Author: David Martin

William Scarratt’s Schooldays

William Scarratt remembers his schooldays in Tunstall.

In his book Old Times in the Potteries, published in 1906, William Scarratt recalls his schooldays in Tunstall. 

A 19th Century Classroom

There were three schools for primary education in Tunstall. There was one Church of England school (Christ Church National School), two Methodist Church schools and a few dame schools. 

In the 1840s, Mr Lambert was the headteacher of the Church of England school I attended. The school was surrounded by fields. I was one of the ‘little ones’ when I saw my first barring out day. 

The headteacher came to school at the usual time. He found he was locked out of the building. The older boys had locked him out. There was great excitement inside the school. The big boys opened the windows.

They held the keys out of a window on the end of a long pole, which was held so high that he could not reach them.

The headteacher and his staff had been barred out.

Good-natured bantering occurred between the boys and the head until he agreed to give them a holiday.  

Ho! The triumph of the victors. The big boys said they were going to keep the doors locked all afternoon if he had refused to give them a holiday.  

We had an all-around education that was not restricted to the three Rs. When the school day started, a hymn was sung. My heart filled with joy when we sang, ‘Awake my soul and with the sun’.  

After singing the hymn, we learned the creed before lessons began. It was a pleasant school. Sometimes, the curate would take us to an adjacent field for games. I saw my first cricket match played there.  

Pupils attended school on Saturday mornings. On Wednesday afternoons, there were recitations at one Methodist school. On Wednesday mornings, pupils who went to Christ Church National School were taken to a service in the church.

Edited by The History Factory (2024)  

 

Furlong Road in the 1850s

Scarratt’s Tunstall

Furlong Road ran from High Street, Tunstall, to Greenfield, an industrial village near Pitts Hill. The road was narrow and overhung with laburnum and other trees.

In his book Old Times in the Potteries (published in 1906), William Scarratt describes the road in the 1850s.

In 1854, Furlong Road was like a country lane. The oak and other trees surrounded Greengates House, which Mr William Adams built in the 18th century. These trees were quite leafy. Rooks built their nests in them, and wild ducks sported on the pool in front of the house. At the back of the house were large trees where rooks cawed noisily in the spring. Little birds built nests in the hedgerows below the church – I have found them there. Nobody today would believe that harriers or beagles were kept at this house. But that is a fact. The owner of the house was fond of sport. I met them on the road to school in Newchapel. One of my school fellows, the owner’s son, has followed them, so he said. The road ran from High Street to Greenfield. It was narrow and overhung in some places with laburnum and other trees.

Edited by The History Factory (2024)

Tunstall Memorial Gardens

An Open Letter From Lee Wanger (10 November 2024)
The Pavilion in the Memorial Gardens

I want to draw your attention to the plight of Tunstall’s Memorial Gardens in The Boulevard.

If you haven’t visited the gardens recently, please go and see for yourself how they have been neglected.

While nearly every town has a war memorial, Tunstall’s Memorial Gardens are unique. They are a heritage asset we should be proud of. The gardens are the focal point of a Conservation Area and home to our cenotaph.

My attempts to get Stoke-on-Trent City Council to look after the gardens failed. I consulted heritage lawyers and asked them if there was anything else I could do. They told me my only choice was to shame the council into action. Will you add your voice to mine? Can we work together and ask the council to restore our Memorial Gardens before it is too late?

The pavilion shown in the image has been left to rot. Fires and graffiti have damaged the murals, bricks have been knocked out of the walls and the guttering is collapsing.

The ornate entrance gates and fencing in The Boulevard are rotting away. Finials are missing from the tops of pillars, and the fencing is rusting and disintegrating.

For a long time, I have been asking the council to restore the gardens to their former glory. My requests have been ignored. Now, I need your help. Please write to the City Council, your local Councillor, and your Member of Parliament. Tell them about the plight of the Memorial Gardens. These gardens are of great historical significance. Ask them to stop the neglect and save the gardens.

Many thanks for reading my letter. Best wishes, Lee Wanger

Stoke-on-Trent’s Proud Heritage

A city that forgets its past is a city without a future.
Reginald Mitchell’s Spitfire

Stoke-on-Trent is a city with a proud heritage.

Its history is a testament to people from the Potteries who have played significant roles on the world stage. 

Stoke-on-Trent’s city council was one of the pioneers of comprehensive education. It defied Conservative and Labour governments to reform secondary education by creating comprehensive schools and a sixth-form college. 

Local art schools, technical schools and colleges of further education were progressive centres of excellence. Reginald Mitchell, who designed the Spitfire, turned down a place at Birmingham University. He wanted to serve an apprenticeship with a firm in Fenton and study engineering at city technical schools. 

By the early 1930s, the North Staffordshire Technical College was a university in everything but name. The college’s worldwide reputation in ceramic research and mining engineering attracted students from Europe, North America and the Commonwealth.

Some argue that the past is dead. They are mistaken. It lives in our collective memory and shapes our destiny. Our city’s proud heritage tells us who we are and why we are unique. A city that forgets its past is a city without a future.

Can You Help Trace These Film Strips?

