Hanley: Local government, economic history and social life

Local Government And Public Services. (fn. 1)

In matters of parish government the townships of Hanley and Shelton lay within the ancient parish of Stoke-upon-Trent and together formed the Shelton quarter of that parish. (fn. 2) Manorially Hanley and Shelton formed part of Newcastle manor. (fn. 3)

The first move towards a form of government better suited to the needs of the growing population was the establishment of a market, apparently in 1776; a body of trustees was set up in 1791 and given statutory authority by Act of Parliament in 1813, (fn. 4) the first Act concerned with local government in the Potteries. Of wider importance was the establishment of a body of Improvement Commissioners with policing and lighting powers in 1825, when a similar body was set up for Burslem also. Those inhabitants who satisfied a certain property qualification were, as at Burslem, automatically commissioners, and membership of the board was also extended to the officiating minister or ministers, representatives of the county justices, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and the Steward of Newcastle manor. The commissioners were empowered to levy a watching and lighting rate of 6d. in the £ on property worth between £4 and £6 a year, 9d. on property worth up to £8, and 1s. on property of higher value; property under £4, the North Staffordshire Infirmary, the market, and the free schools were exempt, and a graduated rebate was allowed for those inhabitants who were inadequately served by the public lamps. The whole of Hanley was covered by the Act, but certain parts of Shelton, namely Cobridge, Etruria, much of Josiah Wedgwood's land, and the Stoke glebe lands in the area later occupied by Stoke station, were exempted; these areas were to be included only if the commissioners and 'the major part in annual value' there agreed. The commissioners were empowered to appoint a chief bailiff, constables, and watchmen. (fn. 5) In 1828 the property qualification was modified and more elaborate provision made for the punishing of certain specified nuisances and obstructions, including the careless driving of carriages. Meetings of the inhabitants and of the commissioners were presided over by the chief bailiff. (fn. 6)

From this organization Hanley and Shelton in 1857 moved directly to borough status. The whole area, except the Stoke glebe lands, was then incorporated as the Borough of Hanley. The borough was divided into three wards, North, South, and East, with 9 councillors each for the North and East wards and 6 for the South, and 2 aldermen for each ward. (fn. 7) In 1859, under the Local Government Act of the previous year, the mayor and corporation became the Hanley Local Board of Health, (fn. 8) to which the management of the market was transferred from the trustees in 1862. (fn. 9) In 1889 Hanley became a county borough. (fn. 10) The three wards were reorganized as eight in 1895—Etruria, Hope, Providence, Northwood, Wellington, Eastwood, Park, and Cauldon—with three councillors and an alderman each. (fn. 11) By at least 1886 the following committees had been set up: Watch; Markets; Sanitary; General Purposes; Town Hall; Works; Finance; Burial Board; Free Library. (fn. 12) There were 25 committees by the last year of the borough's existence, including an education committee which met for the first time in 1903. (fn. 13) The rateable value of the borough was £236,085 in 1900–1 and £247, 652 in 1909–10. (fn. 14) Hanley Borough formed 7 of the 26 wards in the new county borough of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910 with a representation of 21 councillors and 7 aldermen. (fn. 15)

The first town hall, as distinct from the market halls, was opened in 1845 in Fountain Square on the site of the old butter market. (fn. 16) It was replaced in the mid-1880's when the Queen's Hotel in Albion Street, opened in 1869, was adapted and became the town hall; (fn. 17) this new hall still houses certain municipal offices. The town hall of 1845 was taken over by Lloyds Bank in 1886 and rebuilt in 1936. (fn. 18) The Victoria Hall was added at the rear of the new town hall in 1887–8. (fn. 19) A council chamber designed by R. Scrivener and Sons and Joseph Lobley, the borough surveyor, was used for the first time in March 1910, and the mayor then stated that it had been built in the hope that it would be used as the council chamber of the new county borough of Stoke, a hope which was not fulfilled. (fn. 20)

The mayoral chain was presented by Herbert Keeling of Shelton Hall in 1887 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. (fn. 21) Herbert Coates, mayor 1901–2, presented the mayoral robes and hat which he had worn at the coronation of Edward VII for use by his successors. (fn. 22)

By 1335 Hanley and Shelton were each represented at the Newcastle manor court leet by two frankpledges, (fn. 23) and by this period Hanley formed a constablewick with Fenton Vivian and Longton (fn. 24) while Shelton lay within Penkhull constablewick. (fn. 25) By 1558 Hanley was represented at the court leet by one frankpledge and Shelton by two. (fn. 26)

The powers of the commissioners set up in 1825 were largely concerned with improved policing of the area and included the appointment of a chief bailiff, a head constable, assistant constables, and watchmen. (fn. 27) The old manorial system, however, was still sufficiently alive for the head constable and two assistants to be sworn at the October meeting of the Newcastle manor court in 1829. (fn. 28) There was a lockup, the 'stonnus', adjoining the market hall of 1819 in Fountain Square, and the stocks stood outside. (fn. 29) By 1834 the police force consisted of a head constable, three acting constables, and six watchmen; the police office was in Trinity Street, and the stocks had by then been moved there. (fn. 30) After the Chartist riots of 1842 the local force was replaced by a body of county police, comprising a superintendent, an inspector, and 20 men by 1851, and when the new town hall in Fountain Square was opened in 1845 the police station was moved there. (fn. 31) A borough force was established in 1870, while the members of the fire brigade were required to act as special constables when necessary. (fn. 32) The station was moved in 1884 to the new town hall in Albion Street (fn. 33) where it has remained.

A stipendiary magistrate was appointed for the Potteries area in 1839 and held weekly sessions at Hanley or Shelton which together formed one of the six rating districts established to support the new system. (fn. 34) The Hanley County Court District established in 1847 originally covered the whole of the Potteries with the court meeting at Hanley Town Hall. (fn. 35) A commission of the peace was granted in 1859, and in 1880 a court of Quarter Sessions was set up. (fn. 36)

PUBLIC HEALTH. In the mid-19th century the state of public health in Hanley and Shelton was considered to be better than that in other parts of the Potteries because of the lofty situation of much of the area. (fn. 37) Even so conditions were bad enough. Little advantage was taken of the possibilities of the situation for drainage purposes. There was only one sewer worth the name, that running from the town hall in Fountain Square down to the Fowlea Brook, and in 1849 one doctor described the area as 'surrounded by a moat filled with decomposing filth'. Privies were few and filthy and there was little street cleaning. The burial ground attached to St. John's Church had been overcrowded for years (the nearby Tabernacle ground also was full), and in addition it was 'a receptacle for all manner of nuisances' by day and a resort of prostitutes and thieves by night. Badly ventilated houses and unhealthy courts made matters worse. Thus the Chapel Fields area was fever-ridden and there was 'not an old inhabitant in the neighbourhood'. Far Green, Chell Street, and the area around Bryan Street suffered from open ditches behind the houses. The Marsh Street area was disease-ridden. The 'Royal' group of streets, socalled from their high-sounding names, between Broad Street and Cannon Street, were noted for poverty, filth, and crime. The streets north of St. Mark's were also very unhealthy. Etruria suffered from a low-lying situation, a ditch at the back of the houses on one side of the main street, and lack of drainage, while in Mill Street (now Etruria Road) the side-walks and channels were in a very poor state and there were open middens in the courts draining into the street passage. A further nuisance in the Mill Street area was caused by the calcining of ironstone in open heaps near the road, while the practice of firing chimneys in the Hanley district generally was noted as another nuisance.

