Betty Martin – North Staffordshire Heritage

Historic Tunstall: The Brownhills Murder (1797)

John Wood, whose father was a pottery manufacturer in Burslem, bought the Brownhills estate near Tunstall in 1782.

He built a pottery factory on the estate and erected Brownhills Hall. The hall was a red brick Georgian mansion, where John lived with his wife, Mary, and their children.

In 1796, Mary was taken ill, and John asked Burslem surgeon Thomas Oliver to treat her. During his visits to the hall, Thomas met and fell in love with their daughter Maria. His love was reciprocated, and the couple wanted to get married. Although Thomas had a successful practice, John refused to let him marry her.

He ordered Thomas to leave the hall and never darken its doors again.

Maria and Thomas started meeting near a mill in the Scotia Brook Valley. One evening, John found them there. He attacked Thomas, and the two men fought each other. After the fight, John called Thomas a poor beggar and ordered Maria to stop seeing him.

Maria obeyed her father and refused to see John again. John was devastated. He neglected his practice, took no interest in his personal appearance and started drinking heavily.

John’s wife, Mary, was taken seriously ill. John asked Thomas to treat her. He agreed, and she became his patient again. When Mary recovered, Maria and Thomas asked John to let them marry. He refused. Thomas became angry and told John that he would get even with him. After making the threat, Thomas left Brownhills Hall and walked home.

A few days afterwards, Thomas, armed with two loaded pistols, went to Brownhills Hall. When he arrived there, John was still in bed. Thomas went to the factory to wait for him in his office. When he came into the office, Thomas gave him the bill for treating Mary.

John gave the bill to Mr. Bathwell, one of his clerks and spoke to him. While he was speaking to Mr. Bathwell, Thomas pulled a pistol out of one of his pockets. He shot John. After firing the pistol, Thomas attempted to commit suicide by shooting himself. Before he could pull the trigger, Mr Bathwell knocked the gun out of his hand.

John looked at Thomas and said to him, “Oh, sir, you have killed me.” Thomas replied, “It is what I intended.” He made another attempt to kill himself. The attempt failed and he was arrested.

John died three days later. Thomas was charged with murder and remanded in custody to await trial at Staffordshire Assizes.

His trial took place on Friday, 25th August 1797. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Two leading physicians gave evidence to support his plea. Their evidence was rejected by the jury. He was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, a person found guilty by a jury at an Assize Court or Quarter Sessions could not appeal against conviction or sentence. Punishment was inflicted within days of the sentence being passed. Thomas was executed at 10.30am on Monday, 28th August, just three days after his trial.

After taking communion in the prison chapel, he walked calmly and bravely to the gallows. His body was taken to Stourbridge, where it was buried in the family grave.

The Brownhills Murder is one of a series of articles about North Staffordshire’s history written by Betty Martin before her death. Other articles from the series will be posted from time to time.

John Nash Peake (1837-1905)

Tunstall Town Hall is part of Tunstall’s unique late Victorian Civic Centre. It was designed by Absalom Reade Wood and opened by John Nash Peake on 29 October 1885.

John Nash Peake, after whom Nash Peake Street is named, was one of Tunstall’s most flamboyant characters. Born in Tunstall on 13 April 1837, he was the son of Thomas Peake.

Thomas owned Tunstall Tileries, in Watergate Street. He was the town’s Chief Bailiff (Chief Constable) and Chairman of the Board of Health from 1858 to 1861.

John, whose Christian names were John and Nash, was educated at the North London Collegiate School. At school, he showed considerable artistic ability. When he left school, John became a student at the Royal Academy, where he studied under Millais, one of England’s leading artists.

One of John’s paintings, Alpine Monks Restoring a Traveller, was exhibited at Burlington House when he was 18 years old. A year later, he showed another painting, The Last Hours of the Condemned, which portrayed a soldier awaiting execution.

Although he could have stayed in London and become a professional artist, John returned to Tunstall in the 1850s. He joined his father’s company, which made bricks, tiles, water pipes and ornamental garden pottery. John managed the firm after Thomas’s death in 1881. Under his management, the works doubled in size. It became one of the largest tileries in the world. There were 35 ovens producing more than 250,000 tiles a week.

John had a strong personality. He was a man with a keen intellect and a commanding presence, who was eloquent, versatile and persevering.

A devout Christian, John was an evangelist and a member of the Church of England. He opposed the Oxford Movement’s attack on the Reformation and its plan to make the Pope head of the Church of England.

His views on the activities of the Oxford Movement were shared by Sir Smith Child and Tunstall’s leading Methodists.

