Ford Green in Norton parish, 5.2 sat-nav miles from Mow Cop, was the home of a Ford family of yeoman farmers for almost 500 years from 1317 until 1803. Their final dwelling place was Ford Green Hall, a 17th Century timber framed building that is the oldest house in the City of Stoke on Trent and now a museum well worth a visit.
The history of the Ford Green family has been documented by a number of authors:
The Fords of Ford Green compiled by E.H.R.Ford and C.deL.W.fforde (1958, 1984) briefly reviews earlier work on the family history prior to the mid-18th Century and then focuses on later descendants.
The Ford Green Story by N.C.Rowley (1983) gives a more comprehensive account of the history of the Ford Green clan up to the beginning of the 19th Century.
Some members of the Ford family of Ford Green Hall had family connections with Josiah Wedgewood, Charles Darwin, Elizabeth Gaskell, Ralph Vaughn Williams, and other celebs. It is tempting to regard the Fords of Ford Green as the ancestral line - establish a link to them and one has a respectable pedigree and famous relatives!