What's new on 'The Potteries' Web Site 2009

Stoke-on-Trent
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What was new in 2009?

this shows significant sections added during 2009 - also see see current 'What's New?' |

| also see what was new in: 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008

14 November 2009	index of Brickworks and Tileries of the North Staffordshire Potteries district - Stoke-on-Trent is well supplied with beds of heavy clay suitable for making bricks. These included Etruria marl and Old Mill marl, together with that associated with the coal seams:- Black Band , and the Middle and Lower Coal measures.
8 September 2009	'Villages of Vision' - what of the planned settlement in the Potteries? ...... there have been some developments that – at their time – have been of importance and influence locally and in some instances farther a field.
9 August 2009	Photographs of additional new plant built in 1922 at Shelton Iron & Steel Works - including new boilers, a new foundry, additional by-product plant, and extensions to the washery.
17 July 2009	'Guardians of the Dead' - There is only place that we are all going; Death is the one great leveller and has no respect for money, class or status, and it is the only time of life where both kings and beggars are equal.
3 June 2009	Methodism in the Potteries As people flooded into the new towns of Burslem, Hanley and Lane End (now Longton), moral conditions were very poor indeed. Drunkenness was common, even among children; profanity and vulgarity were heard everywhere; gambling, bull-baiting and cock-fighting were normal pastimes; the annual holiday weeks (called "Wakes") proved to be occasions of every sort of immorality..... But help was at hand! As Marjorie Cruikshank continues, "it was Dissent in its various forms which appealed to the potters, colliers and iron workers. Foremost among all these Dissenting bodies were the Methodists, who were led by John Wesley.
17 May 2009	Doors, Gates and Windows Explore the buildings of Stoke-on-Trent and the wider Potteries conurbation - this section will be added to regularly - so pop back and see what's new.
20 April, 4 May 2009	The absolute centre of the Beer-muder Triangle was the George and Dragon pub popularly known as ‘th Owd ‘Ut’. Why? I’ll leave it to others to tell you why.” Longton’s most prominent public house is the Crown Hotel. “It was described in trade directories as a favourite rendezvous of commercial gentlemen and Americans and feted as popular with families. Originally named the Crown and Anchor it was built in 1887 on the site of another long forgotten pub, the White Horse.” Look around Newcastle and you get the feeling of strong tradition particularly in the pubs that stand among ubiquitous Georgian architecture. But it is the closed pubs in other uses that show the true heritage of Newcastle. Take for instance the Golden Ball in Bridge Street.
13 April 2009	‘Black Gold’ This year sees the 25^th anniversary of the start of the Miners’ Strike, which ultimately led to the demise of the coal mining industry as a major powerhouse in this country, the fall out of which coalfield communities are still dealing with to this day.
11 April 2009	A weekly pub crawl Take a weekly walk with Fred Hughes and Steve Birks in search of some of the old pubs of Stoke-on-Trent. “Pubs were our first community centres after church and chapel. They were built to serve their neighbourhood, which is why we call them ‘locals’.... It’s quite impressive how many buildings there are that were once public houses.”
25 Mar 2009	In 1918, with the war over, Parliament agreed to give the vote to women who were over 30. But it was not until 1928 that the law granted women the right to vote on the same terms as men. The first woman to take a seat in the House of Commons was Lady Nancy Astor in 1919. In that same year Stoke-on-Trent admitted its first woman councillor, Florence Farmer.
12 Mar 2009	Renew? & Regeneration! - Stoke-on-Trent "What is particularly frustrating about the housing issues in Stoke is that through their 'regeneration' agenda, they are in the process of creating an affordable housing problem via the demolition of the area's affordable housing." "a rhetorical question why doesn’t the city council protect its grand, unique factories - as flats, as malls, whatever – rather than removing all traces of what makes the city of any interest to the world?"
9 Mar 2009	Old Pubs of the Potteries Boarded-up pubs have become a symbol of the death of community spirit in Britain's towns and cities. The decline has been dramatic. For this, the British Beer & Pub Association blames mounting costs, sinking sales, fragile consumer confidence and the smoking ban, as well as cheap supermarket beer and the growth in home entertainment. Former pubs in Stoke-on-Trent have been converted into a host of uses from private dwellings to hairdressers.
3 Mar 2009	Clerk met his match as police chief laid down law - [Eustace Joy & Frank Bunn] Fred Hayward - Co-op unionist, the peoples’ delegate
28 Feb 2009	"Machines for Living in" The most ubiquitous form of housing in the Potteries, is the traditional two-up, two-down terrace, a form of 19^th and 20^th century home that retains its popularity even now in the 21^st century, due to its longevity and affordability. In spite of its ever presence, the terraced house in the Potteries is a unique built form, and Stoke-on-Trent boasts some of the finest domestic working-class architecture in the country, with some exceptional streetscapes and some principled, well-detailed housing.
1 Feb 2009	Leonard Grimwade - the federation spin-doctor Grimwade gathered evidence from far and wide to support the federation cause. He seemed to be everywhere, travelling around the country to see what benefits other local authorities enjoyed under single management.
15 Feb 2009	The Darwin - Wedgwood family was a prominent English family, descended from Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood I, the most notable member of which was Charles Darwin. The family contained at least ten Fellows of the Royal Society and several artists and poets.
11 Feb 2009	Cecil Wedgwood - the first mayor after federation He was second-in-command of the 8^th North Staffordshire Regiment in France. However on the third day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916 he was killed. Legend has it that his last words were, ‘Carry on the Potters!’
6 Feb 2009	New section - pottery factories of the week. From the 18th century until the 1960s, bottle ovens were the dominating feature of the Staffordshire Potteries. There were over two thousand of them standing at any one time and they could be seen everywhere one looked. Some small factories had only one bottle oven, other large potbanks had as many as twenty-five.
26 Jan 2009 19 Jan 2009	Theatre legacy of Mother Town's civic bid - [Sydney Malkin] - Malkin showed his rebellious nature at the beginning of the 20^th century when all the talk was of Federation. The Sentinel was full of it and Arnold Bennett wrote about its implications in his novel The Old Wives’ Tale published shortly before the event in 1910. Accountant was breath of fresh air - [Frederick Geen] - Geen was a committed anti full-federationist, preferring a civic partnership with Stoke, Fenton and Longton instead. But his early proposals fizzled out through lack of support.
13 Jan 2009	City is born after historic act The first of the federation 'walks' - people, places and buildings connected with federation.
5 Jan 2009	The completion of the walk along the Potteries Loop Line - Tinkersclough, Shelton Works & Etruria
4 Jan 2009	Federation of the six towns of the North Staffordshire Potteries took place on March 31st 1910. The county borough of Hanley, the municipal boroughs of Burslem, Longton and Stoke together with the urban districts of Tunstall and Fenton now formed a single county borough of Stoke-on-Trent. This section on Federation will be developed to give a comprehensive account of the people, places and event involved in the federation of the county borough of Stoke-upon-Trent.