Stoke-upon-Trent: Local government, economic history and social life

LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SERVICES

By the 17th century the Penkhull-Boothen area was grouped for purposes of parish government with Clayton and Seabridge to form one of the four quarters of the ancient parish of Stoke-upon-Trent; from 1816 the government of the parish was conducted by a select vestry. (fn. 1) Manorially the area was part of Newcastle manor. (fn. 2)

In 1839, however, Stoke, like Longton, Fenton, and Trentham, was placed under a body of commissioners with powers of policing, lighting, and generally improving the streets. All the inhabitants satisfying a certain property qualification were to be commissioners, meeting monthly and having power to levy rates up to 1s. in the £ for general improvements and 8d. in the £ for lighting. Those inhabitants not well served by public lighting were exempt from the lighting rate. The commissioners' powers to widen and improve the streets did not include powers of compulsory purchase. A chief bailiff, watchmen, and beadles were to be appointed. The experience of the 14 years that had passed since the setting up of the Burslem and Hanley Improvements Commissioners may perhaps be seen in the more detailed powers given to the 1839 commissioners; they were specifically enabled, for instance, to ensure that cellar windows and gratings were secured and that door gates opened inwards, and to see to the naming of streets, the numbering of houses, and the destruction of mad dogs. Also the property qualification was lower than at Burslem and Hanley. The area for which the Stoke Commissioners were responsible included most of the township of Penkhull, the township of Clayton, and the part of Shelton township that was exempted from the jurisdiction of the Hanley commissioners. The small detached portion of Penkhull that lay to the northwest of Newcastle was not included and was taken into Newcastle in 1875. The portion of Shelton that was included consisted of the glebe land where Stoke Station now stands. (fn. 3)

At the first meeting of the commissioners held at the town hall on 4 July 1839, Lewis Adams was elected chief bailiff, and a clerk was appointed. (fn. 4) Thereafter monthly meetings were held at the town hall, with the chief bailiff in the chair. In 1860 the meeting-place was transferred to the Minton Memorial Building in London Road. (fn. 5) At first ad hoc committees were set up to deal with particular problems, such as policing, (fn. 6) lighting, (fn. 7) rating, (fn. 8) and drainage, (fn. 9) but by 1859 there were regular committees for lighting, finance, and improvement. (fn. 10) A rate committee was added in 1863, (fn. 11) a smoke-prevention committee for 1868 and 1869 only, (fn. 12) and a highway committee in 1873. (fn. 13) In 1859 the clerk was dismissed after 20 years' service as a result of a dispute over expenses, and a 'non-professional' clerk was appointed in his place. (fn. 14) He was, however, retained as legal adviser. The commissioners imposed the statutory improvement rate of 1s. in August 1839 and the lighting rate of 8d. in October 1840; in February 1841 the improvement rate was reduced to 8d. and in November to 6d., while the lighting rate was brought down to 6d. in August 1842. (fn. 15)

A proposal to form a local board of health covering the whole of Stoke parish produced strong local opposition and was dropped by the central Board of Health in 1851. (fn. 16) The commissioners' rule therefore lasted until 1874 when the whole of the Stoke District except Clayton was incorporated as the borough of Stoke-upon-Trent- with a mayor, 5 other aldermen and 18 councillors, 6 for each of the 3 wards (East, West, and South). (fn. 17) Four committees were set up: general purposes; finance and rate; highways and sanitary; lighting and watch. (fn. 18) In November 1877 a market, baths, and free library committee was added. (fn. 19) By 1909–10, the last year of the council's existence, five other committees had been added: plans, gas, cemetery, electricity, and education. (fn. 20) The rateable value of the borough in 1890 was £72,208 8s. 1d. and the rate was 5s. 4d. in the £ ten years later the rateable value was £111,000 and the rate 7s. 9d. (fn. 21) With the creation of the new county borough of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910, the area covered by the old borough of Stoke-upon-Trent was formed into four wards represented on the new council by 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. (fn. 22)

The first town hall was built by subscription in Market Street (now Hill Street) in 1794, and was administered by trustees. (fn. 23) A market was eventually held in the lower part, (fn. 24) where by 1829 the fire engine also was kept. (fn. 25) The erection of the present town hall in Glebe Street was begun in 1834, but part was still unfinished in 1850. (fn. 26) The market was held on the ground floor of the central part by 1850, and the large hall above housed the Stoke-upon Trent Athenaeum and the school of design; the ground floor of the north wing was occupied by the police force and the fire engine from 1843, while the large room above was used as a court room and for public meetings. (fn. 27) By 1876 the upper room in the central block was used as an assembly room, the Athenaeum having been moved to the south wing, which also contained the county court offices. (fn. 28) By 1880 the upper floor of the south wing contained the council chamber, the mayor's parlour, and municipal offices. (fn. 29) The market had been moved to a new building in 1883, (fn. 30) and five years later the vacated ground floor of the central block was reconstructed to include chamber, parlour, and offices, while the assembly room above was altered to hold 1,400. (fn. 31) The town hall was retained after Federation for most of the new county borough's offices, (fn. 32) and has been considerably extended since. (fn. 33) By the middle of the century the old hall in Hill Street was let for storage and subsequently was used at different times as a fire station and a drill hall; (fn. 34) it was demolished c. 1938. (fn. 35) The mayor's chain was presented by Colin Minton Campbell in 1874. (fn. 36)

As a member of Newcastle manor Penkhull township was represented at the court leet by three frankpledges by 1335 (fn. 37) and was paying 'frithborwesulver' to the lord of Newcastle by 1361. (fn. 38) Penkhull also gave its name to a constablewick which by the early 14th century included the townships of Clayton, Seabridge, Wolstanton, and Shelton—all members of Newcastle manor—as well as Penkhull itself. (fn. 39) This system was evidently still in force in its essentials in 1829 when at the October court a chief constable, two headboroughs, and three assistant constables were appointed for Stoke and Penkhull. (fn. 40) There was a lock-up in Penkhull at this time, but at this October court the need for a lock-up in Stoke was urged on the ground that prisoners sometimes escaped while being conducted to Penkhull by the constables. (fn. 41)

The main policing power given to the commissioners established for the Stoke district by the Act of 1839 was the appointment of a chief bailiff, watchmen, and beadles. The organization of the police was to be the responsibility of the chief bailiff, and provision was made in the Act for the chief bailiffs of Stoke, Longton, Fenton, and Trentham to appoint a single superintendent of police with powers over all four districts. (fn. 42)

