Burslem: Local government, economic history and social life

Local Government and Public Services

Burslem, though anciently part of the parish of Stoke, was evidently an independent parish for civil purposes by the later 16th century. (fn. 1) The parish included the townships of Burslem and Sneyd, which manorially were part of Tunstall manor. (fn. 2) The lordship of Abbey Hulton, a distinct manor, (fn. 3) was part of Burslem parish for poor relief and highway maintenance by the 18th century (fn. 4) and doubtless earlier as well. Cobridge, formerly the liberty of Rushton Grange, continued to enjoy many of the extra-parochial immunities of the former Hulton Abbey until the mid-19th century. (fn. 5)

The first attempt to supplement the parochial and manorial system was the organization of the market under a body of trustees c. 1761, (fn. 6) but the first extensive change came in 1825 (fn. 7) when new market trustees were appointed and a body of commissioners was set up to provide lighting and policing in the area. All inhabitants possessing a certain property qualification were automatically commissioners, while those with a higher qualification also became trustees. The latter were empowered to pave the market-place, defined as the area within a 200-yard radius of the hall, and its approaches, and were also given powers of compulsory purchase to enable them to extend the market-place eastwards. The commissioners had power to levy two rates of 6d. in the £ for lighting and policing, and any surplus from the market tolls after the needs of the market had been met could also be applied to these purposes. Their lighting powers applied only to Burslem town itself, within carefully defined boundaries, but could be extended to Longport and Cobridge if 'the major part in value' of the property owners there wished it; the policing powers covered the townships of Burslem and Sneyd and the liberty of Rushton Grange but only the Sneyd Green portion of Abbey Hulton lordship; the commissioners could also insist on the paving of all new streets. They could appoint a chief constable and deputies each year as well as such regular officials as clerks and treasurers, and business could be transacted through committees. The Act stipulated that the rights of the lord of Tunstall manor were to be in no way prejudiced. (fn. 8)

At the first meeting of the commissioners Joseph Twigg was elected chairman and chief constable, a clerk and a treasurer were appointed, and a committee of 32 was set up to transact 'the general business of the Act'. (fn. 9) As such business increased the use of committees became more frequent: in December 1825, for instance, a committee of six to complete the contract with the British Gaslight Company; (fn. 10) in January 1827 a committee of seven to examine the accounts; (fn. 11) in June 1833 a rates committee of eight which in August of that year was ordered to sit monthly, a reflection of the difficulty that was being experienced in rate collection; (fn. 12) in June 1838 a regular finance committee. (fn. 13) Although the only specific powers which the Act gave the chief constable were those of suspending deputy constables and appointing a town crier, he in fact was from the first also chairman of the commissioners. He thus became 'an important civil officer placed in a middle position between the magistracy and the acting constabulary force'. (fn. 14) Two assistant chief constables were appointed in 1832, and there was one deputy chief constable in 1833–4 and 1834–5. (fn. 15)

Although in 1838 the commissioners were complaining that their powers were 'quite inadequate to the good government of the town' and that their expenditure was exceeding the amount they could levy under the Act of 1825, (fn. 16) the system lasted without alteration until 1850. In that year the Burslem Local Board of Health was set up with authority over the whole parish including Rushton Grange but excepting Abbey Hulton (and Sneyd Green as part of Abbey Hulton) and took over the powers of the market trustees, the commissioners, and the parochial highway surveyors. The board consisted of 15 members, 9 for Burslem, 3 for Sneyd, and 3 for Rushton Grange. (fn. 17) The board elected Elijah Hughes, the existing chief constable and a member of the board, as their chairman and the first chief bailiff. (fn. 18) A clerk was appointed at once, and Alcock's Bank which had acted as treasurer to the commissioners since 1838 was retained as treasurer until 1864 or 1865; the board's account was then transferred to the local branch of the Manchester and Liverpool District Bank whose manager became treasurer. (fn. 19) Six committees were set up: audit; by-laws; highways, lighting, and improvement; market; finance; sewers. (fn. 20) A general district rate of 2s. and a special lighting rate were imposed; (fn. 21) 15 years later the general rate was 2s. 3d. for Burslem (a 3d. increase on the previous year), 1s. 6d. for Rushton Grange, and 2s. 6d. for Sneyd, with an estimated yield of respectively £2,060 2s. 9d, £378 12s., and £572 14s. (fn. 22)

The area covered by the local board was incorporated as the borough of Burslem in 1878, with a council of 6 aldermen and 18 councillors, 6 for each of the three wards (North, South, and East). (fn. 23) At its first meeting the council elected Thomas Hulme, the last chairman of the local board, as mayor, and set up eight regular committees in place of the previous six: a watch committee consisting of the whole council; finance; town hall and fire brigade; sanitary; highways, lighting and improvement; gas; Wedgwood Institute; cemetery. (fn. 24) Burslem Borough formed 5 of the 26 wards of the new county borough in 1910 with a representation on the council of 5 aldermen and 15 councillors. (fn. 25)

The first town hall was built c. 1761. It served as a storage place for the market stalls and as a lock-up; the eastern end was occupied by the police by 1834 and the remainder was used as a newspaper room, a hall for public business, and, after 1839, a court room. (fn. 26) In 1851 the ground floor was converted into a fish market and the upper floor was extended. (fn. 27) It was replaced by a new hall built on the same site in 1854–7 and itself replaced by the present town hall in Wedgwood Street in 1911. (fn. 28)

The mayor's chain was presented in 1880 during the mayoralty of James Maddock by the widow and family of John Maddock, chief bailiff in 1852 and 1854. The mace was presented by Alderman Thomas Wood in 1892. (fn. 29)

As members of Tunstall manor, Burslem and Sneyd were each represented at the Tunstall court leet by one frankpledge from at least the early 14th century; (fn. 30) they also lay within the jurisdiction of the constable appointed by the court until at any rate the mid-18th century. (fn. 31) This system was obsolete by the early 19th century, and it was largely for police purposes that the commissioners were established in 1825. Their policing powers covered the whole of Burslem parish except for part of Abbey Hulton; the Sneyd Green portion of Hulton lay within their jurisdiction. (fn. 32)

A chief constable was appointed in September 1825; in October a head constable for Burslem, two under-constables for Burslem, a constable for Longport, and another for Cobridge were appointed. In addition three watchmen were engaged for Burslem for the winter months and one each for Longport, Brownhills, and Cobridge. (fn. 33) The appointment of two watchmen for the summer season also was introduced in 1828. (fn. 34) The watchmen were replaced by special constables from October 1832. (fn. 35) In January 1834, however, the immediate appointment of six paid watchmen was agreed, but it was also agreed that 'the respectable inhabitants of the parish be solicited to become captains or heads of the watch to attend in rotation each night'. (fn. 36) Two watchmen were appointed for three months in April, but in June a system of six paid assistant constables was instituted 'to keep a watch over the disorderly people particularly those assembled at the outskirts of the town' every Sunday for the ensuing four months. (fn. 37) These 'Sunday constables' continued to be used in addition to the watchmen for the next four summers, but in 1839 and 1840 winter watchmen only seem to have been appointed. (fn. 38)

Meanwhile the regular police force was being improved. In 1836 a head constable and under-constable were appointed for Burslem with five other constables, one each for Cobridge, Longport, Dale Hall, Brownhills, and Hot Lane. (fn. 39) In 1839 Burslem town was given three assistant constables, but this number dropped to two in 1842. (fn. 40) The head constable of Burslem was given the title of sergeant in 1840. (fn. 41) The police 'office' was at the east end of the upper story of the town hall by 1834. (fn. 42) The policing of the area was taken over, probably in 1843, (fn. 43) by a body of the new county police, considered inefficient by the commissioners in 1845. (fn. 44) The force had a station in Market Place by 1851 at the north end of the market building; it was enlarged in 1854 and again in 1874 after the accommodation had been declared 'very inadequate', (fn. 45) and was replaced by the present station in Jackson Street in 1939. (fn. 46) There was a 'stone house' in 1826, (fn. 47) and by 1834 there were lock-ups attached to the watch house on the ground floor of the town hall. (fn. 48) A lock-up was built at Longport apparently in the late 1830's. (fn. 49) The stocks, mentioned in 1680 as in need of repair, (fn. 50) stood in front of the fire engine house at the town hall by 1851 when the local board ordered their removal. (fn. 51)

A stipendiary magistrate was appointed for the Potteries area in 1839, and the part of Burslem parish within the parliamentary borough of Stoke (i.e. all the parish except Abbey Hulton) formed one of the six rating divisions established for the support of the new system; the public room on the upper floor of the town hall provided a court room for the weekly sessions. (fn. 52) Burslem was at first within the Hanley county court district, and under an order of 1858 regular sessions of the court were held at Burslem town hall. (fn. 53) In 1880 Burslem was formed into a separate county court district. (fn. 54) The borough was granted a commission of the peace in 1900. (fn. 55)