John spoke out against the movement’s growing influence and the introduction of Roman Catholic dogma and rites into Potteries’ churches. The Wesleyan Methodists invited him to lay one of King Street Methodist Church’s* four foundation stones.

The stones were laid on 20 October 1873. During the ceremony, John said he was sure that the Wesleyan Methodist Church would defend the Protestant faith. He was grieved to see the Church of England abandoning its traditions and embracing the doctrines of Roman Catholicism. John advised the Wesleyans to adhere to their faith and not allow anyone to interfere with it. He told them that the doctrines being introduced into the established church would destroy the Reformation.

John was a member of the Liberal Party. In 1869, he became a member of Tunstall’s Board of Health. His energy and determination led to the creation of the town’s Victorian civic centre. This centre included a new town hall and a public library as well as a school of art and science, a museum, a fire station, public baths, a drill hall and a recreation ground.

Despite his busy commercial and political life, John retained his interest in art. He painted portraits of Queen Victoria, Lord Roberts, and his father (Thomas Peake). He also painted Sir Smith Child and civic leaders, including Alfred Meakin, George Wilks, Henry Smallman, and Thomas Booth. These portraits hung in the town hall. A self-portrait which he painted was hung in the museum. Other examples of his work displayed there included Bosley Reservoir and Cloud End, The Fishing Fleet at Tenby, Menai Suspension Bridge, The Isle of Arran and The Matterhorn.

He designed the Free Library sign that hangs outside the Jubilee Building and Victoria Park’s main gates, which were erected in memory of his father.

On 15 October 1903, John gave Tunstall a mahogany cabinet with drawers to store the town’s records. One of his portraits of Queen Victoria is incorporated into the cabinet. The cabinet remains in the council chamber of the former town hall. Its doors open to reveal a list of the main events in the town’s history. There are also photographs of the chief bailiffs (Chief Constables), clerks, and surveyors from 1855 to 1909.

A bronze portrait bust of John was unveiled in the council chamber. He was given an illuminated address to thank him for his services to the town.

John, who was 66 years old, said: “I know well that day by day, I come nearer to a time when I shall be forever absent from the council chamber and the streets. Think, then, what it means to me this surprising tribute of yours that I shall not be forgotten: that I shall be with you, dwelling among my own people in imperishable bronze.”

He died three years later on 29 April 1905. The bronze bust disappeared many years ago. So far, all attempts to trace it have failed.

*King Street is now Madison Street. The church was demolished in the 1970s.

Note: John Nash Peake (1837-1905) is one of a series of articles Betty Martin wrote before she died in 2023. More articles from this series will be posted periodically.

A Hard Winter (1946-1947)

RAF-HalifaxBomber — A Halifax Bomber like the one that crashed on Grindon Moor.

The winter of 1946-47 was long and hard. There were heavy snowfalls and gale-force winds. Temperatures fell to below freezing, and icicles hung from the roofs of houses.

Mainline railway lines were kept open, but frozen points on branch lines prevented coal trains from leaving collieries. The National Coal Board did not thaw the points. They stockpiled coal at the pit head. This created a fuel shortage, and British industry was forced to introduce short-time working.

Between Sunday, February 2nd and Tuesday, February 4th, 1947 a blizzard lasting forty-eight hours swept across Staffordshire and Cheshire. More than ten inches of snow fell. Roads became impassable and motorists abandoned their vehicles.

Villages in the Staffordshire Moorlands were isolated by snowdrifts five or six feet deep. Over a hundred snowploughs and bulldozers fought to keep Staffordshire’s main roads open. German prisoners of war helped to clear the snow from roads leading into Burton-on-Trent. A working party from Stafford prison cleared snow blocking the road from Stafford to Stone.

In the Potteries, roads blocked by snowdrifts were reopened by Polish troops stationed at Keele. A bus fitted with a snowplough opened the road to Leek, but surrounding villages remained cut off.

Power stations producing electricity were running out of coal and output fell. Supplies of electricity were disrupted. Householders were asked not to use electricity between 9.00am and noon and between 2.00pm and 4.00pm. These savings were not enough to keep hospitals supplied with electricity. On February 7th, the government ordered companies to stop using electricity.

Industry throughout the country was hard hit. Factories were forced to close. At Stafford, English Electric dismissed its 5,000 employees. In the Potteries 44,000 men and women were made redundant.

At a meeting in Stoke, the National Political Union condemned the Labour government. It blamed the government for creating a fuel crisis. The crisis also caused widespread unemployment.

