Category: North Staffordshire

Buses from Mow Cop to Tunstall

A forty-horsepower Daimler Bus

In 1914 the Potteries Electric Traction Company started running bus services from Biddulph and Mow Cop to Tunstall using forty-horsepower Daimler Buses.

During the First World War (1914-1918) the government requisitioned the company’s buses, and the services were suspended. The buses were sent to France, where they were used to take troops to the front line. When the war ended, the buses were returned to the company and the services resumed.

Former soldiers and sailors formed small transport companies that ran bus services bringing customers to Tunstall’s shops and markets from industrial towns and villages on the northern part of the North Staffordshire Coal Field.

The bus services to Tunstall operated by these companies competed with those run by the Potteries Motor Traction Company.

Rowbothams, a transport company whose garage was in Sands Road, Harriseahead, ran a bus service from The Bank, a hamlet in South Cheshire, to Tunstall. Its buses stopped to pick up passengers in Mount Pleasant, Dales Green, The Rookery, Whitehill, Newchapel, Packmoor, Chell and Pitts Hill.

The Potteries Electric Traction Company also operated a service between The Bank and Tunstall although its buses followed a different route.

Buses owned by both companies ran via Mount Pleasant, Dales Green and The Rookery to Whitehill, where their routes diverged at the top of Galley’s Bank. Rowbothans’ buses turned left into Whitehall Road which took them to Newchapel. Buses owned by the Potteries Motor Traction Company turned right into Whitehall Road and went to Tunstall via Kidsgrove, Goldenhill and Sandyford.

Staniers who had a garage in Newchapel was another company whose buses competed with Rowbothams. It ran a service from Mow Cop to Tunstall via Harriseahead, Newchapel, Packmoor, Chell and Pitts Hill.

The Corda Well

During the 19th century, there were numerous springs, called wells, on the slopes of Mow Cop from which local people obtained their water supply.

In his book “Mow Cop and its Slopes” published in 1907, W. J. Harper describes the Corda Well – a spring that never ran dry.

Not far from Mow Cop is a little well, about 2ft in diameter, which was never known to be dry. The water always bubbles up in summer or winter, seedtime or harvest.

About 30 years ago, there was a drought. The cows were moaning in the fields, and the sheep were bleating in the mountain meadows for want of water. This little well, all the while, supplied the inhabitants with water for many miles around. At three o’clock in the morning, people came for water bringing buckets, tubs and various utensils to carry the precious liquid. Although a small well, its water supply was never exhausted but flowed on and continues to flow.

Edited by David Martin

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Self-Service Stores Revolutionised Shopping

In the 1950s and 60s, self-service stores replaced local shops in town centres throughout North Staffordshire and South Cheshire.

If your family used self-service stores, please share your memories of shopping there with our readers, telling them how self-service stores differed from High Street and corner shops.

How England’s First Self-Service Store Heralded the Birth of the Modern Supermarket

Memory Lane – Uttoxeter Woolworths

Woolies Buildings - Then and Now

16 – 18 High Street, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire ST14 7HY

Woolworths opened in Uttoxeter in 1932 in a purpose-built store on the High Street.

Uttoxeter Woolworths c1955 Uttoxeter Woolworths c1955

The store manager from 1933 was Mr Slade, and this photo was sent in by Richard Northover who actually met him many decades later. He shares his memories with us below.

Uttoxeter Store Manager 1930s Uttoxeter Store Manager 1930s

“His name is Mr R J Slade known as ‘Jim’ who retired from Store 60 Cheltenham in the early 1960s. I met him in 1979 when I was a trainee manager at Store 60. I got to know him when another trainee manager at the store was going out with a couple of the girls who worked in the store, one of whom was his granddaughter Vanessa who later married the other trainee. We used to talk when he came into the store, a kindly old gentleman talking to…

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Memory Lane – Stone Woolworths

Woolies Buildings - Then and Now

32 High Street, Stone, Staffs ST15 8AW

Woolworths opened in Stone in 1934. It opened in an existing building on the High Street.

Stone-Woolworths-1965 Stone Woolworths 1965

Source: Francis Frith

They traded from this location for 74 years until the end in December 2008. The pillar at the front looks really thin.

Stone-Woolworths-2009 Stone Woolworths 2009

It became a Heron Foods.

Stone Former Woolworths Stone Former Woolworths

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Mow Cop Castle

Do You Know Who Painted This Picture?

While researching Mow Cop’s heritage, we came across this old print of Mow Cop Castle, indicating there may be more truth than we realise in the many legends surrounding its building history.

We think the print is one of a series of local views painted by an artist whose nom de plume was Jotter. North Staffordshire Heritage is trying to trace the publisher, Picturesque Staffordshire. Please get in touch if you can tell us more about the castle or help identify Jotter.

Our email address is northstaffordshireheritage@outlook.com

Since our post was written, we have been told that the view of Mow Cop, which is on a postcard, was painted by Walter William Young (1868-1920). Can anyone give us more information about him?