Tag: Greenfield

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)

Furlong Road in the 1850s

Scarratt’s Tunstall

Furlong Road ran from High Street, Tunstall, to Greenfield, an industrial village near Pitts Hill. The road was narrow and overhung with laburnum and other trees.

In his book Old Times in the Potteries (published in 1906), William Scarratt describes the road in the 1850s.

In 1854, Furlong Road was like a country lane. The oak and other trees surrounded Greengates House, which Mr William Adams built in the 18th century. These trees were quite leafy. Rooks built their nests in them, and wild ducks sported on the pool in front of the house. At the back of the house were large trees where rooks cawed noisily in the spring. Little birds built nests in the hedgerows below the church – I have found them there. Nobody today would believe that harriers or beagles were kept at this house. But that is a fact. The owner of the house was fond of sport. I met them on the road to school in Newchapel. One of my school fellows, the owner’s son, has followed them, so he said. The road ran from High Street to Greenfield. It was narrow and overhung in some places with laburnum and other trees.

Edited by The History Factory (2024)