Although the Shelton highway board built some new sewers early in the 1850's, (fn. 38) it was some years before the problem of sewage disposal was tackled in a thoroughgoing manner. In the meantime the use of the Fowlea Brook for this purpose by Hanley Borough, as also by Burslem and Tunstall, brought repeated complaints from Stoke, including the threat of legal proceedings in 1867. (fn. 39) A meeting of representatives from the Pottery towns and Newcastle organized by the Mayor of Hanley in 1870 to discuss possible solutions to the sewage problem failed to achieve anything. (fn. 40) In the late 1870's Hanley constructed a sewage-disposal works in Leek Road on the site of Trent Hay farm, the farmhouse being converted into two workmen's dwellings. Pollution of the Trent and the Fowlea Brook remained a problem, however, but extensions to the works were completed in 1907. (fn. 41) The replacement of privies by water-closets was in progress by 1887 when there were 374 of the latter in use, but in 1900 there were still 1,096 privies and 2,695 Rochdale pans in the borough. The rate of replacement, however, increased considerably during the next few years. (fn. 42)

Burials at Holy Trinity, Northwood, at St. John's, Hanley, at St. Matthew's, Etruria, and at Hope, Bethesda, Brunswick, and Tabernacle chapels were restricted from 1856, and at St. Mark's, Shelton, from 1857; in 1866 further restrictions were imposed on all of these and also on Providence Chapel. (fn. 43) The borough council, in whom burial powers were vested in 1858, (fn. 44) opened a cemetery on 20 acres of the Shelton Hall estate on the west side of Stoke Road in 1860. (fn. 45) A further 7 acres was added in 1876, and early in the 20th century the area was increased to 30 acres. (fn. 46)

In 1849 the Eastwood Mill Company opened the Eastwood Baths, consisting of swimming and private baths and still in operation in 1851; there were also medical baths in Slack's Lane in 1851, run by a 'medical galvanizer'. (fn. 47) A public swimming bath, with private baths attached, was built in 1853–4 near Macaroni Bridge on the Trent and Mersey Canal about a quarter of a mile north of Etruria, water being supplied from the Fowlea Brook; the bath was still open in 1858. (fn. 48) The present public baths in Lichfield Street were built in 1873. (fn. 49)

A 'house of recovery' for the poor, consisting of a dispensary and a reception ward and supported by voluntary contributions, was built in 1803–4 at Etruria Vale north of the Bedford Street canal bridge; of brick and three stories high, it was designed by David Bellhouse of Manchester. (fn. 50) However, the site, of less than 2 acres, was not sufficient for the extensions which soon became necessary, and a new two-story building, known as the North Staffordshire Infirmary and designed by Joseph Potter of Lichfield, was erected in 1816–19 on 6 acres of land called Wood Hills, rising ground on the east side of Etruria Vale Road opposite the site of the later Etruria Park. (fn. 51) Fever wards were added in 1828–9, largely with the proceeds of a bazaar held at Newcastle, and wards for burns in 1852; a north wing was built in 1855 with money given by Charles Keeling of The White House, Newcastle. (fn. 52) The old infirmary building meanwhile remained standing until after its purchase in 1867 by the British Gaslight Company. (fn. 53) With the development of the ironworks and coal mines near the second building and the increasing danger from subsidence the area became unsuitable for a hospital, and in 1869 the infirmary was moved to Hartshill. (fn. 54) The second building was demolished soon afterwards, and new streets of cottages were built over the site. (fn. 55)

The Church and Institute for the Deaf and Dumb in Wellesley Street, Shelton, the headquarters of the North Staffordshire Deaf and Dumb Society, was built in 1936 and extended in 1949. (fn. 56)

PUBLIC SERVICES. Before 1820 Hanley's watersupply, whether fetched in a pitcher or bought from a higgler at ½d. a bucket, came chiefly from a spring called Woodwall Well near the present Well Street; this spring with a pump added was still in use in the 1840's, but the supply was by then 'impaired by recent robberies committed on its hidden streams'. (fn. 57) There was also a piped spring at the gasworks in Shelton where water was available free until c. 1875 when the spring ceased to flow. (fn. 58) In 1820 John Smith started his waterworks on a site next to the later Ivy House Paper Mill, pumping water from a disused colliery to a reservoir on the hill top above the town and supplying water not only to Hanley and Shelton but also to Burslem. (fn. 59) The supply, however, was not only of poor quality but also inadequate. In 1844 only 1,200 of the 4,700 houses in Hanley had water, which was anyhow available only three days a week. (fn. 60) Other springs in the Hanley area included one off Hillchurch Street, another north of the market place, Bryans Well excavated c. 1835 in the Bryan Street area, a spring below Etruria Woods, Washerwall Well, and a spring on Botteslow Farm where children were still bathed in the 1860's, because of the alleged curative properties of the water. (fn. 61) The Staffordshire Potteries Waterworks Company, formed in 1847, began to supply Hanley in 1849, and Smith was then bought out. (fn. 62) The company's first office was in Lamb Street, Hanley; this was replaced in 1858 by an office in Albion Street which was extended to its present size in 1889 by the acquisition of the bank building next door. (fn. 63)

The first gasworks in the district was built in 1825 between Lower Bedford Street and the Trent and Mersey Canal by the British Gaslight Company, a London concern established in 1824. (fn. 64) The works at first supplied gas to Hanley, Stoke, Burslem, Wolstanton (including Tunstall), and Norton-inthe-Moors, but the high prices charged led to the establishment of rival companies in the Potteries including one in Hanley, the Hanley Gas Consumers Company, formed in 1864. This, however, was wound up in the following year since the British Gaslight Company reduced its charges when threatened with competition from the new company. The campaign between these two companies found the town clerk, who was also legal adviser to the British Gaslight Company, and the borough surveyor on opposite sides. During an acrimonious council meeting in 1865 the clerk was accused of partiality by Clement Wedgwood who carried a motion in favour of the new Hanley company. In the same year it was stated that some 4,000 of Hanley's 7,200 houses had no gas, and that, while the average town had one street lamp for every 60 inhabitants, Hanley had only one for every 107. (fn. 65) In 1866 restrictions were imposed on the British Gaslight Company in the public interest by Act of Parliament, and the maximum price of its gas was fixed at 3s. 6d. per 1,000 cubic feet; (fn. 66) in 1863, at the beginning of the campaign, the company had reduced its domestic charge from 4s. 6d. to 4s. 3d. (fn. 67) An Act of 1880 allowing the company to expand the works at Shelton imposed further restrictions on its activities, (fn. 68) while in 1895 Hanley Borough was empowered to appoint an auditor of the company's accounts and to inspect the quality of the gas supplied. (fn. 69) When the infirmary building, on the opposite side of Lower Bedford Street from the company's works, became vacant in 1867, the company bought it with the surrounding land and demolished it; new apparatus was erected there along with a new building, Gas House, still (1959) standing though unoccupied, and this was used as offices and the manager's house. (fn. 70) By 1900 the area had become affected by mining subsidence, and in that year the company bought land west of the Trent and Mersey Canal, opening the first part of the present works there in 1904. (fn. 71) The undertaking, which Hanley Borough had unsuccessfully tried to buy in 1877, (fn. 72) was sold to the Stoke-onTrent Corporation in 1922 and officially inaugurated as the central works for the city by Stanley Baldwin in 1928. (fn. 73) The works has grown to be one of the largest in the country, covering an area of over 37 acres from Etruria Station to the Bedford Street canal bridge. (fn. 74) The two waterless gas-holders, one built before the Second World War and the other in 1946–9, (fn. 75) are a prominent feature of the landscape in this part of the city.

