My cousin, Barry Winter, died recently. He was the loveliest person you could hope to meet. He was born in Stoke-on-Trent, the only child of my dad’s older brother, Clifford, and his wife, Fay, market traders in the Tunstall and Hanley markets.
Category: Tunstall
Tunstall News: Stallholders needed for Spooky Market and Halloween Ball
Tunstall Town Centre Community Association needs stallholders for its Spooky Market and Danse Macabre Halloween Ball.
If you would like to have a stall there, please email TUNSTALLTCCA@GMAIL.COM
Tunstall News: Widespread Support for Town Centre Scheme
| There is widespread public support in Tunstall for Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s proposed multi-million-pound scheme to change the character of the town centre. A public consultation was held recently. Seventy-six per cent of the people who took part in it believe the changes proposed for High Street, Tower Square, Butterfield Place and The Boulevard will benefit the town and make it more attractive. The proposed changes are designed to improve accessibility, attractiveness and sustainability, while celebrating Tunstall’s distinct heritage. The two most popular proposals were those for Tower Square and Butterfield Place. Plans for Tower Square include planting new trees, laying new paving and providing new seating. The existing parking spaces will be removed, and new parking facilities will be created behind the clock tower. There will be room for an outdoor market in Butterfield Place and a green space where children can play. Many people want to see the High Street improved. Proposals for High Street include widening the pavements around the town hall and reducing traffic speed to 20mph to make the area safer and more attractive. Councillor Gordon-McCusker, cabinet member for transport, infrastructure and regeneration at Stoke-on-Trent City Council, said the proposals were part of a package of measures aimed at improving the town centre. The improvements will cost £4.6 million. The council hopes to start work on the project early next year. |
Tunstall News: Pour & Market Day
There will be fun for all the family at Tunstall’s local Pour & Market Day on Saturday, October 4th.
The event is being held on Hunt Street Car Park and at the Wheatsheaf. Although there will be an outside bar at the Wheatsheaf from 12.00 pm, the event opens at 2.00 pm and continues until late evening.
There is something for everyone, including a market, fun fair rides, axe throwing and refreshments.
Live music will be played throughout the day.
The event is being organised by Tunstall Town Centre Community Association and the Wheatsheaf.
Tunstall Town Centre Community Association’s mission is to work with businesses and the community to create a thriving, connected and sustainable town.
Friday NewsDesk
North Staffordshire Heritage has had an uneventful week. We have continued to reorganise our filing system, which holds research projects dating back to the 1990s.
Our research project into the Anglo-Saxon justice system is progressing well.
We have been researching the meaning of the Early English place name ‘Tun’.
Some historians suggest that ‘Tun’ was the name the Saxons gave to a fortified village which they built on the site of a Roman villa or small settlement. It has always been accepted that our Tunstall in Stoke-on-Trent dates from 5th or 6th century. If it was built on a Roman site, Tunstall is much older than anyone thought possible.
We hope you have a relaxing and enjoyable weekend. Take care, and we’ll see you again next week.
Tunstall in the 1790s
The sketch above shows William Adams’ Greengates Pottery in Tunstall. The factory built between 1779 and 1781 was one of the largest in the Potteries. It manufactured tableware, stoneware and jasper ornaments for the luxury market. William Chaffer, the author of ‘Marks and Monograms on Pottery and Porcelain’, said some of the jasper made at Greengates was ‘equal to, if not superior’ to that produced by Josiah Wedgwood at Etruria.
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 Tunstall as it was in the 1790s.
Tunstall is the pleasantest village in the Potteries. It stands on high ground, commanding extensive views of the surrounding countryside. Pottery manufacturers in the village produce good-quality ware and do considerable business. There was a church here, and human bones have been dug up. But such is the effect of time that no trace of either the church or the bones remains today. A small chapel has recently been built here. There is a considerable number of brick and tile works. They use local clay to make blue bricks, which look as well on the roofs of houses as moderate slate. Tunstall is four miles from Newcastle-under-Lyme and nine miles from Congleton. The turnpike road from Lawton to Newcastle-under-Lyme runs through Tunstall, where the turnpike road to Bosley in Cheshire begins [near the Wheatsheaf Inn].