In August 1839 a superintendent and two policemen were appointed for the Stoke district and a house in Liverpool Road was leased for three months as a temporary station; in November the former parish office was taken as a temporary station and lock-up. (fn. 43) Two unpaid police officers were appointed for Trent Vale and Clayton in November; a year later it was agreed that one of the police should live at Trent Vale as soon as a house could be provided, and within two years of this decision Trent Vale had its own police officer and station. (fn. 44) The Chartist riots of August 1842 aroused great concern about the size of the police force and led to the establishment of a county force in Stoke in 1843, a measure which had been firmly opposed in 1839 and 1840 on the grounds of expense and the adequacy of the Stoke force. (fn. 45) In the meantime the chief bailiff was asked to appoint two paid temporary assistants to the police in August 1842, and in October it was agreed that he should set up a force of 10 men paid 2s. 6d. each a night and divided among five areas, with a volunteer superintendent for each area and a nightly horse patrol throughout the district; the cost of this additional policing was to be met by a 4d. rate and public subscription. (fn. 46) The police office and the chief bailiff's house at Penkhull had been attacked and damaged during the riots, while the superintendent of the Stoke police resigned apparently in dismay at the damage done to his personal property by the rioters. Some compensation was given to him and one of his men by the commissioners who also voted a £5 reward to James Hope, one of the force, for his conduct during the riots as well as 4 guineas for the expense which he had incurred in medical attention to his injuries; he was also appointed police officer for Trent Vale. At the same time the commissioners expressed their dissatisfaction with the conduct of another member of the force during the disturbances. (fn. 47) A police station for the county police in the new north wing of the town hall was completed in 1843, (fn. 48) and remained there until the building of the present station in Copeland Street in 1897. (fn. 49)

A stipendiary magistrate for the Potteries area was appointed in 1839 sitting once a week at Stoke town hall; Stoke and Penkhull formed one of the six rating areas established to support the new system. (fn. 50) Stoke was at first within Hanley county court district. In 1853 it was formed into a separate district including also Longton, Fenton, and Trentham parish; the court met monthly at Stoke town hall. (fn. 51) Stoke also had its own borough court from 1901. (fn. 52)

PUBLIC HEALTH. The Stoke commissioners concerned themselves with matters of public health from the first. They made the inspector of police also the surveyor of nuisances, obstructions, and encroachments in 1839, (fn. 53) appointed a scavenger in 1840, (fn. 54) and arranged for the watering of the public streets in July 1842. (fn. 55) An inspector of nuisances was appointed in 1845 with responsibility for the suppression of nuisances, the watering of the streets, and the supervision of the lighting of the town. (fn. 56) A joint inspector and scavenger was appointed in 1849, (fn. 57) but soon afterwards the two offices were again divided; the scavenger was made responsible, subject to the supervision of the inspector whose salary was fixed at £20, for watering the streets at a salary of £72 and for removing ashes and night soil at 4d. a load. (fn. 58) A scavenger was appointed for Hartshill, Stoke Lane, and Basford in 1853. (fn. 59) The office of medical officer of health was created in 1877. (fn. 60)

The main problem, that of drainage, had by the late 1840's become very serious. Disease caused by inadequate and filthy privies and by accumulations of ashes and refuse was general, although Penkhull's high situation made it healthier than other parts of the district; Boothen Road, Welch Street, Wharf Street, the three Cliff Squares, Thomas Street, Pleasant Road, and the side streets off Liverpool Road were noted as particularly insanitary and feverridden. (fn. 61) The main streets, while generally macadamized and provided with flagged or bricked sidewalks, were not regularly cleaned, and, though the turnpike trustees had their roads scraped, the clerk to the commissioners considered that Stoke was 'badly off in this respect, worse than any other town in England'. (fn. 62) In the town itself these insanitary conditions were greatly aggravated by the existence of extensive waste land in the centre which was never dry, by the stagnant state of the Newcastle Canal, and by the flooding of the area 'by filthy water from the Foul-hay Brook' and water backed up from the Upper Boothen Mill on the Trent; cellars could not be drained so that as a result of this flooding several of them were perpetually wet, while the streets were always muddy. (fn. 63) There was only one main public sewer. This was the Boothen Drain, built earlier in the century by the parish at the suggestion of the rector to drain the glebe land and the churchyard and running down Glebe Street to the meadows by the Trent near the Lower Boothen Mill. Even this was not cleaned out. (fn. 64) In the late 1840's the sewer was cleaned and 'eye-holes' were inserted every 50 yards, (fn. 65) the beginning of a gradual improvement in the town's drainage. Efforts were made to keep the main and side drains clear; (fn. 66) another main public sewer was built in the 1850's along Liverpool Road to the Boothen Drain; (fn. 67) drainage work was begun at Trent Vale in 1852; (fn. 68) there were plans in 1854–5 for a new drain at Stoke Lane (fn. 69) and in 1864 for another from Penkhull churchyard down to Penkhull Terrace; (fn. 70) a sewer had been built from Hartshill to Stoke by the end of 1866; (fn. 71) orders were given for the cleansing of the Fowlea Brook in 1868 and 1869, including the clearance of the mud deposit at the junction with the Trent; (fn. 72) sewerage was provided for Oakhill in 1882–3; (fn. 73) Charles Lynam was appointed surveyor in 1860 at a salary of £20. (fn. 74) In 1879 the corporation bought the 60-acre Sideway farm on the Fenton side of the Trent and within three years had opened a sewage disposal works there. (fn. 75) An attempt by the commissioners in 1851 to buy and dismantle the Upper Boothen Mill was unsuccessful because of the high compensation demanded by the tenant, (fn. 76) but 30 years later the corporation concluded an agreement with the rector and the mill was bought and demolished. (fn. 77)

Other measures for improving public health included the opening of the baths in Park Street, London Road, in 1860 as part of the Herbert Minton Memorial Scheme and their extension in the early 1880's; (fn. 78) the replacement of privies by water closets —40 in 1897, 300 in 1900; (fn. 79) attempts from the 1850's onwards to deal with the smoke nuisance caused by factories; (fn. 80) the opening of a refuse destructor with the electricity works in 1904. (fn. 81) By 1909 there were 6,238 water closets and 1,565 cesspits; there were 2,739 covered ashpits, 4,876 dustbins, and 580 open pits. (fn. 82)