Hanley Borough opened its electricity works, the first in the Potteries, in the specially built Bethesda Road, north of Hanley Park, in 1894. (fn. 76) The undertaking passed in 1910 to the new county borough of Stoke. (fn. 77)

Hanley had its own fire brigade by 1853. (fn. 78) With the establishment of the borough police force in 1870 the members of the brigade had to act as special constables when required, and this probably explains why by 1907 the police themselves formed the fire brigade. (fn. 79) A private brigade belonging to the Wedgwood factory at Etruria and consisting of a captain and 10 men was also available to the public; its manual engine, installed in 1783, was used in 1915 to fight a fire at the works until the arrival of the brigades from Hanley and Stoke. (fn. 80)

By 1817 Hanley vestry was appointing two highway surveyors to maintain its roads and Shelton too had its own surveyors. (fn. 81) In 1823, however, a salaried standing surveyor for both Hanley and Shelton was appointed, in addition to the usual surveyors, by a joint meeting of the two townships; a committee of three was also appointed for each township to assist the surveyors. (fn. 82) In 1824 there was a return, at any rate in Hanley, to the former system of two elected surveyors only. (fn. 83) In 1826 there was again a salaried surveyor for the two townships, and in 1827 Hanley at least had its own salaried surveyor. (fn. 84) By 1829 the old system had once more been restored in Hanley, (fn. 85) but from 1832 a salaried overseer was again appointed there each year. (fn. 86) In 1837, under the Highways Act of 1835, the inhabitants of Hanley set up a board of repairs of eleven elected members. (fn. 87) which appointed a salaried surveyor (called assistant surveyor from 1839). (fn. 88) A survey of the roads of Hanley, carried out immediately, revealed them as in a generally bad state. (fn. 89) A salaried rate collector, who also acted as clerk, was appointed in 1840. (fn. 90) Shelton also had its own board of repairs by 1839, (fn. 91) and in the middle of the century its 20 members were said to be mainly working men. (fn. 92) It was stated in 1849 that in most of the streets in Hanley and Shelton the crown of the road was macadamized with Macclesfield stone while the pavements were of blue brick. (fn. 93) The control of the highways passed to the borough council as the Hanley Local Board under the Act of 1858. (fn. 94) In 1879 the council requested the county justices to declare Hope Street, Stafford Street, Trinity Street, Brunswick Street, Piccadilly, Clough Street, and Sun Street main roads, (fn. 95) and thus to take over responsibility for them.

Economic History

Until the early 18th century the economic history of Hanley is that of a small moorland settlement whose inhabitants were engaged predominantly in agriculture. Thereafter the rise of the pottery and coal industries, followed by the development of the iron industry in the 19th century, brought about the complete industrialization of the town which has also become the social centre of the potteries.

In the mid-13th century the tenants of Newcastle manor in Shelton held 9½ virgates of land at a rent of £1 8s. 7d. (fn. 96) In 1297 they held 10½ 'warae' of land containing 42 bovates at a rent of 9d. a bovate, by socage—presumably villein socage—tenure, and paid 5s. 2d. in common in lieu of labour services; there were also over 60 acres of assarted land leased out at the will of the lord and 5 cottagers paying a total of 1s. 8d. for their holdings. (fn. 97) At Hanley in 1297 the mesne lord and the tenants there held 70 acres at 6d. an acre. (fn. 98) The total issues of Shelton were £4 14s. 5d. and of Hanley £2 8s. 8d. (fn. 99) The assized rents of both in 1386–7 were £7 11s. 1½d. (fn. 100) and in 1422–3 £6 15s. 10½d. (fn. 101) By 1615 the principal form of tenure in Hanley and Shelton was copyhold, (fn. 102) but in the 18th century with the development of the pottery industry many long leases of waste were made by the lords of Hanley manor, particularly around Lower Green (the present Market Square) and the freehold of most of these plots was eventually bought by the lessees. (fn. 103) The mixture of the two forms of tenure was causing considerable confusion by the mid-19th century. (fn. 104)

Inclosure from the waste was in progress in Shelton by the mid-13th century (fn. 105) and in Hanley also by 1297 when the lord of Hanley owed 6s. 8d. to the lord of Newcastle manor for 31 acres so inclosed. (fn. 106) In the early 17th century the tenants of Hanley and Shelton had common rights in Snape Marsh in Shelton and part of Hanley Green. (fn. 107) The open fields in Shelton township at this time included Rye Field (apparently shared with Penkhull) and Old Field and probably Woodcroft and Great Cotton also. (fn. 108)

Shelton pinfold stood to the east of Cleveland Passage c. 1880 and may be identifiable with the pinfold owned by the corporation in 1907. (fn. 109)

MARKETS AND FAIRS. A market-house was built by subscription apparently in 1776 on that part of Lower Green where the Angel Hotel now stands. (fn. 110) About 1790 the market day was stated to be Saturday and in 1795 Monday; (fn. 111) early in the 19th century the market was held every Wednesday and Saturday. (fn. 112) At the time of the establishment of the market the sale of corn was forbidden there as in the other markets of the Potteries in order to protect Newcastle's corn market, and this prohibition continued until at least the mid-19th century. (fn. 113) The market was given parliamentary sanction in 1813 by an Act which also authorized the trustees to provide more suitable premises, to improve the marketplace, and to use profits for the benefit of the inhabitants of Hanley and Shelton. (fn. 114) The markethouse was subsequently taken down as it was proving an obstruction in the street, and in 1819 a covered shed was built on a site enclosed for the purpose and known as Hadley's Pool, until then a stagnant pool and now Fountain Square; the poultry and butter section of the market was held under this cover, while the stalls of the open-air market held in Market Square were stored there. (fn. 115) The market-tolls which had produced only some 20 guineas in 1812 were let for £1, 512 in 1840; the 20-guinea salary of the organist at St. John's, Hanley, was a charge on the tolls by 1812 and still remained so in 1861. (fn. 116) In 1831 the trustees built the Shambles in Tontine Street, a Classical building then used mainly as the meat market, and by 1834 a cattle market was being held on the second Tuesday of the month. (fn. 117) By 1840 Market Square, where the vegetable market was still held, had been paved and the streets leading to it widened as well as paved. (fn. 118) The town hall having been completed in 1845 on the site of the 1819 market hall in Fountain Square, (fn. 119) a covered hall in Swan Passage was opened for the fish and potato market in 1848. In the following year another larger hall for the vegetable market was opened to the east on the site of the Swan Inn which the market trustees had bought some years before. (fn. 120) In 1862 the powers of the trustees were vested in the corporation as the Hanley Local Board which bought the market premises from the lord of the manor in 1870. (fn. 121) The cattle market was held every other Tuesday by 1851, alternating with that at Stone. (fn. 122) A hide and skin market was begun in 1852 or 1853 in a shed erected to the north of the potato market. (fn. 123) By 1858 the cattle market, held in the market-place, was proving an inconvenience there, but it was not until 1869 that the corporation transferred it, evidently with the hide and skin market, to a large site off Regent Road. (fn. 124) The cattle market was discontinued in the mid-1920's, (fn. 125) but a market is still held off Regent Road as part of the Hanley and Stoke Hide Market. (fn. 126) The hall to the west of Swan Passage was still used as the fish market in 1924, (fn. 127) but that market was moved soon afterwards to the Tontine Street hall, (fn. 128) where it is still (1960) held on Tuesdays. By the mid-1950's a Friday general market had been started, so that the markets, held in the large hall of 1849, now take place on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. (fn. 129) Market Square was still the site of an open-air wholesale market in 1938, but a proposal was then made to remove it, in order to ease traffic congestion. (fn. 130) The space is now a car park, but part of it is still used as a plant market.

Fairs were held on 16 February, 6 April, and 25 May between at least 1834 (fn. 131) and 1850. (fn. 132)

MILLS. There was a mill at Shelton by the mid13th century held of the manor of Newcastle by the men of Shelton at a fee-farm rent of 13s. 4d. (fn. 133) This belies the tradition that it was enfranchised only after the accession of Henry VII who is alleged to have made the tenure freehold as a reward to the miller for supplying Henry's troops before the Battle of Bosworth. (fn. 134) In 1568 half the mill was leased by the Duchy to Richard Tunstall for 40 years at a rent of 6s., while in 1597 a quarter share was surrendered by John Amys to William Bolton for 40 years at a rent of 5s. (fn. 135) In 1615, however, 'the tenants of Shelton Mill' were said to be holding by the old fee-farm rent of 13s. 4d., (fn. 136) and by 1633 the mill had been leased by the Duchy to William Hudson at the rent of 13s. 4d. (fn. 137) Soon afterwards it passed to John Bell who compounded for it as a delinquent in 1643. (fn. 138) In 1679 Balthazar Bell of the Ridge House was stated to be holding a quarter of the mill. (fn. 139) In 1708 the mill was settled on John Astbury, John Walton, John Staner, and their wives. (fn. 140) Known as Bell's Mill by the mid-18th century it was still in existence on the south side of Mill Street (now Etruria Road) c. 1837. (fn. 141) Lord Granville's ironworks were begun on the opposite side of the road in 1839, and the mill estate was eventually bought by Lord Granville, the pool being filled in at the beginning of the 20th century. (fn. 142)