Friday NewsDesk
Friday NewsDesk is a new regular weekly post that will tell you about North Staffordshire Heritage’s activities.
Worldwide interest has been shown in Chatterley Whitfield’s future. The creation of a circular heritage tourist trail linking Burslem, Ford Green Hall, Chatterley Whitfield and Biddulph Grange with Mow Cop and Kidsgrove.
North Staffordshire Heritage is continuing to research Mercia and its legal system. This is a long-term project, which is expected to last for eight or nine months.
Our new series of posts about the Township of Tunstall starts in September, and we will give you more details at the end of August.
We hope you all have a relaxing and enjoyable weekend. Take care and stay safe. We’ll see you again on Tuesday.
Image of Biddulph Grange Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)
It’s Friday again…
Another working week is almost over. It will soon be time to close the office for the weekend.
North Staffordshire Heritage welcomed the news that the Heritage at Risk Fund has given £1.5 million to help save Bethesda Church and Burslem’s Indoor Market.
We are still concerned about the future of the former colliery at Chatterley Whitfield.
If Chatterley Whitfield had been on the South Wales Coalfield, it would have been made a World Heritage Site many years ago.
It is not too late to save Chatterley Whitfield and make it an international tourist attraction. Regenerating the site and breathing new life into its derelict buildings would revitalise Tunstall, Burslem, Biddulph and Kidsgrove.
With imagination and initiative, Chatterley Whitfield can be the starting point of a North Staffordshire Tourist Trail. A circular trail linking Middleport Pottery, Burslem’s Historic Town Centre, Ford Green Hall and Biddulph Grange with Mow Cop, the Trent & Mersey Canal and the Harecastle Tunnels at Kidsgrove.
We hope you have an enjoyable weekend. Take care and keep safe. See you again on Monday.
Another Busy Week is Nearly Over
Another busy week is coming to an end.
During the week, we began learning how to use our new portable photocopier. This will allow us to visit people at home to copy their treasured photographs from bygone days.
A new series of posts tracing Tunstall’s history and architectural heritage will start in the autumn. The series is based on images in the film strip The Township of Tunstall, made by Highgate School in 1960. Posts in the series will trace the history of Tunstall from Anglo-Saxon times to the 21st century. These posts will introduce you to Tunstall’s heritage buildings. They will tell you about its unique Victorian Civic Centre, which includes the former Town Hall, Tower Square, Market Hall, the Jubilee Buildings, Tunstall Pool, the Drill Hall and the Memorial Gardens.
Have a relaxing and enjoyable weekend. Take care, and we’ll see you again on Monday.
Newfield and Smithfield in the 1790s
Smithfield Hall, which is shown above, was built in 1791 by Burslem pottery manufacturer, Theophilus Smith. In 1793, he built an industrial hamlet called Smithfield near the hall. Theophilus was declared bankrupt in 1800. He attempted to murder John Wainwright and was remanded to Stafford prison to await trial. When his wife and daughter visited him there, he murdered them and committed suicide. In 1801, the hall was bought by Jesse Breeze, who renamed it Greenfield Hall.
A Description of the Country From Thirty to Forty Miles Round Manchester, is a book published in 1795, compiled by Dr John Aikin. It describes Newcastle-under-Lyme and North Staffordshire’s pottery towns and villages as they were in the 1790s.
This edited extract from the book tells us what Newfield and Smithfield, two hamlets in the Township of Tunstall, were like in the 1790s.Newfield
Newfield is well situated for manufacturing purposes because there is plenty of coal nearby.
The hamlet belongs to Admiral Smith Child. He has a handsome estate there and lives at Newfield Hall. Smith Child owns Newfield Pottery. He is unlikely to allow more factories to be built in the hamlet in the foreseeable future.
Smithfield is the best place in the Potteries to manufacture earthenware. There are several strata of coal and clay, which are needed to make pottery. Smithfield belongs to Theophilus Smith. He owns a pottery and coal mines there. It is unlikely that there will be further industrial development in the hamlet.
North Staffordshire Heritage 