Category: Stoke-on-Trent

Can You Help Trace a War Hero’s Relatives?

An appeal has been launched to find the relatives of Stoke-on-Trent’s Second World War hero, Lance Sergeant John Baskeyfield.

John, who came from Burslem, was killed during the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944. During the battle, he single-handedly manned two anti-tank guns and refused to leave his post. For his remarkable courage, he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

As part of Stoke-on-Trent’s Centenary Celebrations, the city council is planning to commemorate John’s bravery.

Councillor Lyn Sharpe, Lord Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent, said: “Our city is proud of Lance Sergeant John Baskeyfield. His bravery will never be forgotten in Stoke-on-Trent and beyond.

“We hope any relatives can be found so they can be part of the special events we are holding this year in his memory.”

The events in November are expected to include an expanded exhibition in the Spitfire Gallery at the Potteries Museum. Additionally, there will be an act of Remembrance at John’s memorial in Festival Park.

If you are one of John’s relatives or can help trace them, email sot100@stoke.gov.uk

Arthur’s Memories of Victorian Tunstall

These shops in High Street, Tunstall, built in 1898, were designed by Absalom Reade Wood. Many local historians believe that Absalom was North Staffordshire’s leading architect.

In 1935, Arthur Cotton shared his memories of late Victorian Tunstall with a Sentinel reporter.

Arthur, who was born at Goldenhill in 1857, became an estate agent with an office in Market Square (Tower Square). He and his wife, Gavina, lived in Tunstall. They had six children – four boys and two girls. The family were Methodists. They worshiped at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Wesley Place (Wesley Street).

Arthur took a keen interest in local politics and joined the Liberal Party. He became a Staffordshire County Councillor and an Urban District Councillor in Tunstall.

From 1905 to 1907, he was chairperson of the Urban District Council.

Arthur opposed the scheme to amalgamate the six towns and create the County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent. He believed it would undermine local democracy by transferring power from councillors to senior local government officials.

A man with a retentive memory, Arthur was a local historian. He told the Sentinel what Tunstall was like during the latter part of the 19th century, saying:

During the past 70 years or so, the district has changed beyond all recognition. The Tunstall of my boyhood days was an industrial town of small pottery factories. Many of them have long since disappeared, giving way to an industrial era that demands fewer factories, but bigger ones.

Many small collieries were scattered throughout the district. There were collieries at Goldenhill, Clanway, Newfield, Greenfield, Scotia and on the slopes leading up to High Lane… All these have ceased to exist because of flooding.

There were hardly any public buildings in the town. The old town hall stood in the centre of Market Square [Tower Square].

Much of the land now occupied by streets, houses, and factories was open country. The public library was built in Phoenix Park, which local people called Cope’s Running Ground. The Memorial Gardens were laid out in the park.

(Edited by the History Factory 30.05.2025)

1970s Photographs of Etruria

The area was named by Josiah Wedgewood when he built his new pottery works here in 1769 (it was named after the region of Etruria in Italy in an early example of somewhat fanciful marketing). By the early 1970s, the pottery works had been moved, and the old canal was caught in the doldrums between commercial and leisure traffic.

Capturing Etruria

Note: We viewed Alan’s photographs with great interest and were most impressed by their quality.

During the late 1960s, David photographed the Trent & Mersey and the Caldon Canal for a group of canal enthusiasts opposing British Waterways’ plans to close the canal and turn it into a feeder channel for the Trent & Mersey Canal.

The Potteries in the 1790s

A Description of the Country From Thirty to Forty Miles Round Manchester, a book published in 1795, was compiled by Dr John Aikin. The book tells us about Newcastle-under-Lyme and North Staffordshire’s pottery towns and villages in the 1790s.

This edited extract from the book describes the Potteries in the 1790s.

The Staffordshire Potteries commence about a mile from the Cheshire border at a village called Goldenhill.

