We need your help from Wiscasset to trace Sir Smith Child’s mother’s family.
North Staffordshire Heritage is writing a book about Sir Smith Child Bt., who was North Staffordshire’s most generous philanthropist in the 19th century.
Smith was born in 1808. His mother was Elizabeth Parsons, who came from Wiscasset. She married attorney John George Child at St Margaret’s Church, Wolstanton, in 1806.
John’s father was Admiral Smith Child. He owned Newfield Pottery in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent. The factory produced earthenware, which it exported to the United States.
Elizabeth died aged 80 in 1851. She is buried in the Child family vault in St Margaret’s Churchyard. We are trying to find out more about Elizabeth’s family. Any help you can give in tracing them would be greatly appreciated.
In 1876, Calver House and its grounds in Roundwell Street, Tunstall, were converted into a non-political and inter-denominational workingmen’s club.
The idea of using the house and its grounds to give Tunstall a workingmen’s club came from Sir Smith Child, who gave £100 towards the cost of conversion.
Inside the clubhouse, there were rooms for conversation, smoking, and playing games, including bagatelle, draughts, and chess. It contained reading rooms where members could read books and newspapers, a lecture theatre and a bar that sold alcoholic drinks.
The management committee intended to open a lending library, enabling members to borrow books and planned to create a recreation ground and build a gymnasium.
Membership of the club costs 2d per week, 6d a month or 1s 3d a quarter.
Smith opened the club on 14 July 1876. The opening ceremony was preceded by a parade led by the Tunstall Volunteer Band from the town hall along High Street to Calver House. During the ceremony, Smith said he was always happy to support any project that benefited Tunstall and its citizens. He believed the club could become the second home for many young working men who had only a bedroom in the house they lived in, that they could call their own.
Who was Sir Smith Child? Why was a clock tower erected in Tunstall’s Tower Square to commemorate the financial help he gave to local charities? There are very few people living in Tunstall today who can answer these questions.
No one alive can remember that, after he died in 1896, children stood in front of the clock tower and sang in tune with the clock’s Cambridge Chimes, ‘Now Old Smith Child is dead and gone, Tunstall will miss a grand old man.’
Freemasons must wonder why there is a local Masonic Lodge named after him. Smith was not a Freemason. He was a quiet, unassuming man who used his vast wealth to help alleviate poverty and suffering.
Although he left Tunstall in 1841, Smith never forgot the town and always called its citizens his friends and neighbours. Smith retained close links with Tunstall and Goldenhill. He gave money to help build churches, support schools and create medical and welfare services.
Smith was a devout Christian. He worshipped at Christ Church while living in Tunstall and at St Nicholas’ Church, Fulford, when he lived at Stallington Hall.
Smith had a stroke that paralysed his left side. He was too ill to travel to Tunstall and lay the museum’s foundation stone.
The speech he had intended to make at the ceremony was read for him. In the speech, he said his philosophy of life was based on a firm belief in practical Christianity.
Smith had been influenced by St Paul’s teaching. He believed everyone was a member of Christ’s family, and it was their duty to use the gifts God gave them to help others. They were all part of one body – the body of Christ – no one could stand alone. People needed each other. He quoted from St Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians, ‘The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee; nor the head to the feet, I have no need of you.’
Smith hoped this Fundamental Truth would always prevail in Tunstall and that the museum would be dedicated in spirit to that Christian Grace of which St Paul said, ‘And now abideth Faith, Hope and Love, these three, but the greatest of these is Love.’
Smith’s health continued to deteriorate. He died at Stallington Hall on 27 March 1896 and was buried in St. Nicholas’ Churchyard, Fulford.
Surrounded by woods and parkland, Stallington Hall, near Blythe Bridge, was a country house that became a mental hospital.
Stallington Hall was a Queen Anne-style mansion built in the 18th century. It was the home of landowner Richard Clarke Hill. His daughter, Sarah, married Smith Child, who lived at Newfield Hall in Tunstall. The couple were married at St Nicholas’ Church, Fulford, in 1835. They lived at Newfield Hall until 1841, when they moved to Rownall Hall, Wetley.
In 1853, Richard Clarke Hill died, and Smith Child and his family went to live at Stallington Hall.
Smith Child, who was a magistrate, became a Member of Parliament. He became a baronet in 1868. His full title was Sir Smith Child, Baronet of Newfield and of Stallington in the County of Stafford, and of Dunlosset (Dunlossat), Islay, in the County of Argyll.
Sir Smith Child died at Stallington Hall on 27th March 1896. His grandson, Sir Smith Hill Child, inherited the estate.
Sir Smith Hill Child was educated at Eton and Christ Church College. He became a professional soldier and fought in the Boer War. In 1910, he became the commanding officer of the 2nd North Midland Brigade (Royal Field Artillery.
On 3 August 1914, Germany declared war on France. German troops invaded Belgium, a country Britain had promised to defend against German aggression. On 4 August, Britain declared war on Germany. The First World War had begun, and the brigade was sent to France. where it fought at Loos and on the Somme.
