In her letters Jane writes of visiting the Wedgwood showrooms in London and in one gleeful missive to her sister Cassandra in June 1811, she writes ‘I had the pleasure of receiving, unpacking, and approving our Wedgwood ware’ and anticipates the arrival of a new Wedgwood breakfast set for their mother, ‘I hope it will come by the waggon to-morrow; it is certainly what we want, and I long to know what it is like’.
Category: The Potteries
OatcakeWorld: Staffordshire Oatcakes
Staffordshire oatcakes are a traditional British food from the Potteries. They differ from Scottish or Irish oatcakes, which are more biscuit-like. The Staffordshire oatcakes are like pancakes or crepes. They are made from batter that includes oatmeal, which gives them their unique texture and flavour. Other ingredients include whole wheat or plain flour, salt, sugar, yeast, warm water, and warm milk. These ingredients are mixed to form a batter. The batter is cooked like pancakes in a frying pan on a griddle or a bakestone.
Staffordshire oatcakes were originally a staple food for the working class in the Staffordshire region. They were traditionally eaten by workers in the pottery and mining industries. Oatcakes can be eaten hot or cold. Popular fillings include cheese, bacon, sausage, and eggs. When they want a quick snack, many people spread butter and jam on them.
Sir Smith Child (1808-1896)
A portrait of Sir Smith Child painted by John Nash Peake.
During the 19th century, Sir Smith Child was the most generous philanthropist in North Staffordshire. He used his vast wealth to support hospitals, build schools and churches, fight poverty and help handicapped children.
Although many historians think that his family name was Smith Child, it wasn’t. Smith was his Christian name and Smith was his surname. Smith Child was born at Newfield Hall, Tunstall, on 5 March 1808. His grandfather was Admiral Smith Child, who was a partner in Child & Clive. The firm owned Newfield Pottery and Clanway Colliery, where it mined coal and ironstone.
Smith’s parents were John George and Elizabeth Child, née Parsons. When his father died in 1811, he became heir to the Newfield estate and other estates owned by his grandfather.
Smith was educated at St. John’s College, Cambridge.
On 28 January 1835, he married Sarah Hill, an heiress, at Fulford Church. The couple had three children – two boys and a girl. The family lived at Newfield Hall until 1841, when they moved to Rownall Hall, Wetley. Sarah’s father, Richard Clarke Hill, who owned Stallington Hall, died in 1853, and the Childs decided to live there.
Smith took a keen interest in politics. He was a Conservative. In 1851, he became the Member of Parliament for North Staffordshire and held the seat until 1859.
In 1868, Smith was made a baronet.
He stood for Parliament again. He won the election and was returned to Westminster as the Member for West Staffordshire. A seat he held until 1874, when he retired from politics.
Smith was a philanthropist who took a keen interest in the welfare of disadvantaged individuals. He used his wealth to support local charities that were helping those in need.
He provided financial assistance to the North Staffordshire Infirmary at Etruria and made an annual donation to its general fund. Smith was a member of the hospital’s management committee and served as its president on three occasions. As well as making an annual donation, he contributed to the infirmary’s special funds. The management committee decided to close the infirmary at Etruria and build a new one at Hartshill. It launched a public appeal to raise money to finance the project. A building fund was created, and Smith contributed £1,500. When the Victoria Wards were being erected, he gave £250 towards the cost.
After one of his sons died, Smith built and endowed the Smith Hill Child Memorial Hospital. The hospital, erected in the grounds of the infirmary, was designed to care for patients who were incurable. The infirmary did not have the resources to care for incurable patients, and the project was abandoned. The building was used as a nurses’ home until 1877, when it was converted into a children’s hospital.
In 1875, Smith founded a charity that sent patients who were convalescing to convalescent homes. He endowed the charity with £6,500. The money was invested in securities. The income from these securities was used to send hundreds of men, women and children to seaside convalescent homes.
Smith realised that the pottery industry’s future depended on vocational training.
He was one of the founders of the Wedgwood Institute and organised competitions that awarded prizes to industrial designers. To encourage sales representatives to study foreign languages, he gave prizes to those learning to speak French, German or Spanish.
Although he left Newfield Hall in 1841, Smith retained an interest in Tunstall and its citizens’ welfare. He always referred to people living there as his friends and neighbours.
His first gift to Tunstall was £100, which was given to help finance the construction of Christ Church. He gave £50 when the church appealed for money to build a National School. The appeal was successful, and the school was built in King Street (Madison Street). When St. Mary’s Church launched an appeal to raise money to build a school, he gave £100.
Smith built the church schools in Goldenhill and created a charity to support all church schools in Tunstall and Goldenhill. He helped finance the construction of St. John’s Church in Goldenhill and endowed it with £1,000.
During the 1880s, he made donations to help regenerate Christ Church and St. Mary’s Church. In 1884, he established a workingman’s temperance club at Calver House in Well Street (Roundwell Street).
Six years later, in 1890, he founded the Tunstall Nursing Association. The association was a charity. It employed trained community nurses, who provided free medical care to patients being treated at home.
Tunstall publicly recognised Smith’s generosity in 1893. The clock tower in Market Square (Tower Square) was erected to make sure that he would never be forgotten.
Smith was to ill to attend the tower’s unveiling ceremony. His health continued to decline. He died three years later and was buried in Fulford churchyard
If you and your family worshipped at St. Mary’s or you were at pupil at the school, please use Comments to share your memories with us.
Sir Smith Child (1808-1896) was written by Betty Martin before she died in 2023. More articles she wrote posted periodically.
Llandudno
Llandudno is a popular seaside resort on the North Wales Coast. In the 20th century, many Potters and their families went to Llandudno during Wakes Week for their annual summer holiday. If you went to Llandudno for your summer holiday, please use the Comments Section to tell us about your holiday.
It’s Friday Again
It’s Friday again. How quickly time flies.
We have had a busy week planning a series of talks and posts about Tunstall’s history. Our plans include talks about Tower Square, the Jubilee Buildings and the Memorial Gardens.
Have a good weekend. Relax and keep safe. We’ll see you again on Monday.
Arthur Berry: The man who was Stoke-on-Trent’s Poet Laureate
Arthur Berry, who has been called Stoke-on-Trent’s Poet Laureate and the Potteries’ Lowry, was an artist, author, playwright and poet. In this video, he shares his unique and sometimes controversial views about the people he painted and wrote about. Use our Comments section to share your memories of Arthur.
Aerial Views of Longton’s Architectural Heritage
This aerial view of Longton showcases its distinctive industrial landscape and rich architectural heritage. How many buildings and places featured in this video do you recognize? If you live or work in Longton, please use the Comments section below to share your memories with us. Let us know about your family and friends, the schools you went to, the games you played and your hobbies. Tell us about your first job and your working life.
Longton’s Architectural Heritage will help to make North Staffordshire’s Industrial Landscape a World Heritage Site.
Goldenhill 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 Goldenhill as it was in the 1790s.
One would imagine from its name that Goldenhill is a large, splendid place. But names can be deceptive. In fact, Goldenhill is the smallest village in the Potteries.
Nonetheless, the valuable coal mines, which gave the village its name, make ample amends for its deficiencies.
At the upper [North] end of the village is Green Lane, which commands an extensive view of the surrounding areas. On one side of the lane, the Cheshire Plain can be seen with the Welsh Hills in the distance. On the other side, there is the best view of the Potteries and the countryside beyond it.
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.
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.
North Staffordshire Heritage 