Hi Miffy, it sounds like your ancestor may have held land which was part of a manor, in which case you potentially have the opportunity for a lot of useful information (if it survived).
You first need to know what manor the land belonged to. Is there any mention of a manor in the will or other documents? Are any field names mentioned? What was your ancestor's name?
If not, the there was a Manor of Trentham which would be a good place to start. The Manorial Document Register lists what records survive for each manor:
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/manor-searchThis list includes some quite interesting items. There are
perambulations for 1700 and 1806 where the officers walked the boundary of the manor. These often list the names of fields and maybe even their occupiers/owners. There are some
suit rolls covering 1788 to 1826 with lots of names (Stafford Record Office D593/J/4/2).
There is also quite a lot of information available about potters (maps, rate books etc). Please give the information you have found on the earthenware man and I might be able to find some more.
Regards,
Paul
Tittensor One-Name study homepage;
www.tittensor.com