A windmill on the high ground beyond the east end of the present Windmill Street was built c. 1795. (fn. 143) Still in use c. 1837, (fn. 144) it had been converted by 1850 into William Dodd's Hallfield Observatory. (fn. 145) Dodd had evidently left by 1854, (fn. 146) although the observatory still stood in 1857. (fn. 147)

A corn mill known as the Borough Mills in Marsh Street below Holy Trinity Church was in use between at least the 1840's and the end of the century. (fn. 148) The Ivy House Mill on the Bucknall side of the Trent, formerly a flint mill, was used as a corn mill by the 1870's. (fn. 149) The Ridgway Flour Mills on the Trent and Mersey Canal off Shelton New Road were in operation from 1879 until at least 1924. (fn. 150) In 1958 there were mills at Birches Head (Dicksons) and Shelton (Leese and Son, Pyenest Street, and Staffordshire Farmers). (fn. 151)

POTTERY INDUSTRY. Pottery-making did not become an important industry in Hanley until the later 18th century, helped then by the opening of the Trent and Mersey Canal and its Caldon branch and by the turnpiking of the roads. The earliest known kiln there, however, was that worked by a Richard Broke c. 1540. (fn. 152) Slipware potters of the 17th century, possibly including Thomas Toft (d. 1689), seem to have worked at Hanley, (fn. 153) and butter pots were being made there by the 1680's. (fn. 154) By that time Shelton clay was used not only in the making of clay pipes at Newcastle (fn. 155) but also by Thomas Miles in the production of a brown and white stoneware at Miles Bank, (fn. 156) the junction of the present Stafford and Trinity Streets. There are said to have been seven potters at Hanley in the early 18th century, producing cloudy and mottled ware, black and mottled ware, 'small ware', 'a sort of dishes', milk pans, and butter, lamprey, and venison pots. (fn. 157) Thomas Astbury was apparently making pottery at Shelton c. 1690, (fn. 158) while he or a John Astbury is alleged to have introduced Devonshire clay and calcined flint into Staffordshire and to have built the flint mill near the Ivy House which was in use by 1738. (fn. 159) John Astbury (d. 1743) had a works in Shelton (fn. 160) which is said to have been on the site of the present Ashworth Brothers' pottery on the east side of Broad Street (see below). Joshua Twyford (1640–1729) was also working at Shelton by 1717, apparently in partnership with John Astbury. (fn. 161) John Middleton (d. 1744) was making pottery at Shelton by 1719 on a site lying south of a Joshua Astbury's house, while his son John, who was disowned by his father after a quarrel, had a secret share in the Bell Works in Albion Street (fn. 162) (see below). The New Hall Works, originating in Tunstall in 1781 and opened in Hanley the following year, was the first Staffordshire pottery to use Cornish clay in the manufacture of porcelain (see below).

By the early 19th century the number of potteries had risen to 20 in Hanley and 15 in Shelton including 1 at Boothen Brook, 1 at Etruria, and 1 at Vale Pleasant (Etruria Vale). (fn. 163) Some 40 years later there were only 24 large potworks in Hanley and Shelton, although there were several other smaller works producing in the main china toys and also some enamelling and gilding works. (fn. 164) This decline in numbers was partly the result of the concentration of the industry in fewer hands; in addition it was stated that 'several potworks of the olden time have been swept away by the besom of modern improvement'. (fn. 165) Most of the inhabitants of Hanley and Shelton then worked in the potteries and the subsidiary businesses, women and children being employed extensively. (fn. 166) Around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries several new works were built along the Caldon Canal between Hanley Park and Bucknall Road where, it was claimed, more ovens were then erected than anywhere else in the Potteries. (fn. 167) In 1959 there were 22 major potteries in the area, most of them producing earthenware only. In addition there were three makers of sanitary ware, including Twyfords of the Cliffe Vale Pottery, Shelton New Road, and the Etruria Works, Garner Street. (fn. 168) The Cliffe Vale Pottery was built by T. W. Twyford in 1887 and enlarged in 1911, 1936, and 1953; the Etruria Works, Garner Street, was opened in 1912 and extended in 1950. (fn. 169)

The oldest works in the district which can be traced over any period is said to have been that formerly in Upper Market Street (now Huntbach Street) which was held by John Glass between at least 1787 and 1834 and possibly by Joseph Glass who c. 1700 was making 'cloudy and a sort of dishes' at Hanley. (fn. 170) About 1840 the works was in the hands of Samuel Keeling, in the 1850's of Meakin Bros. (of the Eagle Works from 1859), and between at least 1862 and 1871 of Taylor Bros.; it was pulled down soon afterwards. (fn. 171)

Otherwise the works with the longest known history is Ashworth's in Broad Street. The Shelton works of John Astbury (d. 1743) (see above) is said to have passed to John Baddeley (d. 1772) and so would be identifiable with the pottery on the west side of High Street, Shelton (now Broad Street) where Baddeley made salt-glazed stone-ware and cream-ware rivalling Josiah Wedgwood's and in 1751 seems to have attempted to make porcelain. (fn. 172) He also bought the Ivy House estate, including the flint mill, in 1770. (fn. 173) His sons John and Ralph succeeded him; they increased the number of ovens from two to four and replaced the thatched roof of the works with tiles. (fn. 174) By the 1780's the works was held by Ralph alone, who was also using the Ivy House mill, but by 1801 the works and a house adjoining were unoccupied and for sale, Ralph evidently having retired to the Ivy House; the Shelton house and pottery were bought by Joseph Boon and Richard Hicks, who also secured the lease of the flint mill. (fn. 175) By 1807 the pottery was held by Hicks and Job Meigh (1784–1862), with a third partner named Johnson from 1822, and some 600 hands were being employed there by the early 1830's. The firm's products included transferprinted and enamelled ware, china, and ironstone china. (fn. 176) In 1835 the pottery passed to Ridgway (William), Morley (Francis, Ridgway's son-in-law), Wear and Company; Morley became sole owner in 1845 and in 1851 bought the moulds of C. J. Mason, inventor of Mason's Ironstone China. (fn. 177) Morley was joined in 1857 by Taylor Ashworth (1839–1910), who bought the business for his sons on Morley's retirement in 1862 and built up the manufacture of durable ware, sanitary ware, and insulators. His sons' main interest, however, was the Lancashire wool and cotton industry, and with the slump in the woollen trade in 1893 the Board Street works was sold to J. Goddard, whose descendants, trading as George L. Ashworth and Bros. Ltd., continue to produce durable ware to Mason's designs. (fn. 178) The oldest of the existing buildings, which are set back from the road on the west side of Broad Street to the rear of the Mitchell Memorial Theatre, appear to date from 1815. (fn. 179) The long front range of two low stories has a central Venetian window surmounted by a pediment, the window being finely detailed with a Tuscan order and a fluted frieze; there is a similar window at the south gable end of the range. Near the north end of the front elliptical stone archways, now filled in, probably represent the entrances to stables belonging to the former dwelling house which stood between the works and the road. (fn. 180) Behind the front range, which contains warehouse, showroom, and offices, are two lower parallel ranges with the ovens beyond them; a second two-storied wing runs at right angles across the northern end of the site. Although the buildings have been extended and altered, this probably represents the original layout of the works.

