Category: Stoke-on-Trent

The Lamb Inn by Henry Wedgwood

An extract from his book Romance of Staffordshire

The Lamb Inn on Liverpool Road (High Street), kept by Nancy Grey, was where Tunstall’s “aristocracy” assembled in the evening to discuss the pottery industry.

The most important issues facing the town were the state of the pottery industry and how well crockery was selling. Everything was alright if things were going well for the industry, and little else could go wrong. The owners of Tunstall’s pottery factories enjoyed sitting around a blazing fire in the Lamb, discussing matters that interested them. They were an exclusive group who did not like strangers from the other pottery towns calling at the inn for a drink. The pottery manufacturers believed these calls were made to spy on their business affairs, steal their patterns, or learn more about their production methods.

“Let every town keep to itself. We want a visit neither from the master nor the men”, was the sentiment of people living in the six towns. Nothing could exceed the jealousy with which the potters looked upon one another. Every town was sure that it possessed some secret that it was not in its interest to let any of the others know. If workmen came to see each other, there would surely be a fight, and arguments developed when men from other towns visited the Lamb.

One night, Jimmy Caton, landlord of the Duke of Bridgewater Inn, Longport, called at the Lamb.

Caton was fond of boasting about how much money he had made and about his possessions. Pottery manufacturer Benjamin Adams was in the Lamb. He was talking about the money he was making and his hunters – his favourite breed of horses. Caton, who had been ignored because he was a stranger, could not bear to hear anyone talk about wealth without taking part in the conversation. Burslemites believed that Caton possessed as much money as a strong man could carry. Thinking himself as good a man as any, Caton made disparaging remarks about Adams’ hunters. Adams did not like Caton’s comments, and they started arguing.

Adams said that he had enough money to buy and sell Caton, who replied by saying that he was worth as much money as any man in Tunstall. After boasting about their wealth, the two men began discussing their physical powers, and Adams offered to fight Caton. He accepted the challenge. The two men stripped to the waist and fought like common labourers in the yard at the back of the inn.

(Edited by North Staffordshire Heritage. Unfortunately, Wedgwood does not tell us who won the fight.)

The Old Swan Inn, Hanley

In his Romance of Staffordshire (Published in the 1870s), Henry Wedgwood describes the Swan Inn, a coaching inn where stagecoaches to London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool stopped to pick up passengers. He writes:

It is wonderful how soon public buildings pass from memory. How completely the “Old Swan Inn”, Hanley, is now buried in the past and, along with the memory of those who met to socialise under its roof.

The old inn was a large building with strange-looking wings and gable ends, with square-built chimneys and gothic windows, some of them exceedingly small and mullioned by heavy stonework. There were iron palisades at the front of the inn and an extensive bowling green at the rear. The front entrance was covered by a flat canopy supported by stone pillars.

Inside there were queer, old, little rooms with chimney nooks and ancient screens that told of bygone days. There was one large room used by local clubs and for civic celebrations where speeches were made about the state of the pottery industry.

One of the rooms at the rear of the inn had a large bay window that overlooked the bowling green. In this room, the magistrates held petty sessions to try summary offences. They sent those suspected of committing indictable offences for trial at Quarter Sessions or the Assize Courts, which sat in the Shire Hall at Stafford.

(Edited by North Staffordshire Heritage)

Bull Baiting in 18th Century Hanley

Hanley’s bullring, where bulls were baited on Sundays, was near the Cock Inn at Far Green. Henry Wedgwood, in his Romance of Staffordshire, says the bullring was a place where ” some poor animal was attacked by dogs” and tortured by men. He writes:

Bull baiting was organised by men who frequented the Cock Inn, a small tavern with a thatched roof.

Writing about bull baiting, Wedgwood asks his readers to picture an infuriated bull made fast to a stake or a ring driven into the ground. The bullring was surrounded by hundreds of people – both men and women. Standing in front of the crowd were men restraining snarling dogs struggling to break free and attack the bull.

Spectators were betting on which dog would bring the bull to its knees. There were excited shrieks from its supporters when the dog they had bet on was sent into the ring. They cheered if the dog’s teeth tore flesh from the bull’s nose or another part of its body.

During the winter months, when bull baiting took place in the late afternoon or early evening, the ring was lit by torches made from long pieces of pit rope resoaked in pitch.

According to Wedgwood, the crowd surrounding the bullring was a drunken rabble that included colliers whose faces were as black as midnight and potters wearing leather aprons and breaches.

When the bull collapsed with exhaustion, its tormentors, egged on by the spectators, attempted to force it to get up by prodding it with sharp spikes or pouring hot tar onto the most tender parts of its body.

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

Hanley and Shelton in the 18th century

During the 18th century, Hanley and Shelton became the most important towns in the Potteries.

Between 1762 and 1801, their populations increased from 2,000 to 7,940. Hanley’s first church, St. John’s, was erected in 1738 and enlarged in the 1760s. Stage coaches called at the Swan Inn. Horse-drawn wagons carried pottery to the Weaver Navigation at Winsford and returned carrying ball clay and household goods.

A covered market, designed by architect James Trubshaw, was built on Town Road in 1776.

The Trent and Mersey and the Caldon Canals stimulated economic expansion. Entrepreneurs opened factories, collieries and ironworks. Families from the surrounding countryside flocked to Hanley and Shelton looking for work. New houses were built to accommodate them.