The pollution of the Fowlea Brook, the Lyme Brook, and the Trent presented a serious problem as the Potteries area developed. Parts of Wolstanton, Tunstall, Burslem, and Hanley discharged their sewage into the Fowlea Brook; Newcastle and the Stoke Union Workhouse discharged into the Lyme Brook; the Bucknall area and part of Hanley discharged into the Trent. Stoke suffered particularly because of its situation on all three rivers downstream from these centres of population. The fact that Stoke's own drainage flowed into the Fowlea Brook and the Trent made matters worse. Even the building of various sewage-disposal works throughout the Potteries did not completely solve the problem, and Stoke's continual complaints to the various local authorities concerned persisted into the 20th century. (fn. 83)

Restrictions were placed on burials in the churchyards of St. Peter's, Stoke, and St. Thomas's, Penkhull, in 1856. (fn. 84) A burial board of nine members was set up by the ratepayers in 1867. (fn. 85) In 1868 2 acres of land on the opposite side of Church Street from St. Peter's were consecrated as a new burial ground. The land was given by the rector and the patron, and the cost of laying it out, £900, was met by a 7d. rate. (fn. 86) In 1882 both St. Peter's and Holy Trinity, Hartshill, were closed for burials and further restrictions were placed on their churchyards. (fn. 87) Burial powers were vested in the borough council in 1883, (fn. 88) and the corporation cemetery at Penkhull, 21 acres in area, was opened in the following year. (fn. 89) A further 3 acres was added in 1905. (fn. 90) The closing of the 1868 burial ground was ordered by the council in 1893. (fn. 91)

The North Staffordshire Infirmary was moved from Etruria to the Hartshill portion of The Mount estate in 1869. The foundation-stone of the new buildings was laid by the Prince of Wales in 1866. The infirmary was one of the first civil hospitals in the kingdom to be built on the pavilion system and it is said that this scheme was adopted on the advice of Florence Nightingale. With the development of the eye department the name was changed in 1890 to the North Staffordshire Infirmary and Eye Hospital, (fn. 92) and in 1925 the name was again changed to the North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary. (fn. 93) A temporary smallpox hospital was built at Penkhull by the Hanley, Stoke, and Fenton Joint Hospital Board in 1883, but it proved impossible to secure a renewal of the lease in 1886 and a new hospital was opened at Bucknall instead, (fn. 94) The North Staffordshire Blind and Deaf School was opened at the Penkhull end of The Mount estate in 1897. (fn. 95) The Cripples' Home opened at Hanchurch in 1911 was later moved to the Church Institute in Stoke and then to premises in Woodhouse Street. In 1918 it was reopened at Longfield Cottage in Hartshill Road as the Hartshill Orthopaedic Hospital. (fn. 96) The City General Hospital in London Road occupies the buildings of the former Stoke and Wolstanton Union workhouse, incorporating the buildings of the Stoke parish workhouse, erected in 1832–3. (fn. 97)

OTHER PUBLIC SERVICES. In the late 1840's Stoke's water-supply was dependent on two public pumps and a public well. A second well was destroyed by the building of the railway at this time. (fn. 98) A supply was laid on to part of the town in 1849 by the Potteries Waterworks Company established in 1847, (fn. 99) but there were frequent complaints of its inadequacy. Thus, when a fire broke out at 'The Noah's Ark', Hartshill, in 1856, the fire brigade was held up for two hours owing to lack of water in the mains. (fn. 100) Two years later the company was notified that there was frequently no supply to the fire plugs at Penkhull, (fn. 101) and in 1872 there was inadequate water for fighting a fire at Hartshill church. (fn. 102) In the same year the Local Government Board's inspector attributed the large increase in mortality in the Stoke area partly to the inadequate water-supply. (fn. 103) At the end of 1873 the waterworks company was asked to extend its mains to Boothen and to the part of Basford still without a supply; but in June 1876 Boothen at least still had no supply and was presumably still dependent on its 'town pump', the repair of which had been ordered in 1874 and whose water was declared unfit for drinking in 1881, and on the well which in 1881 was ordered to be closed as unfit for domestic use. (fn. 104) An old public well in Spring Meadow, Trentham Road, Penkhull, was still in use in the early 1880's; (fn. 105) a well in Honeywall was closed as unhealthy. (fn. 106)

Stoke town was at first supplied with gas from the British Gaslight Company's works at Shelton built in 1825, but in 1839 the commissioners accepted the tender for lighting the streets submitted by the new Stoke, Fenton, and Longton Gas Company which had a works off Wharf Street in the early 1840's and was soon supplying several factories, inns, and houses as well as the public lamps. (fn. 107) Public lighting was extended to Penkhull in 1849 when the company agreed to light 13 lamps there, (fn. 108) and by 1851 the Stoke area had 116 street lamps in use. (fn. 109) In 1878 the undertaking was bought by the Stoke borough council and the Fenton local board and run by a joint committee consisting of six representatives from each. (fn. 110) Differences arose between the two authorities, however, and in 1883 the committee was abolished. Stoke borough council took over the Wharf Street works but had to supply the Fenton area until the local board had built its own manufacturing plant. (fn. 111) The Stoke undertaking passed to the new county borough in 1910, (fn. 112) and the works continues in use as a holder station supplied from the main works for the whole city at Etruria. (fn. 113)

The borough council opened an electricity works in Bagnall Street (now Yeaman Street) in 1904. (fn. 114) Taken over by the new county borough in 1910 (fn. 115) and extended in 1911, (fn. 116) it is now (1960) used as district office and depot of the Stoke South District of the Midlands Electricity Board. Stoke station, however, and part of the North Stafford Hotel were first lit by electricity as early as 1893. (fn. 117)

