designs for the 16th Earl of Shrewsbury at Alton Towers including the figures of the Talbot Hounds at the entrance tower, 1830; the Angel Corbels in the Lady chapel, 1833; Alton Towers Chapel with Joseph Potter and completed in 1833; Swiss Cottage or Harper's Cottage, Farley. He was the architect in the improvement of several local schools, including Uttoxeter National School, Hanbury Free School, enlarged in 1848; Oakamoor N.S., Cauldon Low N.S., Alton N.S., and Draycott in Hanbury School. It is believed he designed Moorlands, Byrds Lane, Uttoxeter for one of the Bamfords. He married Clara Warner from Bramshall. Their only child Thomas died aged 6. Thomas Fradgley died in 1883 aged 83.

Bunting's brewery occupied a large area of the centre of the town since the Victorian era. It stopped producing beer in the 1930s after being bought by Parkers Brewery in Burslem, later part of Ind Coope. The last remains of the brewery were demolished in the 1960s to make way for the Maltings shopping precinct and car park. The brewery clock was re-furbished and installed on the town hall in the 2000s.

In 1945, Joseph Cyril Bamford founded J C Bamford Excavators Limited in Uttoxeter, now known as JCB. The firm, based in the nearby village of Rocester, is the world's third-largest construction equipment manufacturer.[4] The firm's first vehicle was a tipping trailer made from war-surplus materials, which J. C. Bamford built in a rented lock-up garage in Uttoxeter. The Bamford family had previously started Bamfords, later Bamford International Farm Machinery which was a large employer in the town from the end of the 19th century through to the early 1980s when it gradually went into decline before closing in 1986.

Uttoxeter celebrated its 700-year anniversary of the awarding of a Market charter (1308) in 2008, which underpins the market provision on Saturdays and Wednesdays in particular, and other festival markets. The 1308 charter followed a more general Royal Charter granted to the town's burgesses in 1252. The originals reside at the National Archives in Kew and the Deferrers Museum in Leicester.

Places of interest include:

• St. Mary's Catholic Church in Balance Street was Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin's first church design. He later worked on Alton Towers and the Houses of Parliament. Three miles north west of Uttoxeter are the remains of Croxden Abbey, founded in 1176 by Bertram de Verdun for monks of the Cistercian Order. Redfern's Cottage:Museum of Uttoxeter Life is on Carter Street and is run by a group of volunteers. The restored timber-framed building houses local history displays and a small gift-shop selling local history books and souvenirs, with a cafe opening in 2017;
• The town's refurbished Market Place contains the town's main war memorial, as well as the Millennium Monument and the Dr. Johnson Memorial. The Wednesday Friday and Saturday Markets are held weekly in the Market Place, in addition there is a monthly Makers' Market;
• Smallwood Manor, just over a mile outside the town and built in 1886, was formerly a country house and is now home to Smallwood Manor Preparatory School. The National Trust's Museum of Childhood is located at nearby Sudbury Hall;
• Uttoxeter Racecourse is one of Uttoxeter's most famous landmarks and is a short walk from the town centre;
• Bramshall Road Park is the town's recreational ground and offers tennis courts, skate park, basketball court, football pitch, bowling green and two children's play areas, as well as floral arrangements and Picknall Brook nature reserve which can be followed through to the River Dove;
• The Alton Towers Resort is around 10 miles (16 km) from Uttoxeter. The Peak District National Park is about 20 miles away;
• Croxden Abbey is a ruined Cistercian Abbey approximately three miles outside of the town;
• The Uttoxeter Casket or Dr Nelson's Casket is an Anglo Saxon reliquary which likely came from Croxden Abbey. It was rediscovered in a cottage in Croxden in the mid 19th century. It probably held a religious relic and was displayed on an altar. The casket currently resides in the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Ohio.