A few shopkeepers in Stafford continued to use electric spotlights to highlight displays in their shop windows. Lights and heating were turned off at the Guildhall where the Magistrates’ Court sat. It was so cold in the courtroom that Justices of the Peace wore their overcoats.

Many shops were lit by candlelight. Old gas mantles were used to light offices throughout the region. The Midland Bank at Crewe was lit by oil lamps and hurricane lamps were used to light Stoke town hall.

Blizzards prevented rescue teams from reaching Longnor, Butterton, Grindon and Ilam, isolated villages where 3,000 people were trapped.

The Royal Air Force was asked to help. At RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, Halifax Bombers were loaded with food supplies for the villagers.

On February 12th, despite adverse weather conditions and low clouds, a bomber dropped thirteen canisters containing food near Longnor. Volunteers helped Police Sergeant Davenport carry the canisters to the village hall. They contained margarine, lard, sugar, cheese, bread and jam for the villagers and people living in neighbouring hamlets.

The next day, another Halifax, piloted by Squadron Leader McIntyre, took off from Fairford with food for Butterton. Weather conditions had deteriorated overnight. Visibility was poor. People on the ground, who were waiting for the food canisters to be dropped, heard the aircraft’s engines. They could not see the plane.

Squadron Leader McIntyre flew low hoping to find the dropping zone. The plane’s engines cut out. There was an explosion, and the Halifax crashed near Sheldon Farm on Grindon Moor. Eight men were on board. Only one survived the impact. He was unconscious when rescuers pulled him out of the cockpit and died shortly afterwards.

Among the dead was twenty-four-year-old Sergeant William Sherry from Clews Street, Burslem. Educated at Middleport School, he had been an army glider pilot before transferring to the Royal Air Force. William served with the 1st Airborne Division. He fought at Arnhem, where he was wounded and captured by the Germans.

Note: A Hard Winter (1946-1947) is one of a series of articles written by Betty Martin before her death. Other articles from the series will be posted from time to time.

John Lloyd (Part One)

John Lloyd, whom Sir Morien Morgan, the Director of the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, said was “one of the 20th century’s leading aeronautical engineers”, is Stoke-on-Trent’s forgotten aircraft designer.

His most important contribution to aviation history was research into laminar flow and the creation of experimental Flying Wings that helped to create the V Bomber force and Concord.

Born near Swansea in 1888 into a Welsh-speaking family, four-year-old John could not speak English when they moved to the Potteries. An intelligent child, he quickly mastered the English language and won a scholarship to Hanley High School. Leaving school at sixteen, he became an apprentice at Shelton Bar, an iron and steel works at Etruria and studied engineering at Stoke Technical School.

Fascinated by the Wright brother’s attempts to build a petrol-engine-powered glider, he designed and built model flying machines in his spare time.

Before the First World War (1914-1918) aeroplanes had wooden frames covered with canvas. Having studied aerodynamics, John believed that an all-metal aircraft could be built. When war broke out, he was employed by the Royal Aircraft Factory to design composite wood, metal and canvas fighter planes.

Coventry-based aircraft manufacturer Armstrong Whitworth made him its chief designer in the 1920s, and he designed the Siskin fighter bomber.

In 1923, a specially built two-seater Siskin 11 won the King’s Cup Air Race, reaching a speed of 149 miles per hour. Shortly afterwards, he modified the aircraft’s design and constructed the Siskin 111, the Royal Air Force’s first all-metal framed biplane.

Armed with two Vicker’s machine guns, the aircraft could carry four small bombs. It had an open cockpit and was powered by an Armstrong Siddely Jaguar radial piston engine.

This post is taken from a series of articles about John Lloyd written by Betty Martin when she was researching Aviation History. Copyright: North Staffordshire Heritage 2024.

The image of the Siskin is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

(End of Part One)

John Lloyd (Part Two)

Civil Aviation developed rapidly after the First World War.

In March 1924, the government set up Imperial Airways to carry passengers and mail throughout the British Empire.

New routes were established linking England with South Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. Short-range planes made the journey in stages, flying to airports spaced out along the route.

Aircraft manufacturers were asked to build bigger more powerful planes. In 1925, John designed the Argosy a three-engined biplane big enough to carry 20 passengers. Imperial Airways ordered seven Argosys which flew from Croydon to Basle Brussels and Cologne.

An airmail service opened between England and India in 1929 and Imperial Airways asked Armstrong Whitworth to build a four-engined monoplane capable of carrying passengers and mail.

