Pubs symbolised town's reliance on the railway

I've just found a interesting article about 1960's Tunstall from the Sentinel.

I T'S TIME to take some respite from our journey along the Loop Line. And what better place than a pub, situated for convenience, near the station.

"Before 1960 there were dozens of pubs throughout the Potteries with names that reflected their association with the railways," says historian Steve Birks.

"The Station Inn, The Railway Hotel and The Locomotive were typical. But when the Loop Line closed in 1965, many of these names were changed to suit fashionable surroundings. Either that or they were indifferently demolished to favour modernisation."

Nowhere in Stoke-on-Trent is this more noticeable than in Tunstall. A former resident now living on the Isle of Man, Brenda Kitching, aged 85, was born in The Station Inn in Station Road, now called The Boulevard. The pub on the opposite side of the road was called The Loop Line, and both disappeared around 1965 when the railway closed and a new town centre bypass callously buried both hostelries.

"The last time I was in Tunstall I couldn't recognise it. It looks as though it was never part of the Potteries. Everything has been changed to modern retail," Brenda laments.

"The Station Inn was next to the Queen Victoria Jubilee Buildings. Walking along to the Loop Line station was a treat in itself, passing the Memorial Gardens and Barber's Palace cinema, and a row of impressive villas opposite the station entrance.

"A short distance further on, the park opened up into tree-lined dusty lanes below Stanfields. Our two pubs were favourites with travellers who would call carrying their luggage, arriving and departing. I used the Loop Line station a lot going to Hanley with my mother. It was an exciting journey. Travelling by train always is though, isn't it?"

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