PUBLIC HEALTH. By the Act of 1825 the market trustees and the commissioners were given certain public health powers; inspectors could destroy unwholesome meat in the market; no cattle were to be slaughtered there; scavengers were to be appointed to remove dirt from the market-place and its approaches; the streets could be watered by fire engines; privies were to be emptied only between midnight and 5 a.m. (fn. 56) In 1831 a temporary local board of health was set up to meet the cholera threat, recommendations regarding cleanliness and diet were published, and a scheme of house-to-house visits was established. (fn. 57) In the following year the inhabitants, 'in consequence of the probable approach of cholera into the neighbourhood', were urged to help the constables to arrest tramps, generally regarded as carriers of disease; the inhabitants were also recommended to remove nuisances or cause the constables to do so. (fn. 58)

The first important health measures, however, came only after the establishment of the local board in 1850. An officer of health was appointed at once, with an inspector of nuisances and two scavengers soon afterwards; the regular inspection of the common lodging houses of the district was also undertaken. (fn. 59) Some watering of the streets during the summer of 1851 was organized but only in Burslem township and a small part of Cobridge; and even for this the expense was met by public subscription. (fn. 60) In 1853 a deputation of the board toured other parts of the country in order to obtain information about drainage and water-supply systems, and among its recommendations was the replacement of privies and cesspools by 'closets with pans and syphons . . . of earthen or stoneware'. (fn. 61) This was endorsed by the officer of health, (fn. 62) but a personal inspection by the board in 1857 revealed extensive 'filth and nuisance'. This state of affairs, however, was to some extent remedied during the next year by the completion of public drainage works begun in 1855, by the progress of private drainage works, and by the extensive installation of water closets. (fn. 63) Yet the need for further closets was still being urged in 1886 when, in particular, Massey Square (between Chapel Lane and Moorland Road), the Hadderidge area, and Adams Square (off Sneyd Street) were noted as having sanitary arrangements 'of the most objectionable order'. (fn. 64) The completion of the drainage system raised the problem of sewage disposal, especially in connexion with the pollution of the Fowlea Brook. (fn. 65) It was not until 1879, however, that the sewage works at Bradwell Hall Farm on the Wolstanton side of the brook south of Middleport was opened; extensions on the Burslem side of the brook were completed in 1908. (fn. 66) A refuse destructor was built in 1889 to avoid the need for refuse tips; (fn. 67) it was replaced by a new destructor in Scotia Road opened in conjunction with the electricity works there in 1905. (fn. 68)

The public baths in Moorland Road were opened by the corporation in 1894. (fn. 69)

Restrictions were placed on burials in the churchyards of St. John's and St. Paul's churches and in the ground attached to the Baptist chapel in 1856, while in 1881 both the churches were closed for burials and further restrictions were placed on the churchyards. (fn. 70) Meanwhile in 1872 a burial board had been set up consisting of all the members of the local board and it met for the first time in 1873. (fn. 71) A 28-acre site on the hillside at Nettlebank between Sneyd Hill and Leek Road was acquired for a cemetery, which was opened in 1879. (fn. 72)

The Haywood Hospital in Moorland Road was built in 1886–7 under the terms of Howard Haywood's bequest. (fn. 73) It was replaced by the present Burslem, Tunstall, and Haywood Memorial Hospital off High Lane built in 1927–30, (fn. 74) and the old building is now a county technical college. Stanfields Sanatorium on a site to the north was opened by the corporation as an isolation hospital in 1906 and from at least 1916 until 1956 was used as a sanatorium. It is now devoted to the care of chronic invalids. (fn. 75)

OTHER PUBLIC SERVICES. Until the end of the 18th century Burslem's water-supply evidently depended entirely on springs. One of these was by St. John's churchyard, but besides being very sluggish it was also liable to pollution from the graveyard. (fn. 76) Another spring at the Grange Farm was more healthy but very small. (fn. 77) About 1798 Enoch Wood built a conduit head outside the entrance to his pottery works in what is still called Fountain Place and, pumping water to it by means of an engine in the works, provided a free public supply. The conduit head was removed c. 1815, (fn. 78) but the site is still marked by a lamp-stand. From 1820 Burslem was supplied with water from John Smith's newly established water-works at Hanley, (fn. 79) and between 1832 and 1836 W. Walsh built a reservoir at the High Lane end of Sneyd hamlet, bringing water from John Bennett's land at Jackfield and running pipes down to the town nearly a mile away. Walsh, however, received inadequate backing, and after his death in 1836 the scheme lapsed. (fn. 80) By 1840 the Hill Top Pottery as well as the Fountain Place Works was raising its own water-supply, but large quantities were required by the industry and in dry weather the town was short of water. (fn. 81) In 1844 Burslem's supply was stated to come from springs, from Bycars Mill, and from the reservoir at the Hill Top Works, whence the water was piped and sold to those wanting it; for people living in the Hamil area there was a supply from the Jackfield Colliery. (fn. 82) The Potteries Water Works Company was formed in 1847 and began supplying the Burslem area in 1849. (fn. 83) Its first main reservoir had been built on the high ground above Birches Head by 1849; for years an open reservoir, it was covered over in 1924 when another was built beside it. (fn. 84)

Gas lighting was supplied in Burslem town from the end of 1826 by the British Gaslight Company from its works at Shelton under a contract made between the company and the Burslem commissioners. (fn. 85) In 1837 the commissioners transferred the contract to the newly formed Burslem and Tunstall Gas Company, which had a works in Waterloo Road and opened the present works at Longport before 1851. (fn. 86) The commissioners extended their public lighting to Longport in 1838. (fn. 87) With the creation of the local board in 1850 the extension of public lighting throughout the area subject to the board was at once undertaken, (fn. 88) and by 1853 there were 182 public lamps in Burslem township, 33 in the vill of Rushton Grange, and 16 in Sneyd. (fn. 89) The local board acquired the Burslem and Tunstall Gas Company in 1877, (fn. 90) and the undertaking remained in the hands of the new borough until 1910 when it passed to the county borough of Stoke. (fn. 91) The British Gaslight Company opened the present works at Brownhills in 1852 for the supply of gas to Tunstall, (fn. 92) and by an agreement with the Burslem and Tunstall Gas Company in 1857 or 1858 it left the supply of the Burslem area to that company in return for a monopoly in Tunstall where the Burslem company had not yet begun to exercise its statutory rights. (fn. 93)

The borough opened the present electricity works in Scotia Road in 1905. (fn. 94) The works passed to the county borough of Stoke in 1910. (fn. 95)

By 1837 the Burslem commissioners maintained three fire engines, at Burslem, Longport, and Cobridge. In that year a committee appointed to report on the reorganization of the brigades recommended that each of these places should have a captain and 10 men, with a superintendent for the whole area; the commissioners agreed to carry out these recommendations. (fn. 96) By 1851 the brigades consisted of 36 men under the control of the superintendent of police, but within two years control had been transferred to the newly created inspector of nuisances. (fn. 97) The system was reorganized in the early 1880's when a single brigade was set up for the borough with a new station in the market-place housing a steam-powered engine. (fn. 98) By 1896 the station had been transferred to Baddeley Street (fn. 99) where it remained until the opening of the present station in Hamil Road in 1956. (fn. 100)

The townships of Burslem and Sneyd were individually responsible for the upkeep of their roads. (fn. 101) Under the Highways Act of 1835 Burslem township, having a population of over 5,000, increased the number of its highway surveyors to nine in 1836, probably from two; Sneyd at this time had two surveyors. (fn. 102) The vill of Rushton Grange was exempt from all highway rates until 1850, (fn. 103) and the resulting neglect of its roads is reflected in the comment of Thomas Campbell the poet, who visited Ralph Stevenson at Cobridge Cottage in 1805 and found the roads thereabouts 'so deep that one can hardly drag a pair of heavy shoes along them'. (fn. 104) But there was evidently neglect in Burslem township also where in 1795 'the common highways, bridges, causeways, and pavements' were 'so far out of order' that they could not be repaired by statute labour only and a special rate of up to 6d. had to be authorized by Quarter Sessions. (fn. 105) The local board, on taking over the powers of the surveyors of Burslem and Sneyd and assuming responsibility for Rushton Grange in 1850, found the roads generally in a bad state and immediately set about repairing them. (fn. 106) The board's responsibility for the upkeep of the highways passed to the new borough in 1878. (fn. 107)

Relief of the Poor. Burslem relieved its poor through its own parish vestry, independently of the mother parish of Stoke. (fn. 108) There were three overseers of the poor, one each for Burslem, Sneyd, and Hulton, during most of the 18th century at least, (fn. 109) but in 1793 the vestry appointed a salaried overseer for the whole parish. (fn. 110) By 1835 there were four overseers with two paid assistant overseers. (fn. 111) With the establishment of the Wolstanton and Burslem Union in 1838 Burslem was given a representation of eight on the board of sixteen guardians. (fn. 112) In 1922 the ten civil parishes of the union joined with the five of Stoke Union to form the Stoke and Wolstanton Union. (fn. 113)