From there it extends to Lane End [Longton], a distance of more than seven miles. Many of the towns and villages that form the Potteries are linked by houses and factories. The traveller is left with the impression that he is journeying through one town with different names. Manufacturing pottery is the primary business of this extensive and populous area. It is believed that the number of inhabitants or houses has increased threefold over the last twenty years. The towns and villages that make up the Potteries are likely to merge to create one town with one name. Many people who live nearby already call the area The Pottery.

John Henry Clive’s Outlook on Life

John Henry Clive, an astute entrepreneur, founded the company that created Tunstall‘s Market Place (Tower Square) and built the first Market Hall. He believed time was money and too precious to waste.

In 1830, John wrote The Linear System of Short Hand, a practical textbook for students. One of the exercises in the book is called a Letter Against Waste of Time, in which he gives his philosophy of life.

LETTER AGAINST WASTE OF TIME

Converse often with yourself, and neither lavish your time, nor suffer others to rob you of it. Many of our hours are stolen from us, and others pass insensibly away; but of both these losses, the most shameful is that which happens through our own neglect. If we take the trouble to observe, we shall find, that one considerable part of our life is spent in doing evil, and the other in doing nothing, or in doing what we should not do. We do not seem to know the value of time, nor how precious a day is; nor do we consider, that every moment brings us nearer our end. Reflect upon this, I entreat you, and keep a strict account of time. Procrastination is the most dangerous thing in life. Nothing is properly ours but the instant we breathe in, and all the rest is nothing; it is the only good we possess, but then it is fleeting, and the first-comer robs us of it. Men are so weak, that they think they oblige by giving trifles, and yet reckon that time as nothing, for which the most grateful person in the world can never make amends. Let us, therefore, consider time as the most valuable of all things; and every moment spent without some improvement in virtue, or some advancement in goodness, as the greatest sublunary loss.

Share Your Memories of Hanley’s Theatre Royal

Do you remember the Theatre Royal in Hanley (the City Centre)? Were you a Hanley Babe, or did you help backstage? If you have memories or photographs of the Theatre Royal you want to share with the Claybody Theatre, come to the Dipping House, 5 Spode Courtyard, Church Street, Stoke, on Wednesday, June 25, between 7pm and 8.30pm. All are welcome, and refreshments are provided.

Northern Soul at Tunstall’s Golden Torch

Claybody Theatre has produced an original podcast about Stoke-on-Trent’s role in the birth of Northern Soul to celebrate our city’s centenary.

To discover Northern Soul at the Golden Torch in Tunstall during the 1960s, go to https://www.claybodytheatre.com/productions/audio/platform-no-1-a-claybody-original-podcast/

The British Ceramics Biennial calls for volunteers

British Ceramics Biennial needs volunteers to help with the 2025 Biennial programme. 

It is looking for creative individuals who love working with people and have a passion for clay and ceramics.

Becoming a volunteer will give you a unique insight into the world of ceramics. You will be part of a major international event that showcases the work of the world’s leading ceramic artists.

BCB 2025 Call for Volunteers

Helping local history societies to find good speakers

Many local history societies in Staffordshire and the Potteries have difficulty finding good speakers.

Staffordshire History Network can help to find them. The network has a list of all the speakers who have features in Speakers Corner, a section in its newsletter.

A copy of the list can be obtained from helen.johnson@staffordshire.gov.uk

Special Ale Celebrates City’s Centenary

NewsDesk

Burslem-based Titanic Brewery is brewing a special ale in honour of the City of Stoke-on-Trent’s centenary.

Called the Centenary Anniversary Ale, the traditional amber ale will be on sale in public houses throughout the Potteries. The Lord Mayor, Councillor Lyn Sharp, visited the brewery recently.

During her visit, she said Stoke-on-Trent’s brewing heritage had played a proud role in the city’s first 100 years.

A spokesperson for JD Wetherspoons confirmed that all its public houses in Staffordshire would stock the ale.