John designed the Atalanta, a commercial transport plane with a range of 540 miles that could carry 17 passengers. The Atalanta made its first flight on 6 June 1932 and appeared at the Hendon Air Display three weeks later. Imperial Airways bought eight aircraft, and the first went into service on 26 September.

The company assigned four Atalantas to its base in South Africa. The other four were sent to India, flying from Karachi to Calcutta, Rangoon and Singapore.

During the 1930s, three Atalantas crashed, and in 1939, the remaining aircraft were transferred to British Overseas Airways. They were requisitioned by the Royal Air Force in 1941 and given to the Indian Air Force, which used them for coastal reconnaissance.

End of Part Two

This post is taken from a series of articles about John Lloyd written by Betty Martin when she was researching Aviation History. Copyright: North Staffordshire Heritage 2024.

Photograph of the Argosy from Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-00921A / CC-BY-SA 3.0. Imperial Airways’ Advertisement is in the Public Domain.

John Lloyd (Part Three)

The Whitley Bomber before it was fitted with Rolls Royce Merlin Engines.

Realising that Germany was preparing for war, the government decided to modernise the Royal Air Force. It asked the aviation industry to build fast heavily armed monoplane fighter aircraft and long-range bombers to replace the air force’s old-fashioned biplanes.

John designed the Whitley (pictured above), a long-range two-engined heavy bomber. It was originally powered by two Armstrong Siddeley Tiger IX radial engines that were later replaced by Rolls Royce Merlin Engines.

The Whitley’s maximum speed was 230 miles per hour. It had a range of 2,400 miles and could carry bombs weighing up to 7,000 lbs.

A front-line aircraft from 1939 to 1942, the Whitley played a major role in the Royal Air Force’s bombing offensive against Germany and Italy. During the Battle of Britain, it bombed Belin and Italian aircraft factories, munitions works and railway marshalling yards.

The Whitley’s last operational flight was on 30 May 1942 when it took part in the first 1,000 bomber raid on Germany. The target was Cologne, and for almost 90 minutes over 3,000 tons of bombs rained down on the city.

After designing the Whitley, John built the Albemarle, a twin-engined transport plane flown by both the Royal Air Force and the Soviet Air Force.

Flying from bases in North Africa, the Albemarle took part in the invasion of Sicily. On D-Day, it dropped paratroopers into Normandy and, during Operation Market Garden, towed gliders carrying airborne forces to Arnhem.

Between 1942 and 1949, John worked on the Flying Wing, an experimental tailless jet aircraft. Hoping he would be able to design a tailless airliner, John built a two-seater tailless glider that flew successfully.

Impressed by the glider’s performance, the government allowed him to build two jet-powered Flying Wings. One crashed. The other was sent to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough where it was used in tests that helped develop the V Bomber force and Concorde.

In the 1950s, John created the Seaslug Missile for the Royal Navy which was undoubtedly the best ship-to-air guided missile in the world.

Retiring in 1959, John went to live with his daughter in London. A modest man who never boasted about his achievements, John died aged 90 at Kingston-on-Thames on 16 November 1978.

These posts about the life of John Lloyd are from a series of articles about Aviation History written by Betty Martin. Copyright: North Staffordshire Heritage 2024. More articles by Betty will be posted from time to time.

David and Lee Need Your Help

Before she died in 2023, North Staffordshire Heritage’s historical geographer, Betty Martin, planned to publish her extensive original research into Stoke-on-Trent’s history and architectural heritage.

Betty went to Brownhills High School and Tunstall always had a special place in her heart. A not-for-profit foundation is being set up to publish a series of books based on her research. The first books are about Tunstall. They are being written by Betty’s husband, David, and Lee Wanger.

David and Lee are working on the first book, The History of Tunstall Town Hall and Market. Other books in the series include The History of the Jubilee Buildings and The Life of Sir Smith Child.

Senior citizens remember the town hall and market as they were before they closed for regeneration in the 1990s. They can recall social activities they went to in the town hall and going shopping in the market. Amateur photographers and students from Stoke-on-Trent College and Staffordshire University photographed the market and the town hall before they were regenerated.

David and Lee need your help to trace these photographs.

If you have photographs of the town hall or market please email davidmartin227@outlook.comm

Law Enforcement in Hanley

Between 1842 and 1870, law and order in Hanley was maintained by Staffordshire’s county police force.

Although Hanley and Shelton, the two largest townships in the Potteries, amalgamated in 1857 to form the Borough of Hanley, the borough did not obtain its own police force until 1870.

