My cousin, Barry Winter, died recently. He was the loveliest person you could hope to meet. He was born in Stoke-on-Trent, the only child of my dad’s older brother, Clifford, and his wife, Fay, market traders in the Tunstall and Hanley markets.
Month: Sep 2025
Josiah Wedgwood (1769-1843): From Pottery to Politics
Josiah Wedgwood (1769-1843) was the second son and namesake of the famous potter and inventor, Josiah Wedgwood (1730-95). He followed his father as head of the family’s pottery manufacturing firm, based at Etruria near Stoke-on-Trent. Although he was the second son and had lived as a country gentleman in Dorset before his father’s death, taking little interest in the business, its management fell to him because of his older brother’s ‘chronic incompetence’ and his younger brother’s death.
Lichfield and Burntwood may have to finance Stoke-on-Trent
The government says any proposals to reform local government in Staffordshire must identify and address the financial challenges facing Stoke-on-Trent City Council.
Photo Walks in the Staffordshire Moorlands
Memory Lane: Longton’s Historic Beerhouses
This community-made film takes a light-hearted look at historic Beerhouses in Longton and their links with the Pottery Industry.
When you have watched the video, please use our Comments Section below to share your memories of Longton’s Beerhouses and Public Houses with us. Tell us the stories your father and your grandfather told you about them. Let us know which was your favourite public house. Tell why you liked it and the traditional games you played there with your friends.
Friday NewsDesk
We have spent most of the week reorganising our filing system and image archive. Several new posts have been put on this site. They include details of services provided by Staffordshire Library and a video about the Armstrong Whitley Bomber.
The Whitley was a Second World War heavy bomber. Built in Coventry, the Whitley was designed by John Lloyd, who grew up in Etruria. Other aircraft designed by John included the experimental flying wing, which ushered in the jet age and helped to create the V Bomber force and Concorde
Sir Morien Morgan, the Director of the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, said John was one of the 20th century’s leading aeronautical engineers.
John is regarded as one of the 20th century’s leading aircraft designers.
Stoke-on-Trent, the city where he received his education and served an apprenticeship, has refused to recognise his achievements.
We hope you have a relaxing and enjoyable weekend. Take care. We will see you again on Monday.
Bygone Kidsgrove
The Trent & Mersey Canal and the Harecastle Tunnels will help to make North Staffordshire’s Industrial Landscape a World Heritage Site.
City Centre: Hanley Past and Present
Heritage Open Days 2025
As in previous years, several hundred industrial heritage sites will be opening their doors for free to the public, whilst dozens more events, from talks to walks, will look at the stories of industrial archaeology, history, and the people involved across England. With the ‘Railway 200’ anniversary celebrations for the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825 culminating at the end of September, it seems appropriate that there are over a hundred railway-related sites and events available this year.
Ancestral Tourism 2: Public and Municipal Cemeteries
The emergence of large public cemeteries is a fascinating aspect of our social history, connecting with several other developments of the nineteenth century that will be familiar to local and family historians. The migrations and population booms of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries created not only a lack of housing for the living but also of burial grounds for the dead, and all the more so in the growing industrial towns and cities. The historic churchyard burial grounds posed problems on several fronts: they were generally small, overcrowded, and often laid out haphazardly; and as knowledge of hygiene and sanitation developed, there were concerns about the spread of disease, particularly since in towns and cities, these small burial grounds were generally alongside the church and surrounded by closely packed housing.
North Staffordshire Heritage 