Tunstall Heritage in Pictures
Burslem, Tunstall, Longport and Cobridge Armed Association - notice from the Enoch Wood scrapbook
Date: 3 May 1798
Description: A meeting has taken place at the Legs of Man Inn in Burslem, to discuss the formation of an assocation to defend the neighbourhood at a time of crisis.
A volunteer infantry
Books are to be opened for the enrollment of local men into a volunteer infantry of between 40 and 80 rank and file, commanded by the Lord Lieutenant of the County of Stafford.
All men are to clothe and arm themselves at their own expense, and nobody should be called to action beyond the limits of the Potteries and Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Officers will be elected, a governing committee formed, and a subscription fund opened to support the volunteers.
Endorsement
A copy of a letter from Lord Dundas to the Marquis of Stafford is also included, commending the loyalty and zeal of local people, but advising that officers should not be elected.
About this document
Pottery manufacturer Enoch Wood collected this document, which is now among the collections at Stoke-on-Trent Museums.
Goldendale ironworks
Date: 1967
Description: Goldendale Ironworks, Tunstall. Situated in the Chatterley Valley just outside the most northen pottery town of Tunstall, the Goldendale Ironworks and the nearby Ravensdale Ironworks employed a high number of local men. It was not, however, any serious competition for the daddy of Stoke's ironworks, at Shelton.
Close by is Brindley's canal tunnel of 1777 (now closed) and the still operational Telford's tunnel of 1828. These tunnels run underneath Harecastle Hill and presented an enormous challenge to both Brindley and Telford.
Telfords tunnel had a towpath for the horses; it is still in use today, but the towpath is gone. There is also a dussused railway tunnel through the hill.
Date: 1960
Description: Goldendale Ironworks was situated on the outskirts of Tunstall, just below the cemetery. In the background is Harecastle Hill and Harecastle Farm, where in the days of the canal boats the women or children would walk the horses over the hill whilst the men 'legged' the narrow boat through the mile-long Harecastle tunnel.
The works closed in the late 1960's and the was land reclaimed. The new Tunstall Western By-pass runs just the other side of the works.
Tile Press, Johnson Bros, Tunstall
Date: 1925
Description: Two women operating a press during tile manufacture at Johnson’s Bros., Tunstall. The woman on the left is operating the press whilst the woman on the right places the tiles into saggars and lifts them onto a conveyor belt.
Heavy work such as this was commonplace in the industry. Note that the press is hand operated.
A postcard showing Tunstall's park gates, circa 1913.
Tile Bank, Tunstall
Date: 1930
Description: A large bottle oven and a room full of saggars at an unknown tile bank in Tunstall. The kiln door has been sealed and is in the process of firing. Tiles would be placed into the saggars to protect them during coal firing.
Notice the steel bands around the oven to keep the brickwork in place under the tremendous heat during firing.
Williamson Street, Tunstall.
Date: 1950
Description: The lower end of Williamson Street, Tunstall joining Scotia Road. The sign in the centre of the photograph is Walter Sylvester Ltd., Motor and General Engineers.
For more images like this check out the Potteries Museum theme explorer
Comments
Good link WM very
Good link WM very interesting.
well done, interesting
well done, interesting photos, makes you relise how easy and non labour intensive our work is nowdays, so is that why th canal water this end is sometimes orange due to the iron in the ground?
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