Stanford Alexander was appointed chief constable. He had 35 police officers to maintain law and order in a town that had a population of 41,000. His officers worked three overlapping shifts, two 12-hour shifts during the day and one nine-hour shift at night. Despite the long hours worked, pay was low. Constables earned 21 shillings a week. Sergeants were paid 25 shillings, and inspectors received 30 shillings.

When Alexander retired in 1875, Herbert Windle was made chief constable. Windle improved pay and working conditions for his officers. He persuaded the town’s Watch Committee to give them a library and a recreation room, with a billiard table, where they could relax when they came off duty.

By the late 1870s, Hanley had become the Potteries’ commercial and cultural centre. Trains and trams brought people from neighbouring towns to its shops and markets, music halls and theatres.

On Saturday nights, Henley’s criminal fraternity made its way to the town centre. Children begged outside shops or stole from market stalls. Drunken brawls broke out in public houses. Gangs roamed the streets looking for a fight. Prostitutes accosted men in Piccadilly. Pickpockets mingled with the crowds in Fountain Square, and robbers lurked in dark alleys waiting to pounce on their victims.

Robbery and theft were indictable offences. They had to be tried in Stafford before the Assize Court or at Quarter Sessions.

Police officers and witnesses were forced to travel to Stafford. They had to wait outside the courtrooms in the Shire Hall until called to give evidence. Unwilling to make the journey, many victims of crime refused to prosecute offenders.

Law and order in Hanley were breaking down. The borough council requested Queen Victoria to grant the town its own Quarter Sessions. She granted the request. The borough’s Quarter Sessions held its first sitting on January 19, 1881. There were eight defendants, three of whom were illiterate.

Note: Law Enforcement in Hanley is one of a series of articles written by Betty Martin before her death. Other articles from the series will be posted from time to time.

Edited: 4th June 2025

William Frederick Horry (1843-1872)

William Frederick Horry, born in 1843, was a charismatic yet ruthless killer who owned Burslem’s George Hotel. After a tumultuous marriage, he shot his estranged wife, Jane. Convicted of murder, he was sentenced to death and hanged on April 1, 1872, at Lincoln Castle Prison.

The condemned cell at Lincoln Castle Prison where William Horry spent his last days.

Despite his superficial charismatic charm, William Frederick Horry, the landlord of Burslem’s George Hotel, was a cold-blooded, ruthless killer.

Born on November 17th, 1843, in Boston, Lincolnshire, he was the son of William Horry, senior, a successful brewer.

When he left school, young William became a trainee manager at Parker’s Brewery in Zion Street, Burslem. He lived at the George Hotel in Nile Street, where he fell in love with Jane Wright, the hotel’s barmaid.

Jane left the George Hotel and went to work at the Sneyd Arms Hotel in Tunstall. William realised he could not live without her. He asked her to marry him. She consented, and William’s father gave them £800 to buy the George Hotel. The couple married in 1867 and had three children.

William who was a heavy drinker convinced himself that Jane was flirting with male customers. At night, he walked the streets looking for prostitutes or drinking with criminals in back street beer houses.

William’s father and Jane’s brother Thomas, a solicitors clerk, came to Burslem to find out why the marriage had failed. William told them Jane had committed adultery with three of the town’s leading citizens. When the two men investigated the allegation, they discovered that William had lied to them.

William and Jane separated in March 1871. She took the children and went to live with his father in Boston. William sold the George Hotel and went to Nottingham.

He visited Boston and asked Jane to take him back. She refused, and William started divorce proceedings, claiming she had committed adultery with five men.

While waiting for the case to be heard, William bought expensive clothes and often visited the Potteries. Early in January 1872, he stayed for a week visiting brothels in Hanley and drinking with friends in Burslem.

On Saturday, January 13, William returned to Nottingham, where he bought a revolver and a hundred cartridges.

William left Nottingham and went to Boston, where he visited his father’s home where Jane was living. She invited him into the house. He followed her along the passage leading to the breakfast room. As she entered the room, William pulled out the gun and shot her in the back. The bullet passed through her left rib and penetrated her lung. Jane died a few minutes later. William was detained by members of his family, who called the police. He was arrested and charged with murder.

William’s friends in Burslem launched a public appeal to pay for his defence.

He was tried at Lincoln Assizes on March 13 and pleaded “Not Guilty”. His trial lasted three hours. The jury took 15 minutes to convict him.

William stood in the dock and watched Mr Justice Quain don the Black Cap before sentencing him to death. He was taken to Lincoln Castle Prison and hanged on Easter Monday, April 1st, 1872.

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