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18  November 2011 

Another Grand Tour  - this section of the Potteries web site is based on an itinary which will take in all the districts of the City of Stoke-on-Trent and the surrounding area.

It follows the format of the original 'Grand Tour' which Neville Malkin published in the Evening Sentinel between March 1974 and August 1976. In that time he drew a wide variety of the buildings of the Potteries. As in the original there are 110 sections, 82 within the city boundary and 28 outside - some sections revisit the places that Neville Malkin included in his tour.

16  November 2011 

High Street Blues - In the Potteries we are well acquainted with high street problems: we have them, but multiplied by six. 

Add the town centres of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Kidsgrove, Biddulph, Leek, and Cheadle, and it is clear to see that North Staffordshire faces some serious challenges.

15  November 2011 

A unique collection of the drawings which Neville Malkin published in the Evening Sentinel between March 1974 and August 1976. In that time he drew a wide variety of the buildings of the Potteries. 

This section now contains all 110 of them together with the original text and new photographs and background information where available.

8  November 2011 

Author of a History of the Staffordshire Potteries (1829), and The Chemistry of Pottery (1837).
Quoted and criticised in equal measure by later contributors to the subject of Staffordshire ceramics.

published the book 'History of the Staffordshire Potteries'.
Full title: 'History Of The Staffordshire Potteries And The Rise And Process Of The Manufacture Of Pottery And Porcelain - With Preferences To Genuine Specimens And Notices Of Eminent Potters'

Many of the features of the school build are Streamline Moderne, which was a later type of the Art Deco design style emerging during the 1930s. Its architectural style emphasized curving forms and long horizontal lines.

The future's bright

Friday 17th June 2011. Remember that date, because it is the day on which the foundations were potentially laid for a brighter economic future for Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire.

The works were rescued from the receiver in 1999 by William and Rosemary Dorling and run as a going concern the company was renamed 'Burgess Dorling and Leigh'. 
In July 2010 the company was sold  to Denby Holding.
The Prince’s Regeneration Trust's subsidiary, the United Kingdom Historic Building Preservation Trust (UKHBPT) acquired Middleport Pottery from Burgess Dorling & Leigh (a subsidiary of Denby Holdings), in July 2011. The Trust is investing £7.5million in the regeneration of the pottery site.

Photographs of an area of Longport which was cleared for development in 2011. Before these houses were built in the 1880/90's Longport Hall stood in this location. 

Bridgewater Street  /  Shirley Street  /  Trubshawe Street

Etruria: hard times they must have been in Etruria in those days  - Can you imagine the view Josiah Wedgwood had when he looked out from Cob Ridge above the smoky potteries of Burslem and Shelton on the day he purchased Ridge House estate? - and what of the new Etruscans?

Stoke-upon-Trent, is as it was, motionless - Historically Stoke was an important stockade and an inland port as far as the currents of the River Trent could reach, and its physical outlook really does have more going for it than any of the other five towns that make up Stoke-on-Trent. So why does Stoke have such a hard time with its identity?

13th July 2011 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Sir George Gilbert Scott the famous English architect - he designed a number of prominant buildings in and around Stoke-on-Trent

On the authority of an order issued by the House of Commons, the Commissioners appointed Dr. Samuel Scriven to investigate and report on the "Employment of Children and Young Persons in the District of the North Staffordshire Potteries and on the Actual State, Conditions and Treatment of Such Children and Young Persons."

Hanley got there first in size and quality - commerce in Hanley  from Huntbach's and Bratt and Dyke's to the Piccadilly Shopping Arcade. 

Norton - in the Labour fold - Harry Brown, former councillor and Labour stalwart. 
  

Did You Know?

The State of the North Staffordshire Potteries Towns in 1845
From: the Second Report of The Commissioners for inquiring into the State of Large Towns and Populous Districts.
more  
  

Christchurch - Fenton Parish Church
The original church build in 1839, the replacement of 1890 after the first church suffered subsidence, greavestones inthe church yard and maps of the surrounding area.  

Good News from Glebe Street - “the dogs of doom are howling more…” but there has been some Good News, in the revamp of the Glebe Hotel by the Joule’s Brewery

It’s an interesting town Kidsgrove filled with interesting people - Kidsgrove is full of quirky stories, most very well documented, and inhabited by people who act with unconventional behaviour. It is a place where no one seems to be in charge – where management and influence resides in the hands of outsiders.

Trent Vale, probably the most important place in Stoke-on-Trent - From its boundary with the City General Hospital the geography of Trent Vale is shaped like a triangle with Springfields and Penkhull in the north falling to the Trent Valley through Boothen and Oakhill.

Waterfront - The Middleport-Longport length of the Trent and Mersey Canal is the most historic, interesting and exciting stretch of waterside in the city. 
In terms of 'unique waterside heritage', Middleport-Longport has the lot.

Will the Falcon Soar Again?  - the evening's biggest disappointment for me lay just across the road, and the sad state of the former home of J. H. Weatherby and Sons, Falcon Pottery

When I Was a Child

Charles Shaw (b.1832 d.1906) was born in Tunstall and worked in the North Staffordshire Potteries - he started work at about the age of 7. 

His autobiography is a facinating insight into life in the Potteries in the mid 19th Century. It is reproduced here with pictures added to illustrate the text and additional notes, related pages for further research. 

A look at the MP's of Stoke-on-Trent from 1832 onwards...

Stoke-on-Trent MP's -  Most Stoke-on-Trent MPs have been bound in grassroots socialism, first through the waning Liberals and then Labour.

Parliamentary Elections Pt 1 - In 1832 Stoke-on-Trent elected its first MPs, both pottery manufacturers. Josiah Wedgwood II was a Liberal and John Davenport a Conservative. It was the Liberals, though, who set the model of electing MPs associated with industry even though few were locally born. 

Parliamentary Elections Pt 2 - As far as our patch goes communism ignited in 1920, its flames stoked by a humble Silverdale woman named Fanny Deakin (1883-1968)

Tunstall - public institutions in 1907 - a list of local authority committees and organisations for Tunstall Urban District Council in 1907.
Including Churches and philanthropic societies.