The expenditure on poor relief increased in the course of the 18th century. Thus in 1714 one levy raised £1 7s. 8d. from Hulton and 12s. 6d. from Sneyd; (fn. 114) in 1802–3 the parish rates, assessed at 10s. in the £ on houses and 20s. on land, brought in £2,125 11s. 10d., and the expenditure on the poor amounted to £1,726 14s. 5½d. in out-relief and £326 2s. 0¾d. in workhouse relief. (fn. 115) There was considerable fluctuation in expenditure in subsequent years: nearly £7,400 was spent in 1817–18, just over £2,500 in 1823–4, and just under £4,000 in 1836–7. (fn. 116) Burslem's contribution to the union in the first half of 1857 was fixed at £3,629 5s. 7d.; (fn. 117) its contribution for the second half of the financial year 1921–2, the last before the amalgamation with Stoke, was £9,520, out of a total £46,637 from the ten parishes then comprising the union. (fn. 118)

In the early 18th century the main form of relief was monthly or weekly pay. In 1707 there were 24 poor in the parish in receipt of such relief—14 in Burslem, 4 in Sneyd, and 6 in Hulton; the largest individual payment was 1s. 3d. a week. (fn. 119) Occasionally relief took the form of payment of rent. (fn. 120) In 1802–3 184 adults and 165 children under 15 were given outrelief, 413 persons occasional relief, and 39 work-house relief. (fn. 121) By 1834 there were two parish surgeons. (fn. 122)

There was a parish workhouse by 1741, (fn. 123) with a capacity of 60 in 1775. (fn. 124) A new workhouse was built at Greenhead in 1780 (fn. 125) and was enlarged in the 1830's to hold 300. (fn. 126) It had only 152 inmates in 1838, but this figure was a large increase on the average for the previous few years. (fn. 127) The union workhouse in Turnhurst Road, Chell, was built c. 1838–9. (fn. 128) The old parish workhouse was leased out as an infantry barracks by the early 1850's (fn. 129) and was sold by the guardians in 1857 for £1,000 after several unsuccessful attempts to secure more. It was bought by James Vernon who converted it into the Scotia Pottery. (fn. 130) This was demolished in 1958. (fn. 131)

Economic History

Burslem was still a village in the later 17th century, even though its agrarian character was by then modified by the extensive, though small-scale, pottery industry; the potter, with his oven and sheds adjoining his house, was normally a farmer as well. Mining also had long been in progress on the high ground to the east of the village, largely in connexion with the needs of the potters. (fn. 132) In the mid-18th century the village still presented a pattern of inclosed fields, lanes, and small potworks. (fn. 133) There were then 23 such works in the village, but the few shops were those of a small agricultural community—4 smithies, 2 butcher's shops, a joiner's, a cobbler's, and a barber's; there were also 19 alehouses and a bakehouse. (fn. 134) During the later 18th century, with the reorganization of the pottery industry, the turnpiking of the roads, the building of the canal, and the establishment of a market, the evolution of modern Burslem began. The development of the outlying parts of the parish is a feature of the 19th and 20th centuries, and in the 1840's the parish, even excluding Rushton Grange and most of Hulton, had over 2,600 acres of arable, meadow, and pasture and only some 260 acres of buildings, roads, colliery workings, and waste. (fn. 135)

Burslem, valued at 10s. in 1086, then had land for 2 ploughs, and the villein and 4 bordars there had 1 plough. There were 2 acres of alder. (fn. 136) Rushton and Hulton were together valued at 10s. in 1086. They had land for 3 ploughs, and the 3 villeins and 3 bordars in the 2 vills had 1 plough. There was woodland 1 league long and ½ league broad attached to the 2 vills. (fn. 137) In the early 13th century Hulton Abbey owned woodland at Rushton (fn. 138) and Sneyd. (fn. 139) Most of the land in Burslem was copyhold until the enfranchisement of much of Tunstall manor by the Sneyds in 1619 and the Bowyers between 1620 and 1628. (fn. 140) From the 17th century numerous 999-year and 500-year leases were granted by small proprietors for building purposes, but before the mid19th century most of these had become freehold. (fn. 141) Inclosure of the open fields seems to have taken place during the 17th century. The 'Milnefield'— situated presumably on the northern side of the village near the mill—was evidently an open field in 1549, and open-field arable still existed in 1601. (fn. 142) By the mid-18th century, however, there were only inclosed fields. (fn. 143) As at Penkhull butts of arable were held in certain closes in Burslem during the 17th century. (fn. 144) Early in the 19th century some furlongs and meadows were still shared out in doles and dayworks among various proprietors, but most of these had been eliminated before the middle of the century by purchase and exchange. (fn. 145)

MARKETS AND FAIRS. An open-air meat and vegetable market was established in the area round the town hall about the time of the building of the hall c. 1761. (fn. 146) It steadily increased in importance, and before the end of the 18th century markets were being held every Monday and Saturday, that on Monday being the larger. (fn. 147)

In 1816 the vegetable market was moved 'to the open part of the town below where the fountain lately stood' (now St. John's Square) to ease congestion. (fn. 148) In 1824 more land near the town hall was leased from the lord of the manor for an extension of the market-place, (fn. 149) which for some years previously had been partially lit during the winter. (fn. 150) In 1825 the market was placed under a body of trustees with authority to make by-laws for its regulation and extension; these powers were taken over by the local board in 1850. (fn. 151) The market-place was extended on the east in 1831, and after the purchase in 1834 of most of the remaining buildings between the market-place and Shoe Lane a covered market-house with 124 places was erected on the site in 1835–6 for the butchers and provision-merchants. (fn. 152) It was demolished in 1957. (fn. 153) A Monday corn market was established in 1848; a cattle market on alternate Tuesdays was started at the same time but had lapsed by 1851. (fn. 154) In 1851 the ground floor of the town hall was converted into a fish market, and improvements were also carried out at the covered market. (fn. 155) The present market-hall between Market Place and Queen Street was built for the vegetable market in 1878–9 with entrances in Market Place, Queen Street, and Brickhouse Street. (fn. 156) About this time there was also a pig market in Swan Square. (fn. 157) A Friday market had been added to the other two general markets by 1940, (fn. 158) but about the mid-1950's the market-days became Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday in line with those of the rest of the city. (fn. 159)

By the end of the 18th century cattle fairs were being held at Burslem on 22 March, 18 June, and 17 October. (fn. 160) The market trustees appointed in 1825 established six fairs, on the Saturdays before Shrovetide, Easter, and Whitsun, and on the Saturdays after Midsummer Day, 11 September, and Christmas Day. (fn. 161) These fairs seem never to have been well supported (fn. 162) and had evidently lapsed by 1851. (fn. 163) By 1908 there was a fair 'in private grounds' on the Saturday following 24 June (fn. 164) and this was still held in 1940. (fn. 165)

MILLS. Burslem (or Sytch) Mill stood on the Scotia Brook off the road between Burslem and Brownhills in the area known as the Sytch. It was owned by the lord of Tunstall manor in 1348 (fn. 166) and is probably identifiable with the mill held by the Audleys in 1273. (fn. 167) It descended as part of Tunstall manor, (fn. 168) and while the manor was divided into two-thirds and one-third shares the profits of the mill were divided in the same proportion. (fn. 169) At some time after 1857 the Sneyds sold the mill to Charles Salt, (fn. 170) who was also working the Clanway Colliery, Tunstall. (fn. 171) The mill ceased to be worked in the 1880's. (fn. 172) Tenants of the mill included George Unwyn at the time of its lease in 1536 to Thomas Rowley of Chell, (fn. 173) Ralph Bourne to whom this or another Thomas Rowley transferred it in 1580, (fn. 174) Francis Fynney of Burslem in 1691, (fn. 175) Benjamin Cartlich in 1719, (fn. 176) Ralph Wood (1676–1753), greatgrandfather of Enoch Wood, probably in the early 18th century, (fn. 177) the Shrigley family from 1750 to 1813, (fn. 178) John Wood of Brownhills in 1816, (fn. 179) Jesse Finney by 1848, (fn. 180) Francis Hine in 1854, (fn. 181) and a Mr. Buckley in 1857. (fn. 182) It seems to have been in use as a flint mill during part of the 19th century. (fn. 183) A brick range of mill buildings probably dating from the early 19th century has for some years been occupied as a house and outbuildings; the former millstones have been made into a flight of steps leading up to no. 156 Westport Road, situated some 100 yards to the south-east and said to have been at one time the mill-house. (fn. 184)

Another mill on the Scotia Brook, at Small Bridge to the south-west, was in operation c. 1840, owned by John Wedg Wood and occupied by John Walker. (fn. 185) Apparently used as a colour mill c. 1878, (fn. 186) this mill had ceased to be worked by 1881. (fn. 187)

The Port Vale corn mill on the canal at Bridge Street (now Milvale Street), Middleport, dated 1844, was owned and operated by Samuel Fitton between at least 1848 and 1854. (fn. 188) It was in the hands of Robert Cliffe in the early 1860's. (fn. 189) By 1868 it was held by Fitton and Pidduck, a firm of flour millers which was still working the mill in 1924. (fn. 190) The building passed soon afterwards to Price and Son, bakers, still the occupants in 1940. (fn. 191) The lower floors are now (1960) used by The Five Towns Fireplaces Ltd., but the rest is derelict. The tall brick building of five stories formerly had hoists both above the canal and on the street frontage. Near the south entrance the date 1844 and the names of John Cliffe and Anne Fitton are scratched on the brickwork; a third name, now illegible, was probably that of Samuel Fitton.