North Staffordshire Heritage needs your help to find a series of historic 35 mm film strips. These films were made by local schools in 1960. They were produced to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent’s creation.

We have the scripts for all these film strips. But we have only found one film strip, the Township of Tunstall that was made by Highgate Secondary School.

The film strips about Burslem, Hanley, Stoke-upon-Trent, Fenton and Longton are missing. If you can help us to trace them, please email northstaffordshireheritage@outlook.com

St. John’s Church, Goldenhill

Heritage at Risk

The Church of St John the Evangelist at Goldenhill is a Grade II Listed Building. Erected 1840-41, it was built in a Byzantine Romanesque style. St. John’s closed in 2014. Since then the church and the churchyard have been vandalized. Like many other heritage buildings in the Potteries, St. John’s faces an uncertain future.

Image: Copyright David Weston Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

A Tunstall Church Could Help Create a World Heritage Site

The Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Tunstall, designed by Father Patrick Ryan and built by unemployed men could help make North Staffordshire’s Industrial Heritage Landscape a World Heritage Site.

The Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Tunstall is one of Stoke-on-Trent’s hidden jewels.

Architectural historians believe it will help make North Staffordshire’s Industrial Landscape a World Heritage Site. The parish priest, Father Patrick Ryan, designed the church, which was built between 1922 and 1930 by unemployed men.

The Churnet Valley Railway

The Churnet Valley Railway is a popular tourist attraction. It will help make North Staffordshire’s Heritage Landscape a World Heritage Site.

The Gladstone Pottery Museum

The Gladstone Pottery Museum is one of Stoke-on-Trent’s heritage assets. It will help make North Staffordshire’s Industrial Landscape a World Heritage Site.

North Staffordshire’s Industrial Landscape Merits World Heritage Site Status

The Harecastle Tunnels on the Trent & Mersey Canal at Kidsgrove

There are no historical reasons to prevent North Staffordshire’s Industrial Landscape from becoming a World Heritage Site.

In the 18th century, North Staffordshire helped to make England “the workshop of the world.” Local entrepreneurs, like Wedgwood and Adams, transformed a group of small towns into an industrial area of international importance.

James Brindley’s Trent & Mersey Canal “kick-started” the Industrial Revolution, which made Britain “the Workshop of the World. The canal and railway tunnels between Kidsgrove and Chatterley are significant feats of civil engineering. They merit World Heritage Site status in their own right.

The Primitive Methodist Church was founded in North Staffordshire by Hugh Bourne and William Clowes. It gave the Potteries its unique culture and a way of life that Arnold Bennett vividly portrayed in his novels.

Burslem’s “old town hall” is one of the finest examples of Victorian civic architecture. The Wedgwood Institute’s terracotta facade is an inspiring tribute to the men, women and children who worked in local industries.

The former colliery at Chatterley Whitfield should have been made a World Heritage Site many years ago.

Making North Staffordshire’s Industrial Landscape a World Heritage Site would encourage economic regeneration and create new employment opportunities.

Tom Brown’s Journey to Rugby

At three o’clock on a cold, frosty February morning in 1834, his father put him on an express stagecoach bound for Rugby. Thomas had an outside seat next to the guard who looked after him during the journey.
A typical scene at a 19th Century Coaching Inn

Judge Thomas Hughes, who wrote Tom Brown’s Schooldays, presided over County Courts in South Cheshire. The book is an autobiographical novel about his early life.

His father sent him to Rugby School when he was eleven. In the book, he describes his first journey to school.

At three o’clock on a February morning in 1834, his father put him on an express stagecoach bound for Rugby. Thomas had an outside seat next to the guard who looked after him during the journey. It was a bitterly cold and frosty morning. He was given a glass of hot beer and rum to keep out the cold. Yet, he was still half-frozen when the coach stopped for breakfast at a coaching inn.

“Twenty minutes here, gentlemen,” says the coachman as they pull up at half past seven at the inn door.

Have we not endured nobly this morning, and is not this a worthy reward for much endurance? We enter a low, dark, wainscoted room whose walls are hung with sporting prints. A hatstand is by the door, with a whip or two in it. They belong to commercial travellers who are still snug in bed. The room has a blazing fire, casting a warm and inviting glow. There is quaint old glass over the mantelpiece… The table is covered with the whitest of cloths and china dishes full of food. There is a pigeon pie, a ham, cold beef cut from a mammoth ox and a large loaf of bread. The stout head waiter comes, puffing under a tray of hot viands. On the tray are kidneys, roast beef, rashers of bacon, poached eggs, buttered toast, muffins, tea and coffee. The table can never hold it all. The cold meats are taken off the table and put on the sideboard. They were there for show and to give us an appetite. And now fall on gentlemen all.

“Tea or coffee sir?” says the head waiter coming round to Tom.

“Coffee, please,” says Tom, with his mouth full of muffins and kidneys. Coffee is a treat to him; tea is not.

Our coachman has breakfast with us. He eats cold beef and drinks a tankard of ale brought to him by the barmaid.

For breakfast, Tom had kidney and pigeon pie. He drank coffee, and his little skin became ‘as tight as a drum.’ After breakfast, he paid the head waiter and boarded the stagecoach to continue his journey.

Edited by The History Factory (2024)