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David and Lee Need Your Help

Tunstall Town Hall

Before she died in 2023, North Staffordshire Heritage’s historical geographer, Betty Martin, planned to publish her extensive original research into Stoke-on-Trent’s history and architectural heritage.

Because she went to Brownhills High School in Tunstall, the town always had a special place in her heart. A not-for-profit foundation is being set up to publish a series of books based on her research. The first books are about Tunstall. They are being written by Betty’s husband, David, and Lee Wanger.

David and Lee are working on the first book, The History of Tunstall Town Hall and Market. Other books in the series include The History of the Jubilee Buildings and The Life of Sir Smith Child.

Senior citizens remember the town hall and market as they were before they closed for regeneration in the 1990s. They can recall social activities they went to in the town hall and going shopping in the market. Amateur photographers and students at Stoke on-Trent College of Art or Staffordshire University photographed the market and the town hall, where dances, formal dinners and Christmas parties were held.

David and Lee need help to trace these photographs and from people willing to share their memories of events they attended in the town hall and shopping in the market.

If you have photographs or memories you would like to share with David and Lee please telephone Lee at 07971303729.

Tunstall Today – Weeds in Tower Square

The clock tower in Tower Square, Tunstall.
Weeds at the base of the clock tower in Tower Square.

This image shows weeds growing at the base of the Smith Child Clock Tower in Tower Square. The tower was erected in 1893 to honour Sir Smith Child, the town’s most generous philanthropist.

Tell us about neglected and empty buildings in Tunstall which need ‘tender loving’ care and we will include them in our new series Tunstall Today.

You can email us at northstaffordshireheritage@0utlook.com

Tunstall Today – The Memorial Gardens

The old shelter in Tunstall's Memorial Gardens
The Memorial Gardens

This image, the first in our new series Tunstall Today, shows how buildings in the town have been neglected for years.

In our image of the old shelter in the Memorial Gardens (The Boulevard), you can see weeds growing on the roof, a gutter that needs repairing and a mural that has been vandalised.

Tell us about other heritage buildings in Tunstall that need ‘tender loving care’ and we will include them in our series.

Email us at northstaffordshireheritage@outlook.com

Buses from Mow Cop to Tunstall

A forty-horsepower Daimler Bus

In 1914 the Potteries Electric Traction Company started running bus services from Biddulph and Mow Cop to Tunstall using forty-horsepower Daimler Buses.

During the First World War (1914-1918) the government requisitioned the company’s buses, and the services were suspended. The buses were sent to France, where they were used to take troops to the front line. When the war ended, the buses were returned to the company and the services resumed.

Former soldiers and sailors formed small transport companies that ran bus services bringing customers to Tunstall’s shops and markets from industrial towns and villages on the northern part of the North Staffordshire Coal Field.

The bus services to Tunstall operated by these companies competed with those run by the Potteries Motor Traction Company.

Rowbothams, a transport company whose garage was in Sands Road, Harriseahead, ran a bus service from The Bank, a hamlet in South Cheshire, to Tunstall. Its buses stopped to pick up passengers in Mount Pleasant, Dales Green, The Rookery, Whitehill, Newchapel, Packmoor, Chell and Pitts Hill.

The Potteries Electric Traction Company also operated a service between The Bank and Tunstall although its buses followed a different route.

Buses owned by both companies ran via Mount Pleasant, Dales Green and The Rookery to Whitehill, where their routes diverged at the top of Galley’s Bank. Rowbothans’ buses turned left into Whitehall Road which took them to Newchapel. Buses owned by the Potteries Motor Traction Company turned right into Whitehall Road and went to Tunstall via Kidsgrove, Goldenhill and Sandyford.

Staniers who had a garage in Newchapel was another company whose buses competed with Rowbothams. It ran a service from Mow Cop to Tunstall via Harriseahead, Newchapel, Packmoor, Chell and Pitts Hill.

Wesley Place Methodist Chapel

Tunstall’s Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Wesley Place (now Wesley Street)

Tunstall’s Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Wesley Place (now Wesley Street) replaced a chapel built near America Street in the 18th century.

Opened in 1835. the Chapel in Wesley Place was a large brick building with a portico supported by four stone pillars. It could accommodate over 1,000 worshippers and was lit by gas lamps.

In 1838 a Sunday School was erected on land behind the chapel. Five or six years later, a Wesleyan Day School opened in the building. The day school became a Board School in 189o. It closed four years later when Wolstanton School Board opened High Steet Schools.

Tunstall’s Windmill

Tunstall Windmill

Tunstall’s windmill was built in a field that people started calling Millfield. A track, which became Temple Street (now Pierce Street), led from America Street to the mill.

The only houses near the mill were three one-story workmen’s cottages.

At one time, a man and his wife lived at the mill. There was a disused mineshaft full of water nearby. One evening the couple had an argument. The wife walked out and did not return. The next morning, her body was found in the mine shaft. She had committed suicide.

When the mill closed, Tunstall’s Drum and Fife band used it as a practice room. The mill was demolished in the mid-1850s.

Did You Know?

Tunstall’s First Methodist Chapel

Did you know that Tunstall’s first Methodist Chapel was built in 1788 by the Wesleyans? The chapel cost £650 and was erected on sloping ground adjacent to ‘the old lane’ that later became America Street. Charles Lawton, a Newcastle builder, and his brother Samson, who came from Tunstall, built the chapel which was forty-five feet long by forty feet wide.