There was a mill in the Lower Hadderidge area by 1860. (fn. 192) Its situation was given as Luke Street in 1892, (fn. 193) and a corn mill there is now (1960) run by Malkin Brothers.

POTTERY INDUSTRY. The earliest pottery works so far discovered in the Burslem district was situated at Sneyd Green. Two kilns dating from the 13th century and fragments of pottery of the same period have been unearthed to the north-west of the junction of Sneyd Street and Crossway Road. (fn. 194) Potter was a family name at Hulton early in the 15th century, (fn. 195) but otherwise the Adams family are the earliest identifiable potters in the Burslem area. William and his brother Richard were fined in 1448 for digging clay by the road between Burslem and Sneyd, (fn. 196) and Thomas Adams of Burslem was evidently making pottery before 1563. (fn. 197) His grandson William Adams was described in his will of 1617 as a master potter—one of the first master potters who can be identified—and William's son Thomas was also so described in his will of 1629. (fn. 198) The Daniel family of Burslem were making pottery there before the end of the 16th century; (fn. 199) the name occurs on fragments of 17th-century butter pots unearthed to the north of the town hall, (fn. 200) and Thomas Daniel of Burslem, a potter, was accused in 1682 of engrossing the butter pots made in Burslem, Hanley, and Stoke. (fn. 201) A works of the mid-17th century specializing in tygs has been traced on a site adjoining the 'Marquis of Granby' in the market place, (fn. 202) while near the former meat-market fragments of 17th-century tygs of unusual form have been found, with remains of unglazed red-clay butter pots below them. (fn. 203) The Wedgwoods of Burslem had begun to produce pottery by the 1650's, (fn. 204) and in the later part of the century a pottery was in operation on the site of the medieval works at Sneyd Green where fragments of unusual white and brown slipware tygs of the period have been found. (fn. 205) In all, Burslem had by this time achieved its status as 'mother of the Potteries', and Plot recorded that 'the greatest pottery they have in this county is carried on at Burslem near Newcastleunder-Lyme where for making their several sorts of pots they have as many different sorts of clay which they dig round about the town all within half a mile's distance'. (fn. 206)

About 1710 there are said to have been 35 potworks at Burslem (2 of them not then worked), 4 at Cobridge, 1 at Rushton Grange, 2 at Sneyd Green, and 1 at Holden Lane; (fn. 207) there seems also to have been a pottery at Brownhills c. 1700 in the hands of one of the Wedgwoods. (fn. 208) With the turnpiking of the main roads in 1763 and 1765 and the building of the Trent and Mersey Canal in 1766–77 the industry received fresh encouragement, while the new district of Longport, at first entirely one of factories, grew up near the point where the Tunstall to Newcastle and Burslem to Newcastle roads converge and cross the canal. (fn. 209) About 1800 there were 30 potworks at Burslem, 5 at Longport, 1 at Newport on the canal to the south, 1 at Brownhills, and 8 at Cobridge. (fn. 210) About 1840 there were 24 at Burslem (5 of them unoccupied), 2 at Longport, and 10 at Cobridge. (fn. 211) There were 26 major works at Burslem, Middleport, and Newport in 1959, 3 at Longport, 2 at Brownhills, 1 in Scotia Road, and 7 at Cobridge; the main product was earthenware with a certain amount of vitrified ware and redware, but only 4 works were producing bone china. (fn. 212) One factory was making sanitary ware. (fn. 213)

The oldest pottery which can be identified over any length of time is the Knowle Works. This stood at the west end of Hamil Road adjoining what was later the Big House estate and can be traced back to 1651 when it was in the hands of the Malkin family. (fn. 214) Richard Malkin was making black and mottled ware there c. 1710. (fn. 215) The pottery was bought by John Breeze in 1793 and let to the firm of Enoch Wood and James Caldwell in 1818, (fn. 216) but in 1827 the ownership of the works, then in the tenure of Enoch Wood and Sons, had passed with that of the Greenfield estate into the Adams family by marriage. (fn. 217) Some ten years later the pottery was unoccupied but subsequently passed through various hands. (fn. 218) It seems to have been demolished by the end of the 19th century. (fn. 219)

The works attached to the Brick House between the later St. John's Square and Queen Street (fn. 220) can be traced back nearly as far as the Knowle Works. John Adams, who was living at the Brick House in 1657 and died in 1687, is said to have produced the black and mottled ware that has been found on the site. (fn. 221) His son John was making black and mottled ware at the Brick House c. 1710. (fn. 222) This John's second son Ralph enlarged the works after succeeding his father in 1727 and conveyed it in 1747 to his son John as part of his marriage settlement. (fn. 223) John died in 1757 leaving a minor William as his heir, and the works as well as the house was evidently then let. (fn. 224) Josiah Wedgwood was tenant of the Brick House Works from 1762 to 1770, and during that period achieved his first fame as a potter. He perfected his cream-coloured ware and black Etruscan ware and in 1765 worked for Queen Charlotte; the cream ware thereafter became known as Queen's ware. (fn. 225) It is to commemorate this royal patronage that Queen Street is so named. (fn. 226) It is said that the pottery became known as the Bell Works during Wedgwood's tenancy from his new method of summoning his workmen, by bell instead of by horn. (fn. 227) William Adams, of age in 1769, occupied the house and works from 1770 to 1774, making 'cream colour ware and china glazed ware painted and printed, the most advanced styles of pottery of that time'. (fn. 228) The works was regularly leased out from 1774 when William turned all his attention to his Cobridge works. Although the property was divided in 1836 the pottery remained in operation until its demolition in 1876. (fn. 229)

The Churchyard Works on the south-east side of St. John's churchyard was built shortly before 1679 by Thomas Wedgwood of the adjoining Churchyard House, evidently as a replacement for an earlier pottery which he had been working by 1657. He also had a horse-driven mill at his new works, presumably for pugging the clay. (fn. 230) The works then descended in this branch of the Wedgwood family and in 1780 was bought by a younger son, Josiah Wedgwood of Etruria. (fn. 231) By 1773, when Josiah's eldest brother died, the works had been mortgaged, and Josiah established his brother's son and heir Thomas in business there. Thomas died in 1787, and Josiah let the whole Churchyard estate including the works from 1788 to 1793 to Joseph Wedgwood, the husband of his niece Mary and a distant relative. (fn. 232) On Josiah's death in 1795 the property passed to five of his children and was sold to Thomas Green. (fn. 233) On Green's bankruptcy in 1811 the works passed to a Mr. Joynson (probably P. J. Joynson) and in 1812 to John Mosley who subsequently leased it out 'in small holdings to different potters'. (fn. 234) In the 1850's the whole works was taken over by Jesse Bridgwood of Tunstall who by 1860 had been joined by Edward Clarke, and under this partnership the buildings were greatly improved and extended. (fn. 235) For most of the period between Bridgwood's death in 1864 and 1880 Clarke let the works, but from 1880 until at least 1889 he was again at the Churchyard Works producing mainly for the American market. His wares included white granite and a fine white earthenware called 'royal semi-porcelain'. (fn. 236) The works had been demolished by 1896 when St. John's School was rebuilt on the site. (fn. 237)

The Overhouse Pottery in Wedgwood Place has the longest history of any in Burslem, having been worked continuously for at least 250 years. There may have been a works attached to John Colclough's Overhouse estate at the time of his death in 1666. (fn. 238) At any rate in 1667 John's mother Katherine Colclough of the Overhouse leased out a building of two bays in Burslem 'used for pothouses', a pot oven, and a smokehouse, with the right to dig clay and marl on the site. (fn. 239) However, Thomas Wedgwood, the Colcloughs' successor at the Overhouse, makes no mention of any such works in his will of 1678. (fn. 240) His son John, who succeeded him in 1679, had a pottery at Greenhead c. 1680 (fn. 241) which may be identifiable with the Overhouse Works. In 1691 he leased part of a 'serviceyard' to Richard, youngest son of Aaron Wedgwood, who seems subsequently to have run the Overhouse Works. In 1708 Richard married Katherine Wedgwood, his relative and by then the owner of the Overhouse. He died in 1718. (fn. 242) By 1742 the works may have been held on lease by Thomas Wedgwood of the Churchyard who succeeded Katherine in the Overhouse property in 1756. His son Thomas followed him in 1773, (fn. 243) and the products of this Thomas included 'cream-coloured ware and china glazed ware painted with blue'. (fn. 244) When he died in 1787 he left a minor, also Thomas, as his heir, and the works was leased to Read and Goodfellow. (fn. 245) After the death of this last Thomas in 1809, the pottery was sold to Christopher Robinson in 1810 (fn. 246) and to Edward Challinor in 1819. (fn. 247) Challinor leased it out from the 1820's (fn. 248) and in 1869 rebuilt it. (fn. 249) Soon afterwards the Overhouse Pottery passed to Ralph Hammersley, of the Church Bank Works, Tunstall, and the firm of Ralph Hammersley and Sons ran it from 1883 until c. 1905. (fn. 250) It is now known as the Royal Overhouse Pottery, worked by Barratts of Staffordshire Ltd. (fn. 251)

