Stoke-on-Trent is a city in Staffordshire, central England, on the Trent River. Stoke-on-Trent is the center of the British ceramic industries and comprises an area known as the Potteries District. Manufactures other than porcelain and earthenware include machinery and chemicals; coal is also mined. The famous potters Josiah Wedgwood, Josiah Spode, and Thomas Minton founded potteries here in the 18th century. The industry's growth was aided by the opening of the Trent and Mersey Canal in 1777. In 1910 the towns of Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, and Tunstall were united into one administrative unit, Stoke-on-Trent.