The Church Works in High Street, Hanley, some 200 yards north of St. John's Church, was built about the mid-18th century by Humphrey Palmer who produced Egyptian black (the clay for which came from the nearby Chapel Fields) and other ware in imitation of Josiah Wedgwood; so much so that he was eventually sued for infringement of Wedgwood's patent covering the manufacture of Etruscan painted vases. (fn. 181) Enoch Wood served his apprenticeship at the Church Works under Palmer. (fn. 182) The business failed in 1778 but was saved by James Neale (1740–1814), Palmer's London partner or agent; Neale took various partners from 1780, and the works at this period produced cream, blue-painted, lustre and jasper ware, Egyptian black, marbled vases, and figures, often in imitation of Wedgwood. (fn. 183) James Wilson, partner from 1786, succeeded as sole owner in the early 1790's and was himself followed in 1801 by his brother David who took his sons into partnership; John, the last of these, went bankrupt in 1817. (fn. 184) The works was held from 1818 by Jacob Phillips and John Bagster or Baxster (d. 1825), and after the winding up of the firm in 1828 the pottery and a house adjoining were bought by Joseph Mayer (1775–1860), son of Elijah Mayer (1715–1813) who had built up another potworks in Hanley High Street. (fn. 185) In 1831 Joseph leased the Church Works to his cousin William Ridgway, retaining, however, an oven and other buildings where he stored some of his best stock until his death. (fn. 186) The works remained in the Ridgway family, in partnership with Leonard Abington (1785–1867), Radical, Baptist minister, and modeller to Jacob Phillips and Joseph Mayer, until Edward John Ridgway moved to his new Bedford Road works in 1866. (fn. 187) The Church Works then passed to Powell and Bishop (Powell, Bishop, and Stonier by 1880, Bishop and Stonier between at least 1896 and 1914). (fn. 188) It was demolished c. 1948, (fn. 189) and by 1959 the site was occupied partly by the King George VI Memorial Club and an Auxiliary Fire Service office, the remainder being used as a car park. By the early 1880's Powell, Bishop and Stonier had a large flint mill on the bank of the Caldon Canal near Nelson Place and their newly erected Waterloo Works, and this remained in use until at least 1896. (fn. 190)

The earliest known occupant of the Bell Works at the junction of Albion Street and Broad Street was Warner Edwards (d. 1759), who produced lead-ore glazed ware and fine enamel decorations there; for a time John Middleton the younger, the first curate of the new church, was a partner, though in secret. (fn. 191) By the early 1790's the works was in the hands of Job and George Ridgway and remained in that family until the dissolution of W. Ridgway and Sons in 1854. (fn. 192) In 1805 George built a house (now demolished) adjoining the works at the junction of Bethesda Street and Albion Street. (fn. 193) The pottery was bought in 1856 by Joseph Clementson, who had been working the Phoenix Pottery on the opposite side of Broad Street since 1832 (see below), and was held by Clementson Bros. from 1867 until at least 1916. (fn. 194) By 1922 the premises had been taken over by the Bell Pottery Company and by G. M. Creyke and Sons, both of whom were still working there in 1940. (fn. 195) The pottery was disused by 1950 (fn. 196) and was demolished soon afterwards; the site is now occupied by the new City Museum and Art Gallery, opened in 1956, (fn. 197) and by a car park. Photographs show a long two-storied front to Broad Street with a pediment near its northern end. (fn. 198)

Josiah Wedgwood opened his works at Etruria in 1769, using the same architect as for Etruria Hall nearby, Joseph Pickford of Derby, but in fact working largely to his own designs. (fn. 199) In partnership with Thomas Bentley until the latter's death in 1780, he proceeded to improve all the types of ware which he had so far been making in Burslem, but he never produced porcelain or bone china. (fn. 200) A windmill for grinding materials had been built at Etruria by 1779 by Erasmus Darwin, (fn. 201) and between 1782 and 1784 a Boulton and Watt steam engine was installed for driving the clay, flint, and colour mills. (fn. 202) A new 10horse-power engine was ordered in 1792, (fn. 203) and in 1802 Josiah Wedgwood (II) bought a 30-horsepower engine. (fn. 204) Bone china was made by him from 1812 to 1822, and its manufacture was revived in 1878. (fn. 205) Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd. built a new works at Barlaston in 1938, completing it after the Second World War; the earthenware department was finished in 1940. (fn. 206) The company sold the Etruria works to the Shelton Iron, Steel, and Coal Company in 1943 but subsequently took a lease of the premises; in 1951 they sold the lease to the Dunlop Rubber Company and now (1960) occupy only a small part of the building as sub-tenants of Dunlop's. (fn. 207) Covering an area of about seven acres the Etruria works was laid out from the first in two distinct sections known as the Ornamental and the Useful Works; each had its separate buildings and ovens ranged round its own court or 'square'. (fn. 208) The site was bounded on the east by the canal which was here widened to form lay-bys and from which two branches were taken into the works. The long principal range of buildings fronting on the canal, originally at water level but now owing to subsidence about 12 feet below it, is of three stories. Its slightly projecting central feature has a ground-floor entrance with a semicircular three-light window above it, the whole being surmounted by a pediment and a bell cupola. The original cupola was replaced by a copy in 1923. (fn. 209) A row of cottages for employees formerly continued the line of the canal frontage to the south, (fn. 210) with a low circular tower, which is still standing, beyond them. The windmill appears behind the north end of the front range in a watercolour drawing of 1794, (fn. 211) while in 1805 the engine room was situated behind the Useful Works and the cratemakers' pool and shops lay to the south of it. (fn. 212) The china works, added early in the 19th century, was beyond the Ornamental Works at the northern end of the site. (fn. 213) Although much altered and partly derelict many of the original buildings, including the front range and several ovens, are still (1960) in existence. Almost all the early equipment has been dismantled, but Josiah Wedgwood's turning wheel, probably dating from 1769, is preserved at the City Museum and Art Gallery, Hanley.

A company consisting of Samuel Hollins, Anthony Keeling, Jacob Warburton, William Clowes, John Turner, and Richard Champion was formed in 1781 to work the patent for the manufacture of hard-paste porcelain from Cornish clay and stone, taken out by William Cookworthy of Plymouth in 1765 and transferred in 1774 to Richard Champion, then of Bristol. (fn. 214) The work was at first carried on at Keeling's pottery in Tunstall, but in 1782 after a dispute and the withdrawal of Keeling and Turner, as well as of Champion who had been offered the deputy-paymastership of the forces, the company moved to Shelton New Hall, apparently the site of a 17th-century potworks. The premises had been expanded by 1802 to include 3 messuages, 3 potworks, and over 100 acres of land, and in 1810 the company bought the hall and estate, possibly as a land speculation. (fn. 215) Although the patent expired in 1796 the firm continued to produce hard-paste porcelain until 1810 or 1812 when it changed to bone china; it also supplied Cornish clay and stone to local potters. (fn. 216) The business closed down in 1835, and the premises were occupied by William Ratcliff from 1837 to 1840 'as a common potworks' making earthenware, by William and Thomas Hackwood (earthenware and jet) from 1842 to 1856 (Thomas alone from 1849), by Cockson and Harding (earthenware) from 1856 to 1862, and by W. and J. Harding (cream, painted, Egyptian black, Rockingham, and tinted) from 1864. (fn. 217) John Aynsley, a china manufacturer of Longton, bought the works in 1872, letting the back part to Thomas Booth and Son (earthenware) and selling the front in the same year to Henry Hall, a metal mounter and already the tenant; Aynsley sold more of the land in 1876. (fn. 218) Booth's portion was burnt down and rebuilt, passing in 1880 to Ambrose Bevington and Son (earthenware), in 1892 to Plant and Gilmore, and in 1899 to the New Hall Pottery Company. During the First World War the last of these bought back all the property sold by Aynsley. (fn. 219) The hall itself was demolished in 1920. (fn. 220) Production ceased in 1956 when the New Hall Pottery Company was liquidated. (fn. 221) A flint mill was built on the Booden Brook near the works in or soon after 1806; still held by the company in 1818, it was in the hands of a Thomas Crockett some ten years later and was still in use at the end of the century. (fn. 222) The company seem also to have mined their own coal on the site of the works. (fn. 223)