By 1829 Stoke had its own fire engine kept at the old town hall in Hill Street. (fn. 118) This remained the engine house until 1843 when premises were provided adjoining the police station in the new north wing of the town hall in Glebe Street. (fn. 119) A new engine was bought at the end of the year, and a committee was set up by the commissioners to enlist 'a corps of young active men of good character to be called the Stoke Fire Brigade'. (fn. 120) The headquarters of the brigade and the fire engine were moved back to the old town hall in the early 1880's; the brigade then consisted of a superintendent, who was also the superintendent of police in the late 1870's, a sergeant, a corporal, and 10 men. (fn. 121) A steam fire engine was bought in 1904. (fn. 122) About that time the old town hall became a drill hall and the brigade was moved to the Old Town Yard behind the new town hall; the King's Hall was opened there in 1910–11 and the brigade was installed in a wooden shed in South Wolfe Street behind the covered market. A fire station was opened in Welch Street in 1914 but went out of use when the city's fire service was reorganized in 1926. (fn. 123)

By the early 18th century there appears to have been a single supervisor of the highways for the south side of Stoke Parish (the Penkhull and Shelton quarters) and the office was served by the retiring churchwarden for that part of the parish. (fn. 124) By 1780, however, there was a surveyor for Penkhull 'liberty'. (fn. 125) The Penkhull and the Glebe highway boards, presumably set up under the Highways Act of 1835, were superseded in 1874 by the new borough council, (fn. 126) which in the same year also took over the roads maintained by the Darlaston turnpike trust, namely the main road between Hanford and Newcastle, London Road, and Liverpool Road. In 1876 the council took over the roads maintained by the Newcastle to Blythe Marsh turnpike trust, namely the main road from Stoke to Hartshill road, Shelton New Road, Shelton Old Road, Glebe Street, and Wharf Street. All these turnpike roads were in such a bad state of repair that a large amount had to be spent on their improvement, and in 1879 the borough applied to the justices for all of them to be declared main roads and so a county responsibility. (fn. 127)

Other activities of the Improvement Commissioners included the regulation from 1840 of the public clocks to the standard of the station clock at Whitmore, a service undertaken in collaboration with Burslem, Hanley, and Shelton; (fn. 128) the numbering of houses in 1844, and again in 1867; (fn. 129) and the constant approving of new buildings in accordance with standards laid down. (fn. 130)

RELIEF OF THE POOR. For the purposes of poor relief Stoke parish was divided by the late 16th century into five independent units, themselves parishes as far as relief was concerned: Stoke-upon-Trent, Burslem, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Norton in the Moors, and Whitmore. This section will deal with the area covered by Stoke-upon-Trent.

The Stoke-upon-Trent relief area consisted by 1570 of eight districts, each apparently separate for rating at least: Penkhull, with Boothen; Clayton and Seabridge; Shelton and Hanley; Fenton Culvert; Fenton Vivian; Longton; Bucknall; and Bagnall. (fn. 131) By the early 17th century, however, the area had been rearranged into four 'quarters', each under an overseer: Penkhull, Boothen, Clayton, and Seabridge; Shelton and Hanley; the Fentons, Longton, and Botteslow; and Bucknall and Bagnall. (fn. 132) This organization was unaffected by the creation of the new ecclesiastical divisions in 1807, (fn. 133) and there were still four overseers in 1836. (fn. 134) In 1816, however, the direction of all parish business including poor relief was placed under the control of a select vestry, (fn. 135) and this gained closer control in 1834 when the one salaried assistant overseer was given the power of appointing annually, and paying, the governor of the workhouse and the six collectors, subject to the supervision of the overseers and the select vestry. (fn. 136) The Stoke-upon-Trent Union was formed in 1836 with a board of 24 guardians, but the area covered remained the same as that of the old organization. (fn. 137) After the local government reorganization of 1894 the union consisted of five civil parishes—Hanley, Stoke, Fenton, Longton, and Stoke Rural—each with its own overseers. (fn. 138) The number of guardians was increased to 32, all of them elected every three years. (fn. 139) In 1922 the union was amalgamated with the Wolstanton and Burslem Union to form the Stoke and Wolstanton Union with a board of 65 guardians elected every three years, 56 of them representing the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent (including Burslem and Tunstall). (fn. 140) The union was dissolved in 1930, and a public assistance committee was set up for the city of Stoke; the rest of the union became the responsibility of the Newcastle Area Guardians Committee. (fn. 141)

The total income from the rates of the eight districts of Stoke-upon-Trent in 1570 was £12 14s. 1d. (fn. 142) In 1640 2 lewns levied on 119 persons in the Penkhull Quarter produced £9 0s. 4d., in 1662 5 levied on 34 in the Shelton and Hanley Quarter produced £5 1s. 2½d., and in 1696 14 levied on 40 in the Longton and Fenton Quarter produced £40 19s. 6d. (fn. 143) Expenditure on the poor in 1648 amounted to £8 13s. 2d. in the Penkhull Quarter, £9 2s. 7d. (including 25s. due to Burslem under the plague order) in Shelton and Hanley, £7 10s. in Longton and Fenton, and £6 13s. 4d. in Bucknall and Bagnall. (fn. 144) The overseers' disbursements reached just over £1,000 in the financial year 1775–6. (fn. 145) In 1802–3, when the rate was assessed at 6s. 8d. in the £ on land and 3s. 4d. on houses, over £3,775 was spent on out-relief and nearly £1,200 on workhouse relief. (fn. 146) The overseers' expenditure reached over £8,000 on out-relief and over £1,200 on workhouse relief in 1832–3, (fn. 147) but a policy of retrenchment and a more efficient administration had reduced the total amount spent on poor relief by nearly a third the following year. (fn. 148) In the first year of the new system, despite a severe depression in local trade, expenditure dropped to £5,460, (fn. 149) but by 1840–1 it was rising again. (fn. 150) A poor rate of 9d. in the £ was levied for the last half of 1877–8, (fn. 151) and about this time there were five rating districts—Hanley, Shelton, Stoke, Fenton, and Longton—with five collectors under a superintendent. (fn. 152) The total rate levied for the last half of 1910–11 was £29,800. (fn. 153) Weekly expenditure at the beginning of 1926 was just under £200, but with the depression of that year it had risen to over £4,700 by the summer. During the first three months of 1928 some £6,365 were spent on unemployment relief, some £15,444 on out-relief and £122,512 on relief in the two workhouses and the children's homes at Penkhull. The poor-rate for the following year was levied at 4s. 5d. in the £. (fn. 154)

The main form of poor relief was at first presumably weekly or monthly pay, but no overseers' accounts seem to have survived. Workhouse relief was provided in Stoke by the 18th century (see below). In 1802–3 246 adults and 445 children under 15 were given out-relief, while 195 persons received workhouse relief and 348 occasional relief. (fn. 155) The policy of retrenchment applied in 1833–4 included a stricter scrutiny of applicants for relief and the payment of some out-relief in the form of provisions instead of money. (fn. 156)