Aaron Wedgwood (c. 1624–1700), fifth surviving son of Gilbert Wedgwood of Burslem, was evidently a potter of note by 1693 when with his sons Thomas and Richard he was in some kind of association with John and David Elers of Fulham. Probably he was supplying them with red Staffordshire clay and so was partly responsible for the Elers brothers' coming to Bradwell. (fn. 252) It is not clear whether this 17thcentury works is identifiable with a works on the east side of what is now Wedgwood Street where Aaron's second surviving son Aaron was producing dipped and black ware c. 1710. (fn. 253) When this younger Aaron died in 1743 this pottery passed to his younger sons Thomas (1703–76) and John (1705–80) who rebuilt it and ran it as a large-scale enterprise instead of the usual domestic industry. They employed their own travellers and traded direct with London and Liverpool instead of relying on the itinerant hawkers. (fn. 254) Their products were cream-coloured ware and fine white salt-glazed stoneware; they also invented a pyrometer and employed James Brindley to build a windmill at the Jenkins for grinding flint c. 1750. (fn. 255) This mill was apparently in use in 1832, and the derelict base still stood in the 1860's. (fn. 256) The brothers built the Big House in front of their works facing Chapel Bank in 1751. (fn. 257) In 1780 the Big House pottery passed to John's second son Thomas whose products included 'cream-coloured ware and china glazed ware painted with blue'. (fn. 258) He had sold it by 1816, and though it was worked by the younger Enoch Wood in 1829 (fn. 259) it was unoccupied some ten years later. (fn. 260) Between at least the 1860's and 1880's it was being used as a builder's premises. (fn. 261)

By c. 1736 a pottery had been built on the Adams family's Hadderidge estate south-west of Burslem town and was leased with the estate by Ralph Adams of the Brick House to his son-in-law John Shrigley. (fn. 262) In the early 1790's the pottery was sold to Thomas Lakin and John Ellison Poole, who rebuilt it. From 1795 it was worked by Lakin, Poole, and a Thomas Shrigley and then by Poole and Shrigley until their bankruptcy in 1797. (fn. 263) Thomas Heath had bought the works as well as much of the estate by 1806. (fn. 264) He was succeeded in 1839 by his sister Sarah Adams (d. 1846), and for a time her sons William, Edward, Lewis, and Thomas carried on the pottery with their Stoke works. Later, however, they leased it out. (fn. 265) On the dissolution of the family partnership in 1853 William Adams took over the Hadderidge and Greenfield (Tunstall) works, although the former continued in the hands of tenants. (fn. 266) It was held by the firm of Edwards by the end of the 19th century, passing from them c. 1918 to Sheldon and Buckley Ltd. who were succeeded some ten years later by J. S. Maddock. (fn. 267) In 1932 the works passed to the present owners, W. R. Midwinter Ltd., who had already acquired the nearby Albion Pottery from Edwards in 1916. (fn. 268)

Before 1715 Thomas Mitchell had a works in Rotten Row (now Greenhead Street) which by 1715 was no longer in operation. (fn. 269) In 1726, however, a Thomas Mitchell of Burslem is described as an earthpotter. (fn. 270) By 1736 John Mitchell, a noted manufacturer of salt-glazed stoneware and later a patron of John Wesley, was working at Hill Top where in 1743 the young Aaron Wood became his employee. (fn. 271) Mitchell had failed by the 1780's, and by 1786 the works was in the hands of John Robinson who eventually took over the old Methodist chapel also. This had been built in 1766 on an adjoining site given by John Mitchell and was turned into a warehouse by Robinson. (fn. 272) By the early 1830's the pottery had passed from the Robinson family to Samuel Alcock who incorporated it with two neighbouring potworks and reorganized the whole as the Hill Pottery; 400 hands were employed there by that time. (fn. 273) The works itself was described in the early 1840's as 'one of the largest and best conducted in the Potteries'. (fn. 274) Samuel Alcock and Company, who made good porcelain, bisque figures, and parian vases and figures, failed in 1859, and in 1860 the works was taken over by Sir James Duke and Nephews (J. and C. Hill) who sold it in 1865 to Thomas Ford; he in turn sold it in 1866 to the Earthenware and Porcelain Company. (fn. 275) This operated for a year as the Hill Pottery Company and was then liquidated, Thomas Ford buying the works back in 1867. (fn. 276) The china department was in that year taken over by Alcock and Diggory (Bodley and Diggory in 1870), and as the Crown Works it was in the hands of the firm of Bodley from 1871 until at least 1892. (fn. 277) The earthenware department passed in 1867 to Burgess and Leigh who held it until at least 1889. (fn. 278) The whole works is now part of the Royal Pottery of J. Steventon and Sons Ltd. The large Classical building still standing on the east side of Westport Road (formerly Liverpool Road) on the crest of the hill represents the front range of the pottery completed in 1839 by Samuel Alcock on the site of the Robinsons' works. It was considered at the time to be 'the most striking and ornamental object of its kind within the precincts of the borough' (i.e. Stoke). (fn. 279) This admiration was evidently shared by Arnold Bennett. The building appears in Clayhanger as the Sytch Pottery and encouraged the young Edwin in his desire to become an architect. (fn. 280) The building, which is now largely derelict, is of brick with stone dressings and has three stories and a basement. Its ten-bay front incorporates much heavy Classical detail used in an unconventional manner. The imposing central feature consists of a 'Venetian' doorway approached by seven steps and flanked by paired Ionic columns bearing entablatures on which stand large vases (one of them now missing). Above the doorway is a balustrade and a Venetian window with rusticated quoins and voussoirs. Other firstfloor windows are emphasized by moulded stone or pedimented heads, giving the effect of a piano nobile. The facade has a central pediment, below which stone triglyphs are set into the brickwork.

By the 1750's there was a pottery attached to the Ivy House estate which was owned by the Wedgwoods of the nearby Big House. It was as tenant of this works from 1759 to 1762 that Josiah Wedgwood, a distant relative of the Big House Wedgwoods, first worked on his own account. His attempt to buy the whole property c. 1774 was unsuccessful, and the works evidently remained with the Big House branch of the family until its demolition to make way for the new market in the 1830's. (fn. 281)

The Hill Works (now the Royal Victoria Pottery) on the opposite side of Westport Road from the Hill Pottery was held in 1784 by Enoch and Ralph Wood who produced 'useful and ornamental ware, Egyptian black, cane and various colours, also black figures, seals and syphers'. (fn. 282) Still held by Ralph Wood in 1802 (fn. 283) the works subsequently passed to John Taylor and in 1814 was rebuilt by John and Richard Riley who made china, earthenware, and Egyptian black. (fn. 284) The Rileys both died in the late 1820's, and the works passed first to Alcock and Keeling and by 1834 to Samuel Alcock and Company. (fn. 285) About 1851 it was taken over by Barber and Son, in 1860 by Morgan, Wood and Company (Wood and Baggaley by 1870), by 1880 by Jacob Baggaley and in 1887 by Dunn and Bennett who were succeeded in 1938 by the present occupants, Wade, Heath and Company. (fn. 286) The two-storied entrance front of the works as rebuilt by the Rileys in 1814 is set at an angle of 45 degrees to the main outside walls of the factory, which, as the ground slopes away to the north-west, is of three and four stories. The design of the entrance feature is one which was much favoured in the Potteries in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and which persisted in a modified form into Victorian times. An elliptical archway with rusticated voussoirs is flanked by narrow windows—now altered—and is surmounted by a Venetian window which has a Tuscan order with a fluted frieze. Above this is a dentil cornice and an open pediment, the latter carrying an oval plaque inscribed 'Hill Works 1814'.