Charles and Christopher Whitehead were producing salt-glazed white stone-ware at a pottery on or near the site of Hanley Old Hall in the 1780's. (fn. 224) This works was replaced by another erected in 1790 by Job Meigh (1750–1817) whose second son and grandson, both named Charles, in turn produced earthenware there. (fn. 225) It was stated in 1841 that this works ranked 'with the first class in being extensive, well-situated in the highest part of the township of Hanley, well drained and ventilated. The rooms are more spacious than most others, cleanly and good; there is, however, one great defect and that is the close approximation of the two privies for males and females, and their indecent publicity'. (fn. 226) In 1862 the younger Charles formed the Old Hall Earthenware Company—the first pottery limited liability company in North Staffordshire—and this was replaced in 1887 by the Old Hall Porcelain Works Company which ran the pottery until it was closed in 1902. (fn. 227) It was demolished in 1904. (fn. 228) A steam flint mill in Norfolk (now Meigh) Street nearby was acquired by the Old Hall Earthenware Company in 1863. (fn. 229)

The Cauldon Place Works, with a house attached, had been built by Job Ridgway by the early 19th century on the south bank of the Caldon Canal east of Stoke Road. (fn. 230) The pottery remained part of the family business, passing in 1830 to John Ridgway who produced earthenware and a fine porcelain there and became potter to Queen Victoria at the beginning of her reign. (fn. 231) The premises were described in 1841 as 'delightfully situated . . . apart from every other building. . . . The rooms are lofty, spacious, and in all respects clean and healthy; the children and people generally are orderly, regular in their work and respectful.' (fn. 232) The firm of Bates, BrownWesthead and Moore (later Brown-Westhead, Moore and Company) succeeded John Ridgway in 1859 and subsequently added a new china works on the Cauldon Place site, continuing to produce china, earthenware, and parian there until 1920. (fn. 233) The works was then run by the Cauldon Potteries Ltd. (china) and F. and R. Pratt and Company (earthenware) until the later 1930's (fn. 234) when the premises were acquired by the corporation. (fn. 235) During the Second World War there was an A.R.P. station on the site. (fn. 236) Part of the old building is now (1960) occupied by the City College of Building and the catering department of the North Staffordshire Technical College. (fn. 237) By the end of the 19th century the firm had its own mill in the vicinity for preparing clay and colour. (fn. 238)

A works in High Street, Shelton, evidently known by 1845 as the Phoenix Works, (fn. 239) was held by the Hammersley family during the first quarter of the 19th century, (fn. 240) by Elizabeth Jones in 1831–2, (fn. 241) by Joseph Clementson in partnership with Jonah Read between 1832 and 1839, and by Clementson alone thereafter. (fn. 242) In 1841 the works was described as 'second rate, with small unventilated rooms . . . well drained but badly provided with conveniences for the sexes, being close together and much exposed,' (fn. 243) but it was extended in 1845 when the present Broad Street frontage was built. (fn. 244) In 1844 Clementson had bought an adjoining potworks to the west (fn. 245) which had been worked by John and Edward Baddeley by the 1780's (fn. 246) and which was probably amalgamated with the Phoenix Works after 1844. In 1867 the Phoenix Works passed to Clementson's sons with the Bell Works opposite (fn. 247) (see above) and remained in the hands of Clementson Bros. until at least 1916. (fn. 248) The present Clementson flint and colour mills on the north had been built by 1924. (fn. 249) The site of the factory was sold in 1960. The front range was then standing, but the rest of the buildings had been demolished and the area was used as a car park. The two-storied brick facade to Broad Street, although built in 1845, is purely Georgian in character and is a well-designed example in the local tradition. A central elliptical archway has rusticated quoins and voussoirs, and above it is a three-light window, both arch and window being flanked by recessed round-headed panels. In the pediment are a gilt phoenix, modelled in relief, and the date 1845 in raised lettering. At each side of the central feature are two-storied wings, each of five bays, the sash windows of the ground floor being set in a series of arcaded panels.

The mills at the Ivy House, in Nelson Place, and near the former Phoenix Works, and those attached to the Etruria works, the Old and New Hall Potteries, and the Cauldon Place Works have all been treated above. (fn. 250) Other mills connected with the pottery industry have included Upper Botteslow Mill, on the Trent, between at least 1759 and 1912, part of which still (1960) stands at the end of Trentmill Road; Lower Botteslow Mill, a little way downstream, by 1792 and still in use in the early 1920's; (fn. 251) the Eastwood Mill, Botteslow Street, which was in operation by the beginning of the 19th century and the site of which has been occupied since 1937 by Hargreaves Mill Ltd.; (fn. 252) the Meighs' Dresden Mill on the Caldon Canal between at least 1834 and 1851; (fn. 253) a flint mill at Etruria Vale from at least 1834 and still in use; (fn. 254) the Westwood flint mill on the Caldon Canal west of Lichfield Street from 1848 and still in use; (fn. 255) and John Bourne's bone mill in Cobridge Road by 1851, replaced by the Etruscan Bone and Flint Mill on the Caldon Canal in Lower Bedford Street which was built by his relative J. Shirley in 1857 and is still run by Jesse Shirley and Sons Ltd. as a mill for grinding bone, flint, colours, and glazes. (fn. 256)

The newly built Mellor Green Laboratories in Snow Hill belong to the British Ceramic Research Association. (fn. 257)

MINING. Although the Hanley-Shelton area abounds in coal, (fn. 258) the mining industry has never been as extensive there as in the northern part of the Potteries. Its records, however, go back nearly as far. In 1297 the possessions of the lord of Newcastle manor included an 'underground coal mine' at Shelton worth 10s. a year. (fn. 259) A mine in the Great Row seam there which was being worked early in the 16th century was still in operation in 1612, (fn. 260) and a mine in the Small Row described as in Hanley and Shelton was being worked in 1561. (fn. 261) John Bell of Shelton Mill was mining at Hanley Green in 1643, (fn. 262) and in 1650 he held the lease of two mines in the Great Row and Cannel Row described as at Shelton and Hanley. (fn. 263) Coal mines at both places were listed among the possessions of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1675, (fn. 264) and a few years later Plot recorded the digging of 'peacock' coal at Hanley Green. (fn. 265) Two coal mines in Hanley and Shelton, in the tenure of Thomas Fernihough in 1713, were leased by the Duchy of Lancaster to William Burslem of Newcastle from 1717; in 1732 Lord Gower was granted the reversion of Burslem's lease, due to expire in 1743 or 1744, (fn. 266) and this evidently marks the beginning of the Leveson-Gower family's extensive industrial undertakings in Hanley and Shelton. The family's mining operations, run by the Shelton Iron, Steel, and Coal Company from 1888, were in fact the main feature of the expansion of the coal industry in the Hanley district in the 19th century, particularly in the 1850's and 1860's. (fn. 267) During the 19th century the disused shafts of earlier workings were being built over and becoming a public danger and thus added to the nuisance of mining subsidence. (fn. 268) Soon after the creation of the borough in 1857 the borough council paid some £2,000 for a plan showing the whereabouts of these shafts. In fact it was not until 50 years later that any action was taken, following the disappearance of a man in 1904 owing to a sudden subsidence in John Street. Some 20 disused shafts, mostly boarded over, were then located and covered with brick. (fn. 269) Since c. 1937 Han– ley has had only one colliery in operation, the Deep Pit, formerly only a part of Earl Granville's Shelton Colliery.