A workhouse for Stoke-upon-Trent parish had been built by 1735 at the southern end of Penkhull village at the junction of Penkhull Green and the road from Trentham (now Trent Valley Road); in 1776 it had a capacity of 80. (fn. 157) The inmates were being employed in the potworks of the area by the beginning of the 19th century. (fn. 158) In 1832–3 the vestry erected a new workhouse at the Spittals on London Road just south of the Newcastle-underLyme boundary. (fn. 159) The old workhouse was at first occasionally used as a marble factory but the parish decided in 1834 to sell it. (fn. 160) By 1902 it had been converted into cottages which are still standing. (fn. 161) The economies of 1833–4 included the 'farming' of the poor in the workhouse to the governor at the rate of 2s. 5d. each a week, in place of the former weekly cost of 2s. 10d. each as well as the governor's salary of £60 a year. (fn. 162) With the formation of the union in 1836 the new workhouse, which had already cost about £3,000 to build, was altered to the requirements of the poor law commissioners at a further cost of some £3,500, its capacity being thereby increased from 270 to 500; at first, however, there were no more than 300 inmates at any one time. (fn. 163) The workhouse remained in use after the amalgamation of the Stoke Union with the Wolstanton and Burslem Union in 1922 (fn. 164) and now forms part of the City General Hospital. Two low two-story ranges, one of which was built as a hospital in 1842, (fn. 165) and a large three-storied block to the rear, represent the earliest of the workhouse buildings. These two blocks stand at the north end of the present extensive site where further buildings have been added at all periods. (fn. 166)

The Penkhull Children's Homes were built c. 1900 (fn. 167) and extended in 1924. (fn. 168) They are situated in St. Christopher Avenue to the west of Penkhull village and consist of a series of individual houses.

Economic History

The Stoke area was primarily agricultural until the late 18th century when the pottery industry was becoming established. Even in the early 20th century the district, largely industrialized around the town itself, still retained traces of its agrarian past, particularly around Penkhull and Boothen. After the First World War, however, this part of the city was used for extensive new housing estates which were laid out over much of the surviving agricultural land. New factories also were built there. (fn. 169)

Valued at £6 in 1086, Penkhull then possessed land for 11 ploughs and 2 acres of meadow, and there were 17 villeins and 6 bordars with 8 ploughs. (fn. 170) In 1169 Penkhull paid 7 marks as an aid for the marriage of the king's daughter, (fn. 171) and in 1195, 1199, 1205, and 1206 it contributed tallages of 20s., 4 marks, £9 9s. 4d., and £7 respectively. A comparison with similar contributions from other manors and towns in Staffordshire in these years emphasizes the relative wealth of Penkhull. (fn. 172) The manor was restocked with 16 oxen and 2 other draught animals, 25 cows, 1 bull, and 15 sows at a cost of £7 8s. in 1199, when four other royal manors in Staffordshire were similarly restocked. (fn. 173) By the mid-13th century, when the manor had been absorbed into Newcastle manor, (fn. 174) the royal demesne in Penkhull included a carucate of land leased to the men of the vill for 15s. and a field called 'Caldhole' leased for 11s. to William Muriel, (fn. 175) keeper of the royal woodland in the area (see below). The men of Penkhull also held 8½ virgates at a rent of 34s., while a further 8 bovates were held in villeinage at a rent of 20s. 8d. (fn. 176) At the end of the 13th century, when the demesne of 8 bovates was held by customary tenants at a rent of £2, 18 sokemen (presumably the villein sokemen found on manors of ancient demesne) held 34 bovates for £1 14s. and a further 144½ acres for £3 12s. 3d., and 8 customary tenants held 8 bovates in villeinage. (fn. 177) Labour services were being commuted by this time: the sokemen paid 7s. 6d. in lieu of customary works and the villeins 7s. with a further 4s. in lieu of mowing the lord's meadow and making his hay. (fn. 178) With further rents, mainly for meadow and pasture, the Earl of Lancaster's income from Penkhull by the end of the century was £13 9s. 8d. (fn. 179) Nearly a century later the assized rents were worth £15 10s. 9d. (fn. 180) and in 1650 £10. (fn. 181) Early in the 15th century most of the land in Penkhull township was held either by socage tenure (presumably villein socage tenure) or else by lease out of the lord's demesne; there had also been extensive inclosure from the waste by then. (fn. 182) Only a very small amount of land was still held in villeinage and the labour services due from it had been commuted; another parcel was described as lately enfranchised. (fn. 183) Most of the land at Penkhull seems to have been copyhold at the beginning of the 20th century. (fn. 184)

The open fields of Penkhull township in the early 15th century included Stubbs, Oldfield, and Woodfield and possibly Whatley also. (fn. 185) In 1615 the open fields included Stubbs, Rye Field (apparently shared with Shelton), Church Field, and Cherry Field; (fn. 186) butts of arable were also held in certain closes, as at Burslem. (fn. 187) Stubbs, which was shared with Newcastle borough, and evidently with Clayton also, was inclosed in 1816. (fn. 188) Boothen Green occurs in 1615 as 2 acres of common pasture belonging to the tenants of Boothen; (fn. 189) Penkhull Green, in the centre of Penkhull village, provided the site for a school and, in 1842, the church. (fn. 190)