The Fountain Place Works, with a house and grounds attached, was built in 1789 by Enoch Wood, son of Aaron Wood the block-cutter and modeller; the whole estate, incorporating the sites of four older potteries, extended westwards down the hillside and southwards to straddle Pack Horse Lane. (fn. 287) Wood was in partnership with James Caldwell from 1790 to 1818, and from 1818 to 1846—six years after Wood's death—the firm was known as Enoch Wood and Sons. By the early 1830's 1,100 hands were employed at the works. (fn. 288) Wood's products included blue-printed ware, jasper ware, black basaltes, figures, and some experimental porcelain. (fn. 289) After 1846 the factory passed through various hands, but from c. 1868 it was not in continuous occupation; much of it was subsequently demolished to make way for new streets and buildings. (fn. 290) The surviving parts of the works are now (1960) in the hands of Ford & Sons, a firm established in Newcastle by Thomas Ford in 1865. (fn. 291) The house was still standing in 1881 when it was offered as premises for the new Haywood Charity Hospital, but it was rejected as unsuitable. (fn. 292) Wood had at first had a windmill at the works for 'raising water and preparing the clay, ready for the hands of the potters, and for grinding glaze and colours', but by the early 1840's it had been replaced by steam power. (fn. 293) He and Caldwell also had a flint mill at Bycars to the north-east of the town from 1806, and this, still held by the Wood family in 1860, remained in use until at least 1882. (fn. 294) The works dated from 1789 but was probably extended in the early 19th century. It occupied the whole area between Hall Street on the north and Newcastle Street on the south and had a long east frontage to Liverpool Road (now Westport Road) and Fountain Place. (fn. 295) This frontage incorporated the entrance to Pack Horse Lane which served as an access road to part of the works. At the Fountain Place end of the lane it was spanned by a covered bridge and flanked by tall buildings which were continued for a considerable distance down the lane. On the north side some of these buildings are still standing, including a three-storied range with an angle entrance on the corner of Pack Horse Lane and a frontage of nine bays on Westport Road. In spite of the insertion of a shop front and the mutilation of the upper stories the original elevation on the angle can still be recognized. This formerly had an entrance arch flanked by small windows, a Venetian window to the first floor, and a three-light window above, the whole being surmounted by a pediment and a domed bell turret. Other original features which survive are the base of the windmill at the north-east corner of the site and the lodge gates—probably of the early 19th century—which stand at the blocked end of Pack Horse Lane. The square three-storied house built and occupied by Enoch Wood appears to have stood near the centre of the site; the factory buildings stood mostly above and behind it, and its gardens stretched westwards down the slope. (fn. 296) The numerous brick ovens and many of the walls originally had castellated parapets, so that a distant view of the works in its heyday must have given the impression of a hillside fortification.

The Royal Doulton Potteries in Nile Street incorporate a pottery worked at the beginning of the 19th century by John and Richard Riley which itself occupied the site of an earlier works. (fn. 297) The Rileys were succeeded after their removal to the Hill Works c. 1814 by John Cormie. (fn. 298) The pottery is evidently identifiable with the Hole House works held between at least 1834 and 1851 by Mellor, Venables and Company, a firm in which Cormie's nephew Thomas Pinder was a partner. (fn. 299) Pinder's great-nephew Shadford Pinder was working there by 1862 under the name Pinder, Bourne and Company. (fn. 300) Sir Henry Doulton, of Messrs. Doulton, Lambeth, acquired the works from this firm in 1877, adding a new wing in 1884 for the manufacture of bone china. (fn. 301) Two other factories were subsequently added: the Kilncroft works in Chapel Lane dating from at least the early 19th century and the Sylvester Pottery which was in existence by the 1830's. There was also extensive new building in 1889. The number of employees increased rapidly during this period, from 300 in the early 1880's to 1,300 in 1893. (fn. 302) In recent years there has been large-scale modernization, and the factory is now one of the biggest pottery works in the world. (fn. 303)

The first pottery at Longport was built c. 1773 by John Brindley, a younger brother of James Brindley, the engineer, and was acquired by John Davenport in 1793 or 1794. (fn. 304) At first Davenport made earthenware only (cream-coloured, painted and transferprinted), but early in the 19th century he began to make porcelain also. In 1797 he had begun the manufacture of a chemical preparation for use in glazing and from 1801 was also producing glass. (fn. 305) About 1810 he acquired a pottery at Newport founded c. 1795 by Walter Daniel. (fn. 306) Davenport's sons continued the business after his retirement c. 1830, enlarging the buildings and acquiring a factory at Longport built by Robert Williamson soon after Brindley's. (fn. 307) Another pottery also built about that time by Edward Bourne had been added to the Davenport works by the early 1840's so that the family then had four factories at or near Longport employing in all over 1,500 people. (fn. 308) The Newport Pottery passed in the 1850's to Cork and Edge (Cork, Edge, and Malkin 1860–70, Edge, Malkin and Company Ltd. 1870–1903). It was bought in 1920 by the present owners, the Newport Pottery Company Ltd.; as A. J. Wilkinson Ltd. they had moved in 1898 from the Central Pottery, Burslem, to the Mersey Pottery at Middleport, built by Anthony Shaw c. 1860. (fn. 309) The Davenport works in New Bridge Street passed in 1877 to Edward Clarke and Company, and the site is now occupied by the works of Pidduck and Beardmore Ltd., makers of fireplaces, stoves, and domestic fittings generally. The rest of the business remained in the Davenports' hands until its sale to Thomas Hughes in 1887 or 1888. (fn. 310) The group of buildings north-west of Trubshaw Cross represents part of the Davenport works. (fn. 311) The house, which dates from near the end of the 18th century, is built of brick and has a three-storied front of five bays. The windows have stone lintels with fluted keystones, and the central doorway is surmounted by a 'Gothic' fanlight and an open pediment. The factory buildings have recently been demolished. The entrance range to the works, of three stories, stood to the north of the house. Its central archway, above which was a pointed niche, was flanked by two projecting bays which rose to the full height of the building.

John Wood, son of Ralph Wood, built a pottery and house at Brownhills in or soon after 1782; the works was demolished by his son John in 1830 when the house and grounds were improved. (fn. 312) This was the only pottery at Brownhills at the beginning of the 19th century, (fn. 313) but from c. 1805 Joseph Marsh was making china there, with Samuel Marsh and Richard Haywood as his successors c. 1818. (fn. 314) This china works was taken over in the 1840's by George Bowers who began making earthenware there after 1851; he was succeeded by his son Frederick in the 1860's, but the business failed in 1871. (fn. 315) The works was then bought by James Eardley of Alsager (Ches.) and worked by the Brownhills Pottery Company, (fn. 316) passing about the turn of the century to George Clews and Company who still work it as the Brownhills Pottery. (fn. 317)

A pottery in Sneyd Street, Cobridge, was one of several in the neighbourhood worked by the Daniel family during the later 18th century. It was sold in 1769, two years after the bankruptcy of Sampson Daniel, to William Adams of the Brick House. About 1780 Adams built Cobridge Hall nearby. (fn. 318) At his Cobridge works he introduced into Staffordshire the manufacture of blue-printed ware and in 1775 the use of copperplate engraving. (fn. 319) By 1802 this pottery, with at least one other in Cobridge, had been let by Adams, (fn. 320) but it remained the property of this branch of the Adams family until after the death in 1869 of Mary Adams, the last of William's children. (fn. 321) The family trustees then sold it to Messrs. Furnival who apparently held the lease by 1850. (fn. 322) The pottery had been pulled down by the mid-1920's. (fn. 323) A works on an adjoining site to the south was held by the Blackwells from c. 1780, by the Blackwells in partnership with the Dillons from c. 1822 until 1832, and then by the Dillons until 1843. Since at least 1848 it has remained in the hands of Messrs. Furnival. (fn. 324) The oldest surviving buildings of this last factory probably date from the late 18th century and include a warehouse range fronting on Elder Road with a dwelling house behind. The former has been altered and faced with stucco but retains a central archway with a Venetian window and a pediment above it. Over the pediment stands the original bell cupola, almost the only example of this feature— another is at the former Wedgwood works at Etruria —to survive in the Potteries. The house, now incorporated in the works, has a long front of seven bays and a pedimented doorcase and dates from the second half of the 18th century.

In 1802 William Adams was working two potteries opposite each other in Elder Road. (fn. 325) That to the west had to be partially demolished when Waterloo Road was built in 1815–17; the remainder of the site was occupied until recently by the Globe Pottery, now replaced by Ridgway's Portland Pottery. (fn. 326) The other has been identified as the works held by Stevenson and Dale in 1789, by Bucknall and Andrew Stevenson c. 1805. It was later worked by Stevenson alone who produced blue-printed ware at the pottery until it was closed in 1818. (fn. 327) It was soon reopened by Ralph and James Clews, but they went bankrupt in 1835. (fn. 328) Described in 1841 as having 'extensive rooms, better than common', (fn. 329) the works was held from 1836 by John Robinson, John Wood, and William Brownfield and from 1841 by Wood and Brownfield. (fn. 330) The Brownfields were sole owners from 1850, and in 1890 the works was reorganized as the co-operative Brownfield Guild Pottery, which failed soon afterwards. (fn. 331) It has been worked as the Alexandra Pottery by Myott, Son and Company since at least 1903 (fn. 332) and is situated in Douglas Street and Arthur Street behind Furnival's works.

