Uttoxeter

Uttoxeter is a market town in East Staffordshire, England, positioned along the River Dove with a central marketplace ringed by traditional buildings and residential streets. Shops and public facilities spread outward from the historic core into the surrounding neighborhoods.

The settlement appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 under the name Wotocheshede and grew into a regional trading center. In 1648, the final royalist surrender of the English Civil War took place here.

The Samuel Johnson memorial on the marketplace marks a spot where the writer once stood bareheaded in the rain as an act of penance for refusing to help at his father's bookstall. Visitors can see the square where this 18th-century moment of remorse took place.

The town sits on a railway line with bus connections to surrounding communities in southern Staffordshire and Derbyshire. The railway station and central bus stops provide access to regional destinations within an hour's travel.

JCB, one of the world's largest construction equipment manufacturers, operates its international headquarters here and has shaped the local economy for decades. The company's yellow machines are recognizable on building sites worldwide.