In 1086 the woodland attached to Penkhull manor was 1 league long and 2 furlongs broad. (fn. 191) By the 1160's Penkhull evidently formed part of the 'new forest' which extended from the Newcastle area to Tixall and the Blythe. (fn. 192) When this was disafforested by King John in 1204, he exempted Cliff Hay. (fn. 193) It has been suggested that this hay, which extended into Wolstanton parish, (fn. 194) included the present Hartshill district: Park Lane and Park Meadow occur among the place-names of the area in 1827, while Parker's Close, three fields lying near the mouth of the railway tunnel, occurs in the mid-19th century; the names Cliff Bank, Cliff Vale, and Cliffville survived into the 20th century, and the Cliffville estate was freehold land in an area of extensive copyhold tenure early in this century. (fn. 195) As keeper of the hay William Muriel held a virgate in Shelton in 1236 and was succeeded, at any rate in the land, by his son John in 1253. (fn. 196) The only other known keeper was Roger Myson, who seems to have forfeited the office by 1263. (fn. 197) 'Boscum de le Clif' occurs in a charter of 1286, (fn. 198) while in 1361 'a little wood called le Clif in Newcastle' formed part of the estates of the Duke of Lancaster. (fn. 199) Grants of the herbage of what was called Castle Cliff were made at various times from at any rate the late 14th century. (fn. 200) In 1241 ten oaks out of 'the wood at Newcastleunder-Lyme' were assigned as building material, (fn. 201) presumably for work on the castle, (fn. 202) and in 1423 eight cart-loads of timber were taken to repair the bridge at the castle. (fn. 203) In 1438 or 1439 the hedges and posts of Castle Cliff were themselves repaired. (fn. 204) Presentments were made by the jurors of Newcastle manor in 1615 concerning recent thefts of trees from Castle Cliff. (fn. 205) By grant of John of Gaunt as Duke of Lancaster in 1364 40 acres of Castle Cliff passed to Hugh Bowyer of Newcastle who conveyed the land and the buildings there to Nicholas del Chambers in 1377 or 1378. (fn. 206) An inclosure of 8 acres in 'le Clyff' called 'Trumpeshey' was held by a tenant early in the 15th century (fn. 207) and in 1615 when there was also a 'Trumpers Hay Mede'. (fn. 208) Land called Trumpers Hays, owned by the Fentons in the 18th century, (fn. 209) was still part of the estate in the area belonging to their descendant Sir Thomas Fletcher Fenton Boughey in 1867. (fn. 210)

By 1333 the lord of Newcastle manor had fishponds at Penkhull. (fn. 211)

MARKETS AND FAIRS. The lower part of the town hall erected in Market Street (now Hill Street) in 1794 was intended for a market, but none was being held in 1800. (fn. 212) By 1818 there was a Saturday market, (fn. 213) but in 1834 it was said to be overshadowed by the market at Hanley. (fn. 214) A new market hall was built at the south-west corner of the market-place in 1835, extending back to Epworth Street (formerly Cross Street and earlier still Chapel Street). (fn. 215) In 1845 the market was formally established by Act of Parliament and transferred to the new town hall in Glebe Street where it was held on the ground floor of the central block. (fn. 216) By 1850 a small Wednesday market was being held in addition to the main market on Saturday; a fortnightly cheese market had just been established, but it evidently lapsed after a very short time. (fn. 217) By 1876 the Wednesday market also had been discontinued. (fn. 218) The present market hall on the south side of Church Street was built by the corporation in 1883; it stands on three sides of a square with a row of shops making up the fourth side on Church Street. (fn. 219) A Friday market was added in the 1920's and the Wednesday market was revived in the mid1950's, so that there are now three market days. (fn. 220) The 1835 market hall in Cross Street was used as a shambles by 1859, (fn. 221) and by at least 1872 a hide and skin market was held there; (fn. 222) it now (1960) forms part of the Hanley and Stoke Hide Market and is also used by the North Stafford Butchers Hide, Skin and Fat Co. Ltd. (fn. 223)

About the mid-19th century there was a cheese fair on the last Wednesday in February and the last Wednesday in September. (fn. 224)

A pinfold for Penkhull township was erected by the Stoke Improvement Commissioners in 1839 or 1840, (fn. 225) and it was evidently transferred with the market in 1845 to Glebe Street where it stood in 1850. (fn. 226)

MILLS. There was a mill in Penkhull township by 1327, (fn. 227) probably the Stoke Mill of 1558, then belonging to the rectory. (fn. 228) In 1699 the rector leased 'one pair of mills' on the rectory estate to Thomas Mellor of Sneyd Green for seven years, with the proviso that the lessor was either to have his corn ground free or be given £2 10s. instead. (fn. 229) There were two such glebe mills on the Trent at Boothen by 1760, the upper mill situated at what is now the southern end of Stoke football ground and the lower mill a short distance downstream. (fn. 230) Both had by then been converted into flint-mills (fn. 231) and were still in use as such in the 1870's. (fn. 232) In order to ease the flow of the river and so prevent flooding in the area round the church the corporation bought and demolished the upper mill in 1881, (fn. 233) but the lower mill was evidently still in use in 1909. (fn. 234)

Hanford Mill stood on the Trent to the east of the Newcastle road on the Stoke side of Hanford Bridge by 1775. (fn. 235) It was in use as a flint mill in 1792 (fn. 236) and still existed in 1832. (fn. 237)

There was a corn-mill on the Newcastle Canal off Eldon Place, London Road, by 1828 when it was worked by John Pratt, still the miller in 1834. (fn. 238) It had passed to Frederic Pratt c. 1840 when it was described as 'a steam corn-mill . . . the most considerable flour-mill in the district; which is chiefly supplied with its large consumption by canal or land conveyance from distant agricultural parts'. (fn. 239) It was worked in 1851 by Christopher Dickenson and Charles Cattell (fn. 240) and between at least 1854 and 1880 by Dickenson alone. (fn. 241) In 1884 it was held by J. and E. Smith. (fn. 242)

By the early 19th century there was a windmill at Penkhull in what is now Mill Street on the northwest of the village and another at Hartshill. (fn. 243) Both were pulled down in the late 1830's, the site at Hartshill being occupied from 1842 by the new church. (fn. 244)

POTTERY INDUSTRY. There was a Roman pottery works on the rising ground above the Trent at Trent Vale near the present Trent Vale Brick Works from c. a.d. 50 until the late 2nd century. (fn. 245) There may have been small-scale pottery making at Penkhull by the early 15th century, (fn. 246) and the village is said to have possessed three works c. 1600 producing coarse brown ware, one of them belonging to a Thomas Doody. (fn. 247) Butterpots were being made at Stoke by the 1680's, (fn. 248) but early in the 18th century there were only two works in the Stoke district, Ward's and Poulson's. (fn. 249) By the beginning of the 19th century there were four at Stoke, two at Cliff Bank, and two (one of them unoccupied) in Stoke Old Road. (fn. 250) Some 40 years later there were 7 major potworks in the town. (fn. 251) In 1959 there were 10 within the area of the former borough, making earthenware and bone china; in addition there were 2 manufacturers of sanitary ware. (fn. 252)