The Warburton family, who had factories in Hot Lane and at Cobridge during the 18th century, had two works in Elder Road near the junction with Hot Lane at the beginning of the 19th century. (fn. 333) One of these, the Villa Pottery, was in the hands of Thomas Hughes between at least 1822 and 1834. By 1834 he was evidently in partnership with Elijah Jones who by 1841 was working at the Villa Pottery with Edward Walley. The pottery was held by Walley alone from at least 1846 until 1865 when it passed to Wood, Son and Company (later Wood and Dunn). (fn. 334) William Cartlidge moved there from Bournes Bank in 1879 and was still working the pottery in 1892. (fn. 335)

A works in what is now the Cobridge part of Waterloo Road was held by the Stevenson family from at least 1775 until Ralph Stevenson's bankruptcy in 1835 and passed soon afterwards to John and George Alcock. (fn. 336) It was run as the Elder Pottery by Henry Alcock and Company from at least 1864 until 1910 when it was bought by the Soho Pottery Ltd. founded by S. J. Simpson at Tunstall in 1904. (fn. 337) It is still worked by this company—renamed Simpsons (Potters) Ltd. in 1942. (fn. 338) The range of buildings facing Waterloo Road has a simple but well designed brick front, the stone entrance-arch bearing the date 1848 and the initials 'J A' (John Alcock).

The mills at the Fountain Place Works, the Jenkins, and Bycars have been treated above. Burslem's other flint-grinding mills have included the Furlong Mills in Furlong Lane, built in 1843, enlarged in 1913, and run since 1926 by a subsidiary company of Alfred Meakin (Tunstall) Ltd.; (fn. 339) a mill off Scotia Road run since c. 1910 by the Burslem Mills Company, a subsidiary of Richards Tiles Ltd., Tunstall; (fn. 340) a mill in Adkins Street, Cobridge, worked since 1932 by the North Road Mill Company, a subsidiary of the Wade group; (fn. 341) two mills by the late 1820's at Longport where there was still a flint mill in 1940; (fn. 342) a mill in Bridge Street, Middleport, by 1896, worked since at least 1916 by the Middleport Mills Company; (fn. 343) two mills still in use at Newport—Mellor's, run by the North Staffs. Pulveriser Company between at least 1896 and 1940, and Oliver's dating from at least 1908; (fn. 344) Hoston Mill off Scotia Road, owned in 1834 by Hugh Henshall Williamson and in the 1870's, after his death, absorbed into the Pinnox Iron Works; (fn. 345) and a mill in Chester Street, Brownhills, built by George Bowers in or shortly before 1853 presumably in connexion with his nearby pottery (see above) and still in use in 1924. (fn. 346) The old corn mill at the Sytch seems to have been used as a flint mill for a time during the 19th century. (fn. 347)

MINING. Evidence of coal mining in Burslem goes back at any rate to the beginning of the 14th century (fn. 348) and probably to the 1280's. (fn. 349) From at least the later 14th century it seems to have been normal for the lords of Tunstall manor to lease out their Burslem mines. (fn. 350) By the later 15th century these included mines in the coal seams running north-west along the high ground from above Hulton and through the Hamil (Sneyd), with considerable outcropping. (fn. 351) Even by the later 17th century there were shafts around the Hamil ancient enough to contain fully grown oaks, (fn. 352) and 200 years later it was noted that to the east of Burslem town 'the face of the country is thickly scarred with marks of the old surface workings'. (fn. 353) During the 19th century there was deeper mining, and the rise in the population of Burslem township in the 1860's was attributed to the extension of mining operations, particularly of ironstone mining. (fn. 354) This was carried on in addition to the coal mining at many of the collieries. In 1869, however, the Pinnox and Scotia collieries fell into disuse on the death of the owner, H. H. Williamson, and were consequently soon flooded; the water spread, helped by very wet weather and the lack of concerted pumping operations on the part of the colliery owners, so that in several of the mines in the Burslem and Tunstall district output soon dropped and in the course of the next 20 years ceased altogether. (fn. 355) Sneyd Colliery, one of those which closed down, was reopened by William Heath in the early 1880's and since c. 1920 has been the only colliery in the Burslem area.

Although the bulk of the mining was carried on in the eastern part of this area, there were numerous disused shafts in the waste ground north of the town by the 1870's. (fn. 356) Williamson and Brindley's Scotia Colliery, probably situated to the west of Scotia Road, was in operation by 1818 and some ten years later was run by H. H. Williamson with his nearby Pinnox Colliery. Both ceased working in 1869 as a result of his death and were soon flooded. (fn. 357) By 1888 they had been taken over by the Chatterley Iron Company, although only Pinnox was then being worked. (fn. 358) The Dale Hall Colliery, in operation between at least the early 1860's and the early 1870's, is probably identifiable with the disused colliery just to the north of St. Paul's Church a few years later. (fn. 359) Robert Heath's Brownhills Colliery (coal and ironstone), west of Brownhills Road, was in operation by the early 1870's and was employing 182 below ground and 44 above in 1896; it was closed in 1902. (fn. 360) The Mill Hayes Colliery (coal and ironstone) east of the Sytch Mill was being worked by Cork, Ford and Company in the early 1860's and by Charles Salt as owner and manager between at least the mid-1870's and the early 1880's. It is probably identifiable with Thomas Wood's Sytch Croft Coal and Ironstone Works of c. 1863. (fn. 361)

It was Sneyd township, however, 'abounding . . . with mines of coal and ironstone', (fn. 362) that was the centre of Burslem's mining from at least the later 15th century. Among others the Adams family held mining leases there between at least 1467 and the early 17th century, (fn. 363) the Middletons between at least 1488 and 1665, (fn. 364) the Rowleys between at least 1513 and 1614, (fn. 365) the Daniels between at least 1578 and 1649, (fn. 366) the Burslems between at least 1619 and 1649, (fn. 367) and the Colcloughs by 1624. The Colcloughs took over the interests of the Daniels and the Burslems in 1649 and are said to have been the first to exploit the mines commercially. (fn. 368) The Wedgwoods carried on the Colcloughs' operations for a few years from 1669. (fn. 369) In 1719 George Parker (created Earl of Macclesfield in 1732) ran a gutter from the mines on his Sneyd farm estate down to the low ground near St. John's Church, thus draining the mines without machinery. (fn. 370) By the 19th century at least the earls were leasing out the Sneyd Colliery, to which a brickworks had been added by the mid1850's, (fn. 371) but flooding brought work to an end c. 1876. William Heath (through the Sneyd Colliery Company) took a lease in 1881, pumped out water some 600 feet deep, and reopened the colliery. (fn. 372) Since c. 1920 it has been the only colliery in the Burslem area. (fn. 373) In 1957 1,010 men were employed below ground there and 400 above. (fn. 374) Enoch Wood and James Caldwell were working the Bycars Colliery to the north-east of Burslem town by 1816, (fn. 375) and by 1834 it was held by John Wedg Wood, along with one of the two collieries at the Hamil which had been in operation by 1818. (fn. 376) Bycars and Hamil were in operation as coal and ironstone mines in the early 1880's, although the first effects of the flooding from the Pinnox and Scotia collieries in 1869 were felt at Bycars; both had been closed by 1888. (fn. 377) The Pinnox Colliery on the Tunstall boundary was worked by H. H. Williamson by the late 1820's and remained in operation until 1869 when it was abandoned as a result of his death and soon became flooded; an attempt to sell it by auction in 1870 failed. (fn. 378) By 1888, however, coal and ironstone were being mined there by the Chatterley Iron Company, but about this time it was again closed. (fn. 379) The Jackfield Colliery (coal and ironstone) was being worked by 1832 and the Stanfield Colliery by 1841, and both were closed because of flooding c. 1889; (fn. 380) the Bank Top Colliery off High Lane to the north-east, in operation by 1856, was closed for the same reason in the early 1880's. (fn. 381) All three had been acquired by the Sneyd Colliery Company by 1890, but since the flooded seams had been well worked already, new shafts were sunk with a view to opening up fresh seams nearly 600 feet below the old. (fn. 382)