John Bell's two mines at Hanley and Shelton in the mid-17th century may well be identifiable with the two leased by the Duchy in the early 18th century to William Burslem and then to Lord Gower (see above) who himself leased 'a coal work' at Hanley Green, apparently in 1752, to Jeremiah Smith who was still the tenant in 1774. (fn. 270) These were presumably the operations which caused trouble when the foundations of the new St. John's Church were dug c. 1788, having also, it seems, been at least partly responsible for the ruinous state of the first church. (fn. 271) Lord Gower's grandson, the 4th Earl Granville, was mining at Shelton by at least 1818, and by the early 1830's his Shelton Colliery included coal and ironstone pits in the area between Mill Street and Brook Street and also south of Mill Street. (fn. 272) The number of these pits was increased to serve Lord Granville's ironworks nearby, opened in 1841 (see below), but most of them were closed c. 1889; (fn. 273) the two coal pits near Hanley goods station, however, were employing 681 below ground and 144 above in 1902 and remained in operation for a few years longer. (fn. 274) The Shelton Colliery also included the Deep Pit at Far Green, opened by 1854; it was stated in 1869 to be the deepest pit in North Staffordshire, and in the early 20th century its workings were said to extend to Stoke on the south and Foxley on the north-west. (fn. 275) Employing 485 below ground and 118 above in 1894, 588 below and 209 above in 1902, and 750 below and 290 above in 1957, (fn. 276) it has remained the only colliery in operation in Hanley since production ceased at the Racecourse Pits c. 1937. These were opened by Lord Granville c. 1870 on the former racecourse to the north of Etruria Hall and in 1894 were employing 623 below ground and 193 above; one of the pits, devoted solely to ironstone mining, was closed in 1901. (fn. 277)

The Ivy House Colliery between Leek New Road and the Caldon Canal east of Ivy House Road was being worked by 1841 and was closed c. 1889. (fn. 278) The Hallfield Colliery (coal and ironstone) on the high ground at the end of Upper Market Street (now Huntbach Street), with a tramway running down to the Caldon Canal near Ivy House Road, was in operation by 1851. (fn. 279) Only coal was being mined there in 1858 because of the low price paid locally for ironstone, (fn. 280) and the colliery seems to have closed soon afterwards. (fn. 281) The Northwood Colliery north of the junction of Bucknall Old and New Roads was in operation by the mid-1860's; employing 430 below ground and 90 above in 1902, it was closed c. 1920. (fn. 282)

The mining at Birches Head and at the New Hall Pottery is described elsewhere. (fn. 283)

IRON-WORKING. Several attempts to establish iron foundries at Hanley and Shelton in the earlier 19th century met with little or no success. (fn. 284) In 1839, however, the 4th Earl Granville began to build three furnaces between Cobridge Road and Mill Street, an area rich in ironstone as well as coal where the earl was already mining, and first blew them in 1841. (fn. 285) His son the 5th earl (d. 1891) produced 7,280 tons of pig iron there in 1848 (fn. 286) and in 1850 erected new furnaces on the bank of the Trent and Mersey Canal at Etruria west of the Wedgwood works; about two years later his new Shelton Bar Iron Company built a forge and mills in Mill Street to work the pig produced at the furnaces and in 1864 added a forge and mills at the Etruria site also. (fn. 287) It was these developments that were chiefly responsible for the rise in the population of Hanley and Shelton in the 1850's and 1860's. (fn. 288) In 1888 the company became the Shelton Iron, Steel, and Coal Company with Lord Granville as its first chairman, more new plant was then laid down, and the expansion of the works has continued during the 20th century. The company has operated since 1956 as Shelton Iron and Steel Ltd. (fn. 289)

OTHER INDUSTRIES. There were about five brick and tile works in the area in the early 1830's, (fn. 290) about eight 60 years later, (fn. 291) and about a dozen in the late 1950's. (fn. 292) The Hallfield Brick Works had been established near the site of the former Hallfield Colliery on the high ground east of the town by the mid1860's, (fn. 293) but it had evidently been reopened on its present site in Festing Street by the end of the century. (fn. 294) It was purchased in 1947 by Richards Tiles Ltd. of Tunstall and is used for the production of unglazed floor tiles. (fn. 295)

The Ivy House paper mill on the north bank of the Caldon Canal west of what is now Ivy House Road was founded by G. H. Fourdrinier in 1827, after experiments in Hertfordshire, and contained machinery for making paper by the piece instead of the sheet. Despite stiff opposition from other paper manufacturers Fourdrinier built up a business producing tissue paper for pottery engraving as well as ordinary paper. It was taken over by Thomas Brittain in 1855, and in 1890 his grandson, Thomas Arthur Brittain, and two other members of the family bought a paper mill at Cheddleton and incorporated the two businesses as Brittains Ltd. Paper-making eventually ceased at the Ivy House Mill which was rebuilt and since 1906 has been devoted to paper coating and finishing. (fn. 296)

The Eastwood silk mill also on the Calton Canal was built by James Baddeley in 1824 but failed soon afterwards. He was offering it for sale in 1829, and some ten years later it was being used by Joseph Fourdrinier as a workshop producing machines and parts for the paper-making trade generally. (fn. 297)

There were two breweries in the area by the early 1830's: in Vale Place, Hanley, and at the junction of Sun Street and Broad Street, Shelton. (fn. 298) The first survived until the early 20th century and the second until the 1930's. (fn. 299)

Social Life

The Pottery Subscription Library at Hanley was founded in 1790 by James Straphan, the first bookseller in the Potteries. (fn. 300) About 1840 the library, consisting of some 3,000 volumes, was housed in the shop of Thomas Allbut, who had succeeded Straphan as librarian and treasurer c. 1800; the membership was elective with an entrance fee of 2 guineas and an annual subscription of 1 guinea. The library was still in existence in 1860. (fn. 301) The Shelton Subscription Library was founded in 1814 and was still in existence in 1830, housed in Bethesda Schoolroom. (fn. 302) Between at least 1851 and 1876 there was a subscription newspaper room at the town hall. (fn. 303) The borough council established a free library in 1887, taking a lease of the whole building in Pall Mall belonging to the Mechanics' Institution (see below) except for the reading-room. (fn. 304) The city library is still housed there and since 1958 has also occupied the adjoining building which formerly housed the British School, Hanley, and the Russell Art Gallery. (fn. 305) A boys' library was formed as part of the free library in 1893, mainly at the instigation of the mayor, Edwin Hammersley. (fn. 306)

The Pottery Philosophical Society was established at the Red Lion Inn, Shelton, in 1820 with a largely middle-class membership; refounded in 1824, it continued to meet, in members' houses, until 1835. (fn. 307) The Mechanics' Institution was founded in 1826 for 'the promotion of useful knowledge among the working classes' at the instigation of Benjamin Vale, then curate of Stoke and later Rector of Longton, and with the support of Josiah Wedgwood and other leading local men. (fn. 308) Premises containing lecturerooms and classrooms, a library, a laboratory, and a committee room were built in Frederick Street (now Gitana Street) in 1834–5, and c. 1840 the institution had a library of nearly 1,500 books, 'excluding polemical divinity and party politics'. (fn. 309) A museum known as the North Staffordshire Museum had been added by 1851, and probably by 1846. (fn. 310) The institution moved into a new building in Pall Mall in 1861. (fn. 311) With the exception of the reading-room, which is still in use, the rest of the building in Pall Mall has been occupied by the free library since 1887, and the museum became the nucleus of the borough museum.

In 1850 about 80 working men bought the former Primitive Methodist chapel in Brunswick Street and adapted it as the People's Hall for lectures and public meetings. (fn. 312) 'A majority of the share-holders', it was stated in 1851, 'are democratic, but they disclaim all party spirit in the use of the hall and permit nothing tending to immorality or inebriety'. (fn. 313) The venture seems not to have prospered, (fn. 314) and by 1854 the building was used as a theatre (see below).

The first move towards the establishment of an art school was made by the Mechanics' Institution in 1845, but the idea was taken up in the following year by certain master potters. (fn. 315) The Potteries Schools of Design were founded in 1847 under the auspices of the London School of Design and consisted of schools held in the British School building in Pall Mall, Hanley, and in Stoke town hall; the Hanley branch became an independent school in 1860. (fn. 316) The Mechanics' Institution continued to hold its own art classes until at least 1853, to some extent in rivalry with the new schools. (fn. 317) The building in Pall Mall was enlarged in 1880 by the addition of a new story, and, under the head masterships of Samuel Cartlidge (1882–1900) and his successor George Cartlidge, the Hanley School of Art reached a high standard of achievement. (fn. 318) With the amalgamation of the art schools of the various towns after Federation, however, the Hanley school gradually lost ground to its rival at Burslem and was closed in its centenary year, 1947. (fn. 319)

The North Staffordshire Technical and Art Museum established in the Mechanics' Institution building in Pall Mall by the North Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce in 1890 was transferred in 1891 to the borough council which also took over the museum belonging to the Mechanics' Institution. The North Staffordshire Natural History Museum, established in association with the North Staffordshire Naturalists' Field Club, was opened in the same building in 1908. The present City Museum and Art Gallery in Broad Street was opened in 1956, and the upper part of the Mechanics' Institution which had housed the museum was demolished. (fn. 320)

Two temporary buildings were erected in 1906 and 1908 for mining and pottery classes respectively on land at the south end of Victoria (now College) Road given by A. S. Bolton of Oakamoor as the site of a place of higher education. The Central School of Science and Technology was opened there in 1914; an extension was added at the Station Road end of the building in 1931 and an engineering workshop in 1939. The College of Ceramics on the opposite side of College Road was opened in 1957; the next year a new engineering department involving the completion of the Station Road wing was opened and the mining department rehoused. (fn. 321) The department of building, formed in 1946 and since 1957 existing independently as the City of Stoke-onTrent College of Building, is situated at the former Cauldon Place Pottery where a new building was opened in 1960. (fn. 322) The technical college's department of catering also has premises on the Cauldon Place site.