The earliest works which can be traced over a long period is that established early in the 18th century by John Alders of Penkhull at Top Square. This lay at the junction of Honeywall and what is now Hartshill Road on the site of the 19th-century St. Andrew's Mission Church. It was later known as the Upper Cliff Bank Works. (fn. 253) John (d. 1779) and his brother Thomas (d. 1781) produced there 'mottled and cloudy and tortoiseshell with lead ore and salt glaze and shining black of a very good quality' and also 'blue scratched' domestic ware. (fn. 254) By the middle of the century Thomas Alders—John is no longer mentioned—had taken John Harrison of Newcastleunder-Lyme (1716–98) into partnership; from 1751 or 1752 Josiah Wedgwood, having left his brother's Churchyard Pottery at Burslem, worked with them at Cliff Bank for a year or two before joining Thomas Whieldon at Fenton Low. (fn. 255) Harrison's son John was working at Cliff Bank by 1783 and remained there until his bankruptcy in 1802. (fn. 256) John Davenport of Longport then acquired the works and from 1804 let it to his kinsman William Adams, who produced general earthenware (including blue-printed) and figures (fn. 257) and also built up extensive pottery interests elsewhere in Stoke (see below). The Upper Cliff Bank Works remained in this branch of the Adams family until its demolition c. 1840. (fn. 258)

The Cliff Bank Works on the opposite side of Hartshill Road at the junction with Shelton Old Road (fn. 259) seems to have been occupied in 1740 by Daniel Bird, who made agate knife hafts and buttons besides earthenware. He was known as 'the flint potter' as a result of his having discovered the right proportion of flint and clay needed to prevent the ware from cracking in the oven. (fn. 260) Hugh Booth was producing china glazed ware and earthenware at the works in the 1780's and was succeeded in 1789 by his brother Ephraim, who, with his sons Hugh and Joseph, traded as Booth and Sons between at least 1792 and 1802. (fn. 261) Hugh and Joseph ran the works between at least 1805 and 1808, (fn. 262) and a lease was held by Thomas Ward and Company by 1815 (Ward and Davenport in 1822) and by Thomas Mayer from at least 1826. (fn. 263) The firm of William Adams and Sons took over from Mayer c. 1837 and held the works (described in 1841 as 'small, dilapidated and old') until the 1850's. It then passed to Minton, Hollins and Company, who were still the occupants in 1889. (fn. 264) The factory was pulled down in 1914. (fn. 265)

By 1756 white stoneware was being made at Stoke by R. Bankes and John Turner. It was at this works that in 1762, on Turner's leaving to work at Lane End, Josiah Spode became manager at the age of 29. (fn. 266) Spode bought the factory on mortgage from Banks in 1770 and became sole owner six years later. (fn. 267) At first he produced tableware, jasperware, Egyptian black, and black-printed ware; he also developed underglaze transfer printing. He was soon experimenting in the production of bone china, but none was sold by him before 1794. (fn. 268) He used a 'fire engine' for pumping water back over the flintgrinding water-wheel. (fn. 269) His son Josiah, who was already working with his father before succeeding him in 1797, experimented with felspar and in 1805 invented stone china, a felspathic earthenware very like porcelain. He was also among the pioneers in the use of steam power in grinding flint, for he installed a 10-horse power Boulton and Watt engine in 1802 and another of 36-horse power in 1810. (fn. 270) He became potter to the Prince of Wales in 1806. (fn. 271) Josiah (II)'s son Josiah succeeded in 1827 but died two years later, and in 1833 his executors sold the firm to his partner William Taylor Copeland (1797– 1868), son of William Copeland (d. 1826) who had become a partner c. 1800. (fn. 272) Thomas Garrett was a partner of W. T. Copeland from 1833 until 1847, and c. 1840 there were some 800 employees at the works. (fn. 273) The premises were then extensive, covering some 14 acres; though well run, they were described as old and ramshackle. (fn. 274) In 1867 Copeland took his four sons into partnership, and since 1932 the firm has been styled W. T. Copeland and Sons Ltd. (fn. 275) Electric power was introduced in 1923. (fn. 276) The pottery has always occupied the same site on the north side of Church (formerly High) Street and several of its early buildings have survived; (fn. 277) as well as two ovens they include the ranges to the southwest of the site making up the former 'Printers' Square', and a small round-ended building with an external stone staircase in the entrance courtyard. The original ranges facing Church Street, including the main entrance arch, were demolished in 1938 when the street frontage was set back. (fn. 278) A large extension of 1951 with a new facade to Kingsway was built over the site of the former 'Black Bank', a quadrangle of low buildings where black basalt ware is thought to have been made in the early 19th century. (fn. 279)

The Big Works stood on the north side of Church Street on the east bank of the Newcastle branch canal opposite the Spode works. It seems to have originated in a pottery sold in 1781 by Elizabeth Webster to Thomas Wolfe (1751–1818) and rebuilt by him. (fn. 280) He was making Queen's ware, blueprinted ware, cane, and Egyptian black at this works by 1784, (fn. 281) and he is said to have introduced the use of steam power for grinding flint, installing an engine in 1793. (fn. 282) He was in partnership with his sonin-law Robert Hamilton from 1800 to 1811 and then worked on his own account until his death. (fn. 283) He also added a works on the opposite side of Church Street held by Smith and Jarvis at the beginning of the 19th century. (fn. 284) In 1818 Thomas's widow Rachel let the two works to William Adams who began the manufacture of porcelain there, apparently dividing the works on the south side of Church Street for the purpose since this factory consisted in 1827 of a china works and the Bridge Bank Works. (fn. 285) The whole undertaking covered some 14 acres in 1840, but the premises were then in a dilapidated condition. (fn. 286) The Adams family continued to work the three potteries until 1862 or 1863, (fn. 287) and Wolfe Street (the present Kingsway) was run through part of the Big Works in the 1870's. (fn. 288) The Bridge Bank Works was still in operation at the end of the century. (fn. 289)