In 1791, a trust was formed to manage the market and build a town hall. The trustees leased land in Market Square, where they erected a town hall. Markets were held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. A fortnightly cattle market was established at the beginning of the 19th century. In 1813, Parliament gave the trustees the power to regenerate Market Square. They demolished the town hall, replacing it with a poultry market. A lockup was also built where those arrested were held before being brought to court.

Revised 04.06.2025

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.

Post: Copyright © Betty Martin and David Martin, 2023

Photograph: © Copyright Dave Hitchborne, licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

A History of Burslem

There was no M.P. for the town until 1832. The whole of the Potteries was formed into a constituency. It sent two members to Parliament. This early recognition showed that the six municipalities shared common interests. It marked the beginning of nearly eighty years of debate over unifying local government in the district.

To read the whole post, click on “Staffordshire Archives and Heritage” below.

Jenny Lewis StaffordshireRO's avatarStaffordshire Archives and Heritage

by Matthew

Burslem is situated in the north-west of the City of Stoke-on-Trent, one of the six towns which form the City.

When it was recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086, Burslem was called Barcardeslim (Burgweard’s Lyme).  It was not a large village consisting of just four households and one plough team. The other resource mentioned is two acres of alder wood. Its value was 10 shillings.

Through the medieval period, Burslem was not a centre of any importance. It was part of the parish of Stoke on Trent and was subject to the Tunstall manor court. A survey in 1563 reported 30 households for the area served by the chapel of St John. The village was agricultural and did not have good communications. However the occupants of the poor farms had beneath their feet mineral resources, which over the next two centuries produced steady growth turning Burslem into…

View original post 543 more words

Memory Lane – Hanley Woolworths

There was something for everyone at Woolworths, a chain store found on High Streets in England and Wales.

Affectionately known as “Woolies”, Woolworths stocked a wide range of goods. These included toys and games, sweets and chocolate, and record players.

They also sold portable radios, car accessories, household paint, stamps, stationery, electric fires and fan heaters. The larger stores sold garden furniture and plants. If you and your family shopped at Hanley Woolworths, tell us about the shop and the things it sold. Email, northstaffordshireheritage@outlook.com

To learn about Hanley Woolworths, click “Woolies Buildings-Then and Now” at the top of the extract.

NSH.2024

sabrina's avatarWoolies Buildings - Then and Now

7-9 Upper Market Square, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs ST1 1PY

In 1915, World War One did not stop Woolworth expanding and they opened their 55th store on Upper Market Square in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. As with many war-time stores, it had a similar design to Kingston-upon-Thames (Store 43), with an open pediment and a Venetian window.

Hanley Woolworths 1920s Hanley Woolworths 1920s

Source: Historic England

In 1937 the store had a makeover, and as it was a long-store, the design was Art Deco with a centrepiece at the top.

Hanley Woolworths 1950s Hanley Woolworths 1950s

Source: ThePoterries.org

Hanley Woolworths 1950s Hanley Woolworths 1950s

Hanley Woolworths 1958 Hanley Woolworths 1958

Hanley Woolworths 1960s Hanley Woolworths 1960s

Source: Pinterest

In the 1970s the store was modernised along with the conversion to self-service. A typical frontage design was to have long narrow brick sections alternating with aluminium panels. As for the entrance, the display windows were moved to the sides and a panel of doors installed across the centre.

View original post 63 more words

Memory Lane – Longton Woolworths

sabrina's avatarWoolies Buildings - Then and Now

28 Market Street, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs ST3 1BT

Woolworths opened in Longton in 1927, back when it was a rich and thriving town. You can see the store on the left side of this photo, next to Boots.

Longton Woolworths 1950s Longton Woolworths 1950s

Source: Stoke-on-Trent Live

In 1965, a new shopping centre called the Bennett Precinct opened. It still exists today, with a very green look. Woolworths extended in size, taking over Boots, and having a new boxy look. It had a side entrance into the Bennett Precinct. The store lasted until the end, closing in December 2008.

Longton Woolworths 2008 Longton Woolworths 2008

Source: The Potteries

Longton is quite a sad story when you look at it today. This photo is at the exact same angle as the 1950s one at the start of this post. What was once a bustled street is now full of abandoned shops. The only bit still in use…

View original post 88 more words

Memory Lane – Stoke-upon-Trent Woolworths

sabrina's avatarWoolies Buildings - Then and Now

6-8 Majestic Buildings, Campbell Place, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs 

Woolworths opened in Stoke-on-Trent in 1928. Two other Stoke-on-Trent stores already existed at Hanley and Longton. This third one opened at 6-8 Majestic Buildings, which we know thanks to Graham Soult‘s research. You can see the small store on the far right of this photo. The building on the far left was the Majestic Cinema, and in front are concrete shelters for cinema-goers to be protected from the rain when queuing.

Stoke-on-Trent Woolworths 1957 Stoke-on-Trent Woolworths 1957

12 – 14 Campbell Place, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs ST4 1LY

In the 1957, quite soon after the above photo was taken, Woolworths acquired the cinema and demolished it to building a new, bigger store. The rather ugly concrete shelters were kept – they were then used as bus shelters.

Stoke on Trent Woolworths 1960s Stoke on Trent Woolworths 1960s

Source: Facebook

In the below 1963 photo, you can see the new Woolworths store in…

View original post 62 more words