The Hanley and Shelton Anti-slavery Society was founded in 1830 and received support from leading manufacturers of the area and local clergy. It was still meeting at the end of 1839. (fn. 323)

Being within Stoke parish Hanley took part in Stoke Wakes, held originally on the first Sunday of August and by the mid-19th century during the whole of the first full week of August. (fn. 324) The sideshows that filled the market square in Hanley and the streets around it were banned from the town-centre during the First World War; they were restored after the war to be banned once more in 1923. (fn. 325) Pat Collins in that year opened his Wakes Fair on a ground in Regent Road (fn. 326) where it is still (1960) held.

From 1824 horse-racing was held during the wakes over a mile-long course on a 50-acre field to the east of Etruria Hall; by 1840 a grandstand had been built on the east side of the course. (fn. 327) The last meeting was held in 1841, (fn. 328) and from 1850 races were held at Boothen near Stoke; (fn. 329) the Racecourse Pits were opened on the Etruria course c. 1870 by Earl Granville. (fn. 330) Port Vale Football Club moved from Cobridge in 1911 to a ground off Bryan Street below St. John's Church; this remained the club's home until the opening of its present ground in Hamil Road, Burslem, in 1950. (fn. 331) The Hanley ground and grandstand are now derelict. Hanley Swifts Football Club had a ground at Northwood c. 1910. (fn. 332) The present Sun Street greyhound track had been opened by 1940. (fn. 333) Cockfighting was held at the Cat Inn, Northwood, towards the end of the 18th century. (fn. 334)

An attempt to establish a theatre in Hanley in 1824 was unsuccessful, and the only dramatic entertainment available before the middle of the 19th century was that provided by itinerants on ground at the rear of the Sea Lion Inn in High Street (now Town Road). (fn. 335) In the early 1850's, however, a theatre known as the Potteries Royal Theatre was established in the former People's Hall, Brunswick Street. (fn. 336) 'Dingy and inconvenient', it was replaced by the Theatre Royal which was opened on the same site in 1871 with its entrance in Pall Mall (fn. 337) and was enlarged in 1888 and partially reconstructed in 1894. (fn. 338) It was burnt down in 1949 and rebuilt in 1950–1. (fn. 339) A wooden hall in Glass Street (formerly Church Street), originally used by circuses, was the Victoria Music Hall by 1866 and in 1868 became the People's Music Hall; this venture failed and by 1869 the building was again used by circuses. As the Theatre Royal, Grand Opera House and Temple of Varieties, it presented a mixture of dramatic and music hall performances while the Theatre Royal was being built, but in 1873 it once more became a music hall. In 1878 it became the Imperial Circus and was also used as a hall by the newly formed Hanley and Shelton Philharmonic Society (see below) and other large gatherings. It was later rebuilt as the Imperial Mission Hall and in 1908 became a skating-rink. (fn. 340) A wooden building in Tontine Street on the site of the present post office was occupied by Batty's Circus c. 1880. (fn. 341) The Alexandra Music Hall opened in New Street (now Goodson Street) by 1880 (fn. 342) had been renamed the 'Gaiety' by 1892 (fn. 343) and the 'Empire' by 1900. (fn. 344) It was subsequently enlarged and in 1901 was reopened as the King's Palace Theatre. (fn. 345) This had been closed by 1924. (fn. 346) The Grand Theatre of Varieties at the junction of Trinity Street and Upper Foundry Street was opened in 1898 and closed c. 1932. (fn. 347) The Lyric Theatre in Marsh Street occurs in 1912 and 1916. (fn. 348) The amateur repertory theatre which occupies the former mission church of St. Jude in Beresford Street, Shelton, was opened in the 1930's. (fn. 349) The Mitchell Memorial Youth Centre in Broad Street containing a theatre and workshops was built in 1955–7 in memory of R. J. Mitchell, the designer of the Spitfire aircraft, who was born at Butts Lane, Kidsgrove, in 1895. (fn. 350)

There was a choral society at Shelton by 1824, (fn. 351) and the Hanley district was represented at the choral festival held at Stoke in 1833. (fn. 352) A music festival drawing on local talent was held in 1854 in St. Mark's Church, Shelton, and in Hanley town hall. (fn. 353) In 1878 the Hanley and Shelton Philharmonic Society was founded (fn. 354), and about the same time James Garner, an employee at the Meakins' Eastwood Vale Pottery and organist and choirmaster at the Eastwood Vale Baptist church, formed the Eastwood Vale Prize Choir; in 1882 it was renamed the Hanley Glee and Madrigal Society and soon became the most notable choir in the district. (fn. 355) The Etruscan Choral Society originated as part of a new social club at Etruria during the General Strike of 1926. (fn. 356) At first called the Etruscan Male Voice Choir, it was renamed when a mixed choir was added in 1931, and by 1935 it was achieving national fame. (fn. 357) Depleted after the war broke out in 1939 and disbanded in 1941 when Salem Chapel where it rehearsed was bombed, the choir was reformed in 1944, and in 1945 it opened new premises in Humbert Street in a hall formerly a school and a chapel and then reconstructed as the Etruria Philharmonic Hall. (fn. 358)

Until 1888 Hanley's concerts and recitals were held variously in the old town hall, St. Mark's Church, the covered market (where Jenny Lind sang), and the music hall in Glass Street. (fn. 359) In 1887–8 the Victoria Hall was built as an extension of the new town hall to the designs of the borough surveyor, Joseph Lobley; it is acoustically very fine, and all major concerts were thenceforward held there. Hanley's position as the musical centre of the Potteries was thus secure. (fn. 360) A series of five music festivals was held between 1889 and 1899 in imitation of other provincial towns; the first made a profit which was given to local hospitals but the other four ran at a loss. (fn. 361) Elgar conducted the first performance of 'King Olaf' at the 1896 festival and thereafter regularly came to Hanley to conduct. (fn. 362) Delius conducted at a concert in 1908, and the North Staffordshire District Choral Society gave the first performance of his 'Sea Drift' under Thomas (later Sir Thomas) Beecham in the same year. (fn. 363) A series of celebrity concerts endowed by George Meakin was held in the Victoria Hall from 1888. Although the concerts were at first very popular, support dwindled after 1900 and they lapsed in 1908. (fn. 364)

In 1783, presumably as a protest against its lack of self-government, Hanley began the custom of appointing a mock mayor and corporation annually. The ceremony formed part of an annual venison feast, the Marquess of Stafford presenting half a buck and the qualification for membership of the corporation being the ability to drink a yard glass of ale at a draught. (fn. 365) 'So Hanley made its own charter of incorporation and municipal honours became as clay in the hands of a potter'. (fn. 366) The feast, described by the Staffordshire Advertiser in 1860 as 'a joke from beginning to end' (fn. 367) and by Arnold Bennett as 'a piece of elaborate machinery for dinner-eating', (fn. 368) is still (1960) held. (fn. 369)

The Hanley Association for the Prosecution of Felons evidently dates from 1792. (fn. 370) It still survives as a dining-club. (fn. 371)