Between 1738 and 1800, the township’s population rose from 200 to 800. By 1811 it had risen to 1,677. In 1821, the population was 2,622. Between 1831 and 1841 it increased from 3,673 to 6,979. Tunstall was no longer an industrial village. It had become a town with shops and markets that attracted customers from Butt Lane, Kidsgrove, Mow Cop, Harriseahead, Biddulph, Brindley Ford, Packmoor, Chell and Goldenhill.
Tag: Tunstall Market
Betty Being Put in the Pillory
Betty was put in the pillory when Tunstall Market celebrated its 200th anniversary in 2017. David managed to avoid being put in it. He was taking the photographs. We think Lee spent a few hours there.
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Tunstall Was a Prosperous Town
By the beginning of the 1830s, Tunstall was a prosperous industrial and market town.
Between 1821 and 1831, its population had increased from 2,622 to 3,673. By 1841, the population had risen to 6,979.
At the end of the 1830s, there were 17 firms manufacturing pottery. Twelve made earthenware. Three produced earthenware and china. Two manufactured china figures and Egyptian blackware. The Trent & Mersey Canal ran through the Chatterley Valley, where there were two brick and tile works, a factory making chemicals and a coal wharf. Coal and ironstone were mined at Furlong, Greenfields and Clanway.
The east side of Liverpool Road (now High Street) between the Highgate Inn and the Old Wheatsheaf Inn had been developed. There were shops on Liverpool Road and in the Market Place (now Tower Square) where markets were held on Mondays and Saturdays.
The markets opened early in the morning and closed late at night. They were general markets with stalls selling household goods, furniture, shoes and clothing, fruit and vegetables, dairy produce, meat, fish and poultry.
Saturday was the busiest day of the week for shopkeepers and innkeepers. The market attracted customers from Butt Lane, Kidsgrove, Mow Cop, Harriseahead, Packmoor, Biddulph, Chell and Goldenhill. The roads leading to Tunstall were crowded, with people coming to shop there.
Photograph © Copyright Dave Bevis and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
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When Onions Cost Less Than A Penny
Although Tunstall’s pottery industry prospered in the late 1820s and early 1830s, workers in the industry worked long hours for low pay.
Working-class families could not afford to buy food from grocery shops on the High Street or in the Market Place (Tower Square). Factories worked a six-day week. Wages were paid on Saturday afternoons, and industrial workers’ families shopped in the market on Saturday evenings.
Going to the market was a social occasion for the men who went to a tavern or a beerhouse for a drink while their wives shopped for fresh meat, salted fish, fruit and vegetables.
Local smallholders and farmers had stalls in the market where they sold dairy produce and the fruit and vegetables they had grown. Greengroceries sold in the market were fresh and cheap. Twelve onions cost less than a penny. They could be roasted and fried, eaten with meat and other vegetables or used to make gravy.
Watercress was another inexpensive vegetable. It was sold between April and February. Housewives used it to make watercress and cheese sandwiches, and families ate it with cold meat.
During the summer months, housewives could buy broccoli. Peas were sold in June and July, and runner beans went on sale in autumn.
Housewives could buy fresh fruit throughout the year. In the summer, there was a wide range of fruit to choose from, including cherries, gooseberries, greengages and strawberries. In the autumn, there were apples, pears and plumbs. Spanish oranges appeared on the stalls in December. They were expensive, and mothers often bought them as Christmas presents for their children.
North Staffordshire Heritage 