Thomas Minton (1766–1836), in partnership with Joseph Poulson and William Pownall of Liverpool, opened a potworks at Eldon Place in 1796. (fn. 290) After Poulson's death in 1808 Minton became sole owner but in 1817 took his sons Thomas and Herbert into partnership. (fn. 291) Until 1798 only white, cream, and blue-printed wares were made, but porcelain was added from then until 1811; its manufacture was revived in 1821, and felspar china was added soon afterwards. (fn. 292) Minton was using water power for grinding his materials from 1796, but in 1819 he installed a 24 horse-power steam engine built by Christopher Kirk. (fn. 293) By the 1840's there were two separate earthenware and china factories. (fn. 294) Herbert was in partnership with John Boyle from his father's death in 1836 until 1841 and with his wife's nephew Michael Daintry Hollins from 1845; in 1849 Colin Minton Campbell, Herbert's nephew, also became a partner and succeeded his uncle in 1858 as head of the firm which then became Minton and Company; the present name of Mintons Ltd. was taken in 1883. (fn. 295) The manufacture of earthenware ceased at the beginning of the Second World War and the earthenware works, by then on the opposite side of London Road from the present bone china works, was sold in 1947. (fn. 296) The impressive factory building on the east side of London Road is described elsewhere. (fn. 297)

As a condition of increased protection the pottery industry was required by the Import Duties Advisory Committee in 1937 to create a research association. (fn. 298) In 1939 the British Ceramic Research Association opened a research station in a converted late-Victorian house in Queen's Road, Penkhull. (fn. 299) A large new building was erected in 1947–50 and opened in 1951 by the Duke of Edinburgh. (fn. 300) Further offices and laboratories were being built at Hanley in 1959. (fn. 301)

The glebe mills and Hanford Mill, all on the Trent, had been converted into flint mills before the end of the 18th century, (fn. 302) and by 1834 there were also flint mills in Glebe Street and Cross Street (now Epworth Street). (fn. 303) In 1851 there were flint mills in Copeland Street and Wharf Street, the latter evidently the present Portland Mill. (fn. 304) There was a flint mill in London Road between at least 1896 and 1908. (fn. 305) The early grinding apparatus installed at the works of Spode, Wolfe, and Minton, has been mentioned above.

OTHER INDUSTRIES. In the 1830's bricks and tiles were made at Trent Vale on the high ground south of Rookery Lane where there had been a kiln in Roman times and where the works of the Trent Vale Brick and Tile Company is now situated. They were also made at a works near the Black Lion Inn, at Spring Fields, where there is still a works, at Hartshill, and at Brick Kiln Lane. (fn. 306) Minton's works also was producing tiles by this time, and in 1845 the tile department became a separate business as Minton, Hollins and Company (now Minton, Hollins Ltd.), with a works in Church Street by 1850 and in Shelton Old Road from 1870. (fn. 307) The Campbell Brick and Tile Company transferred its production from Fenton to London Road in 1876. (fn. 308) There were some fourteen brick and tile works in Stoke in the early 1890's (fn. 309) but only four larger works in 1959. (fn. 310)

There was quarrying at Penkhull by the later 17th century, and c. 1671 the stone for the repair of Stoke Bridge came from there. (fn. 311) In the early 1840's a quarry to the north of Newcastle Lane supplied the stone for the new church at Hartshill. (fn. 312) The names Quarry Road and Quarry Avenue in the area between Princes Road and Hartshill Road suggest that there was once quarrying in that part of Penkhull also.

SOCIAL LIFE. In the early 1830's there was a Socratic School at Stoke under the presidency of the curate, Benjamin Vale. Its objects were 'to encourage virtue and discourage vice' by means of lectures, publications, discussions, and the maintenance of a library and 'by pecuniary and honorary awards for correct principles, good conduct, and long service'. (fn. 313) The Stoke Athenaeum and Literary and Philosophical Institution was established in 1846 'to diffuse amongst its members knowledge in general' with emphasis on anything relating to local manufactures; it possessed a library, newsroom, and museum, and was housed in the new town hall in Glebe Street. (fn. 314) The free library and museum in London Road was built in 1877–8 on land given by Colin Minton Campbell. (fn. 315) The nucleus of the new library was formed by the collection belonging to Stoke Athenaeum which was transferred there from the town hall. (fn. 316) A branch library was opened at Harpfield in 1894 to serve the Hartshill and Basford area. (fn. 317)

A school of design was opened at the town hall in Glebe Street in 1847. (fn. 318) The accommodation, however, was inadequate, and in 1859 a school of art was opened instead in the Minton Memorial Institute in London Road, the building of which was begun in 1858 and which included also a school of science. (fn. 319) After the amalgamation of the art schools of the various towns following on Federation, the Stoke school was used for evening classes in modelling and sculpture, and a few years after the Second World War it became a school of printing. (fn. 320)

In the early 19th century Stoke Wakes were still held on the first Sunday of August, (fn. 321) the church being dedicated to St. Peter ad Vincula (1 August). By the middle of the century, however, the whole week following this Sunday was 'a popular holiday for pleasure and amusement throughout the whole parish'. (fn. 322) In 1850 there was horse-racing on the Monday and Tuesday on a course 'formed for the occasion in Boothen Meadows', a site now occupied by the Michelin tyre factory. (fn. 323) Racing continued during the next decade but evidently ceased after 1860, probably because of the bad state of trade in 1861 which reduced the scale of the wakes generally that year. (fn. 324) A Stoke Wakes fair is still (1960) held at Hanley during the week following the first Sunday in August. (fn. 325)

Stoke City Football Club dates from 1863, the second oldest in the country, and has its ground, Victoria Ground, in Boothen Old Road. It has produced 31 internationals, including Stanley Matthews, the son of a Hanley barber. (fn. 326) In 1888 Harry Lockett of Brick Kiln Lane, secretary of the club, became the first secretary of the Football League. (fn. 327)

There was a music hall, The Eagle, in Church Street between at least 1880 and 1892. (fn. 328) The Gordon Theatre in Wolfe Street (now Kingsway) seating 2,000, was opened in 1900 on the site of the former Crown Theatre. (fn. 329) Known as the Hippodrome Theatre of Varieties by 1908, (fn. 330) it had been converted into the present Gaumont Cinema by 1924. (fn. 331)

A choral festival was held at Stoke in 1833 and raised nearly £900 for the North Staffordshire Infirmary. (fn. 332) The Stoke Philharmonic Society had been founded by Dr. Charles Swinnerton Heap by 1877. (fn. 333)

An association for the discovery and prosecution of horse-stealers was formed in 1694 for the parish of Stoke with sixteen members. (fn. 334) By 1811 Penkhull had an association for the prosecution of felons. (fn. 335)