Sir Smith Hill Child was mentioned three times in dispatches. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George. Promoted to Brigadier General, he was given command of the Royal Artillery’s 46th Division. On 29 September 1918, the Division crossed the St Quentin Canal and broke through the Hindenburg Line, taking 4,000 prisoners. The French Government awarded him the Croix de Guerre.
When he returned home, Sir Smith Hill Child stood for Parliament. His election campaign was successful, and he represented Stone from 1918 to 1922. In 1925, he married Barbara Villiers. Shortly after their marriage, they left Stallington Hall. The couple had two daughters, Teresa and Mary.
The hall and its grounds were sold to the City of Stoke-on-Trent, which converted it into a mental hospital.
The conversion cost £20,000. Lady Aspinall opened the hospital on 18 September 1930. Miss M. A. Cahill was the matron. The hospital accommodated 81 patients and possessed an operating theatre and a dental surgery.
In 1770, Admiral Smith Child inherited the Newfield estate in Tunstall from his uncle Thomas Baddeley. He built Newfield Hall and died there in 1813. Admiral Child’s grandson, Sir Smith Child, inherited the estate.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council has repaired Tunstall’s historic clock tower, and its chimes ring again.
The Grade II listed Clock Tower in Tower Square was erected in 1893. Its chimes, which fell silent in November 2024, are working again. The clock tower was built to honour local philanthropist Sir Smith Child. It features a life-size bust of him that was paid for by the Ladies of Tunstall.
The project that restored the chimes is part of a major improvement scheme aimed at regenerating Tunstall.
Councillor Finlay Gordon-McCusker, the cabinet member for regeneration, infrastructure and transport at Stoke-on-Trent City Council, said:
The Clock Tower is an essential part of Tunstall’s story and a visible reminder of the civic pride that built the town. When a landmark like this falls silent, something important is lost.Restoring the chimes is a statement of intent: that Tunstall’s heritage matters, and that we will look after what previous generations built.
High Street School in Tunstall was demolished in 1994.
About two years later, Robert Turner, a teacher at the school from 1953 to 1963, was interviewed by Tunstall History Society.
Robert, who taught Art, Physical Education and Games, said:
It was a small school facing High Street, nestling between factories and rows of small, terraced houses. Tunstall reminded me of a T. S. Lowry painting, with small figures moving about.
The building housed two schools: a co-educational infants’ school and a boys’ secondary modern school. The infants’ school was on the ground floor, and the boys’ school was on the first floor. There were about 200 boys in the secondary modern. They were treated like little soldiers. Order and discipline prevailed. Every teacher kept a cane in their classroom. They used it when boys talked in class or ran along the corridor.
The boys were marched in lines two abreast to the swimming pool in Greengates Street or along Pickle Onion Entry to the park, where they played football and cricket.
At the start of school, a teacher blew a whistle. The boys stood still in the playground. The teacher blew his whistle again, and they walked to their designated lines, waiting silently for the whistle to blow a third time. When it blew, the boys marched into school, supervised by prefects
The school hall had a flat roof, which was used for physical training and by boys who were members of the art club. The roof gave them a wonderful pictorial vantage point, enabling them to paint and sketch views of Tunstall’s pottery factories with their bottle ovens and kilns, churches, shops and terraced houses.
Members of the art club won many prizes for their paintings. In 1962, they starred in a BBC film. It was shown in the United Kingdom and throughout Europe by Eurovision.
We all remember that one teacher who made a lasting difference – the one who inspired us, encouraged us, or simply made school a little brighter. Maybe they sparked your love of a subject, believed in you when you doubted yourself, or had a way of making lessons fun.
We’d love to hear your stories. Tell us about your favourite teacher and what made them special. Was it their kindness, their humour, their passion for teaching, or something they did that you’ve never forgotten?
Your memories can help celebrate the people who shaped our lives and remind us of the power a great teacher can have.
If you went to school in North Staffordshire, you can share your story in Leave a Comment below. Alternatively, you can email it, with or without images, to northstaffordshireheritage@outlook.com
We are sure everyone will enjoy reading your memories of your favourite teacher.
In 1986, Joan Baggaley, who wrote The City of the Six Towns: Stoke-on-Trent and Seven Pillars of Wisdom, visited Tunstall. She had come to see The Coach and Horses, an inn on Oldcourt Street, which overlooked the Chatterley Valley.
On the opposite side of the street, there were houses, bungalows and a school. This side of the street had recently been developed. There were still traces of the terraced houses that had been demolished, along with the cobblestone back entries behind them.
The sun was shining, and Joan looked westward across the valley. In the distance, she saw Bradwell Wood and the hills behind Newcastle.
The inn was open, and Joan was welcomed by the landlady, who took her inside. They went into the lounge, which had been created when two small rooms had been enlarged.
Many years ago, the inn had been a coach house and a resting place for horses. On the north side of the inn, there was a large yard with stables and a hay loft. The stables and the hay loft had been converted into a room where dances and wedding receptions were held. On the east side of the inn was a former school building that was occupied by social services.
North Staffordshire Heritage 