STONE  , a

market town in the western parliamentary division of Staffordshire, England, on the river Trent, 7 M . N. of Stafford by the North Staffordshire railway . Pop. of urban district (1901), 5680 . Part of the walls and crypt remain of an abbey which dates from the foundation of a college of canons in 67o . The church of St Michael dates from 1750, the abbey church having collapsed in the previous year . Alleyne's grammar school is a foundation of 1J58 . The chief industry is shoemaking, but malting, brewing and tanning are also carried on . At Bury Bank, on the hills to the north, an earthwork is traditionally considered to be the site of the capital of the Kingdom of Mercia; there are other works in the neighbourhood at Saxon Low .