The Adams family of Birches Head and the Heath family of Hanley and Burslem were mining at Cobridge after the sale of most of the Cobridge Gate House estate in 1729 to John Adams and to Thomas Heath's uncle Ralph Taylor. (fn. 383) It is alleged that the damage to his property in the area resulting from these operations led William Adams of the Brick House, Burslem, to set about buying up the estate; at any rate he acquired it, along with most of the mines, by various purchases and leases between 1769 and 1810 and for a time was more interested in mining than in potting. (fn. 384) After the middle of the 19th century his family sold the Cobridge mines, and others, to the Shelton Bar Iron Company. (fn. 385) In 1818 Baddeley and Company also were mining at Cobridge, (fn. 386) and their Cobridge Colliery was the only one in the neighbourhood open in 1834; passing through various hands it was worked until 1893 or 1894. (fn. 387) The Sandbach Colliery south of Rushton Grange had been opened by 1856 but seems to have been closed temporarily during the last decade of the century. (fn. 388) By 1902 it had 41 employees below ground and 17 above, but, though still in operation during the First World War, it had been closed by the early 1920's. (fn. 389) The Boothen Colliery to the north of the Hanley boundary at Vale Place was worked by Fox and Ward in the 1860's but by 1889 had been taken over by the Shelton Iron, Steel, and Coal Company; it was still in operation at the end of the century. (fn. 390) By the late 1860's Robert Heath had opened the Grange Colliery (coal and ironstone), also in the Rushton area, and operations there were greatly expanded at the end of the century. In 1894 149 were employed below ground and 50 above; in 1902 the numbers were respectively 431 and 183. (fn. 391) Closed about the same time as the Sandbach Colliery, it was then used as a pumping pit in connexion with the Racecourse Pits at Etruria, and when these closed c. 1937 it was dismantled. (fn. 392)

The iron industry in Burslem has been confined mainly to the mining of ironstone which, as already shown, was carried on side by side with coal mining at many of the collieries, at any rate during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Thus at the Jackfield Colliery in the 1830's much ironstone was raised, calcined on the spot, and then sent by canal to the south of the county for further working. (fn. 393) This practice was general in the Burslem area by 1856 when it was also stated that the ironstone mines were being worked on an unprecedented scale. (fn. 394) The rise in the population of Burslem in the 1860's was attributed mainly to the extension of ironstone mining in the area, (fn. 395) but by the early 1870's the industry was declining, largely because the shallow pits had been worked out to a considerable depth and because the price of iron had dropped by 50 per cent. and more. (fn. 396) In the 1890's, however, there were still three Burslem collieries raising ironstone—Brownhills, Sneyd, and Grange. (fn. 397)

OTHER INDUSTRIES. Bricks and tiles were produced in the Dale Hall area by at least 1761, (fn. 398) and the Basford family were making tiles there for at least 50 years from the 1830's. (fn. 399) There were some 8 brick and tile works in the area in the middle of the century, (fn. 400) some 11 towards the end, (fn. 401) and some 20 in the late 1950's. (fn. 402) The present tileries include the Wade Group's Flaxman Art Tile Works in High Street, opened by at least 1892, (fn. 403) and the Brownhills works of Richards Tiles Ltd., built in 1933–4. (fn. 404) The present brickworks include the Sneyd Brickworks in Nile Street, the brickworks between Waterloo Road and Sneyd Street, and the Brookfields Saggar Brick and Marl Works to the south-west, all dating from at least the 1870's; (fn. 405) the works of the Cobridge Brick and Marl Company off Leek Road has been in existence since at least the end of the 19th century. (fn. 406)

Burslem Brewery in Zion Street (formerly Regent Street East) had been opened by the mid-1860's. (fn. 407) On the merger with Ind Coope and Allsopp of Burton-upon-Trent in 1949 it ceased production and has since been used as offices and a depot. (fn. 408)

Social Life

The Burslem and Tunstall Literary and Scientific Society was founded for 'all classes of society' in 1838. (fn. 409) It was refounded in 1849 as a mechanics' institute; Josiah Powell, later clerk to the local board and first town clerk of the borough, was the secretary. (fn. 410) The institute still existed in 1854. (fn. 411)

The foundation stone of the Wedgwood Memorial Institute in Queen Street was laid by W. E. Gladstone in 1863, and the building, containing a museum, a picture gallery, and lecture rooms, was opened by Lord de Grey and Ripon in 1869. (fn. 412) A reference library, reading-room, and school of art were added later in the same year, and in 1870 the library became a lending library. (fn. 413) A new wing containing a museum and picture gallery was opened in 1879. (fn. 414)

A 'Government School of Design' was opened in 1853 in the old assembly room of the Legs of Man Inn, 'a villainous room in a locality where no one having physical decency, to say nothing of health, would go'; it was closed in 1858. (fn. 415) There was a school of art at the Wedgwood Institute from 1869 (see above), and the present school on the opposite side of Queen Street was built in 1906–7. (fn. 416) With the amalgamation of the art schools of the various towns after Federation, the Burslem school became the principal of the Stoke-on-Trent Art Schools. (fn. 417)

There was a newspaper room at the town hall between at least 1834 and 1868. (fn. 418)

Burslem Wakes were held during the week following 24 June, (fn. 419) the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist to whom the old church is dedicated. A custom of decorating the church with branches of trees and shrubs on Wakes Sunday survived until c. 1700. (fn. 420) With the coming of the industrial era attempts were made to restrict the wakes. 'Our men have been at play four days this week, it being Burslem Wakes', wrote Josiah Wedgwood on one occasion; 'I have roughed and smoothed them over and promised them a long Christmas, but I know it is all in vain, for Wakes must be observed though the world was to end with them'. (fn. 421) In 1852 the manufacturers and tradesmen were trying to change the date of Burslem Wakes to the beginning of August when Stoke Wakes took place, (fn. 422) and in 1879 the wakes were abolished by official order as a result of a memorial to the Home Secretary from Burslem Borough Council. (fn. 423) However, after a vote by the burgesses in 1880, the council decided to restore the wakes fair on the Sunday after 24 June, and despite a renewed attempt at abolition in 1906 (fn. 424) it is still (1960) held. The wakes were formerly an occasion of wild exuberance. In The Old Wives' Tale Arnold Bennett describes the 'orgiastic carnival' of the 1860's, 'gross in all its manifestations of joy', during which 'Miss Chetwynd's school was closed, so that the daughters of the leading families might remain in seclusion till the worst was over'. (fn. 425)

Bull-baiting, bear-baiting, and cock-fighting were popular sports at Burslem until they were banned by law in 1837. The baiting evidently took place in St. John's Square early on Sunday mornings, and more frequently during the wakes, while the final cockfight of the wakes was held on ground to the southeast of the town where the brewery was later built. (fn. 426) Bull-baiting and cock-fighting also took place at the 'Bull's Head', Sneyd Green, which formed part of the Cobridge Gate estate. (fn. 427) A maypole formerly stood in the centre of the space later to be Burslem market-place, but it had been removed by 1760. (fn. 428)

The Port Vale Association Football Club, deriving its name from Port Vale House in Alexandra Road (now Scott Lidgett Road), Longport, where it opened its first headquarters in 1876, had its first ground in the meadows nearby. It moved in 1881 to the area now covered by Westport Lake and in 1884 to Moorland Road. The club, which became professional in 1885 under the name Burslem Port Vale, moved in the following year to the ground that later became Cobridge Dog Track; wound up in 1907 and restarted in 1909, it settled at Hanley in 1911. In 1950 it moved to a plot of waste in Hamil Road which it had bought cheaply in 1944 and converted into the present Vale Park Ground. (fn. 429)

There was a music hall, The White Hart, in Liverpool Road in 1880 (fn. 430) and another in Cleveland Street in the 1920's (later the Coliseum Super Cinema). (fn. 431) The theatre in Wedgwood Place that appears in Clayhanger as 'The Blood Tub' was known as the Wedgwood Theatre by 1903. It was demolished to make way for the town hall of 1911 and rebuilt as Burslem Hippodrome. 'The home—in the inter-war-years—of popular variety' under the direction of Pat Collins, it had been closed by 1940 and was demolished in 1947–8. (fn. 432)

There was a choral society at Cobridge c. 1824. (fn. 433) In 1855 Josiah Powell founded his Burslem tonic sol-fa choir, an event which had much to do with the popularity of choral music in the Potteries later in the century. (fn. 434) The Burslem Orchestral Union existed by the end of the century and c. 1900 was taken over by John Cope, who until 1919, with the support of Madame Marie Reymond, tried unsuccessfully to arouse an enthusiasm for orchestral music in the Potteries. (fn. 435)

The Burslem, Cobridge, Longport, and Tunstall Society for the Prosecution of Felons was founded in 1813. (fn. 436) The present Burslem Association for the Prosecution of Felons dates from 1821. (fn. 437) Arnold Bennett stated that by the 1880's it had become 'a dining-club and little else' with an exclusive annual dinner 'admitted to be the chief oratorical event of the year'. (fn. 438)

Arnold Bennett (1867–1931), the novelist of 'the Five Towns,' was born in Hope Street, Hanley, the son of a solicitor who had formerly been a potter and a schoolmaster. He lived in Burslem from 1875 to 1878, first in Dane Street, and then in Newport Lane. The family moved to no. 198 Waterloo Road, Cobridge, in 1878 and later lived at no. 205 which since 1960 has been maintained by the city as a Bennett Museum. Bennett left the district in 1888, but his ashes are buried in his mother's grave in Burslem cemetery. (fn. 439)