The History

The city owes most of it's growth to the Industrial revolution- a process that began in the eighteenth century and continued into the seventies. Some of the earliest known records compiled during the reign of King Charles 2nd (1660-1685) saw some aspects of life, locally, one aspect that came into every home at that period was a tax of two shillings per hearth. This tax was very unpopular and was discontinued in 1689. At this time the whole of the area was rural and Burslem, the Mother Town, possessed only forty houses and Tunstall only half that number. Hanley, the shopping centre of the present city, contained few houses. The largest of which had eight hearths. The total, population at this time was said to be in the region of eighty people.

As the years passed the population of the villages forming the Potteries increased from a few hundred to several thousands. In 1738 the total population was 4,000 which by 1801 had increased to 23,706 and by 1811 to over 31,000 of which Hanley was responsible for almost 10,000 people. Fields separated the town from Burslem. The towns of the Potteries were, by the first quarter of the 19th century, deep in the Industrial revolution. It brought with it plans for a mew conception of life in the Potteries. The lane between Tunstall and Longton became a hive of industry. Houses and potbanks had been built without thought or plan in a race for wealth. Living conditions of the workers were forgotten by the owners in their effort for more and more production of ware and in their desire to build for themselves fine mansions.

Parks of the City.

Of the many parks within Stoke-on-Trent, Queens Park, Longton, which was laid out to commemorate Queen Victoria's jubilee is the oldest. The mayor of Longton turned the first turf in March 1887 when he inaugurated the scheme on 45 acres of land given to the city by the Duke of Sutherland. Entrance to the new park was by three ornamental gates bearing the armorial bearings of the Duke of Sutherland, and the borough of Longton on each. The lakes of the park covered 5 acres and the North Staffordshire Railway Company donated the 300 tons of rock used for lining the banks of the upper lake. The lower lake was four feet deep and covered 3acres when cut and was stocked for the opening with roach, carp and perch, while 1,000 trout were put into the upper lake. The park was finally opened on Wednesday, July 25th 1888 by the third Duke of Sutherland, George Granville William Sutherland Levison-Gower, K.G. He handed over the Deed of Conveyance by which the park became the perpetual property of the people of Longton. In June 1906 the bowling green and pavilion was opened.

In September 1864 a committee was formed for the purpose of looking for suitable land for a park in Hanley. Mr Paddock offered 13 acres of land at Far green at a cost of £4,000. In addition to this were 9acres of land adjoining this ground offered by Mr. J. S. Walker on behalf of the executors of Mr. Warrilow at a cost of £1,745. The committee approved these sites as suitable. The rates for the purchase of the park, it was said, would be spread over 30 years and would amount to no more than 1d in the pound. The opening ceremony of this park took place on Thursday, July 26th1894, when the Mayor of Hanley, Alderman Hammersley, opened the first section of the park. The opening ceremony of the first section took place near the junction of what is now Avenue road and Stoke road. The first section of the park had cost about £18,000 of which the ground had cost £11,000. The second part of the park was opened on Jubilee day, in June 1897, with a total cost of over £70,000. Hanley Park is the largest of the Cities Park's covering an area of over 62 acres of land, Longton Park covers 41 acres, Tunstall park 30 acres, Burslem Park 21 and Fenton Park 17 acres.

One month after the opening of Hanley Park Burslem opened their Park covering an area of 22 acres, opened on August 30th 1894. The park consisted of farmland, rough land, open pit shafts and cinder heaps. The Burslem Park lake covers about three quarters of an acre. In June 10921 the water in the lake completely disappeared down an old colliery airshaft located in the middle of the lakebed. The top filling of clay and earth of the brick lined shaft had caved in and the hole was several yards in diameter and well over 20feet deep. The opening ceremony was unforgettable. All the main streets of Burslem were decked out in buntings. Great crowds had lined the streets from the Town Hall to the park and the procession moved off at 4.10pm. It was common practice for up to 15,000 people to visit the park on a Sunday.

I feel the Park with the most interest to me, as a child was Tunstall Park. This Park was opened on June 18th 1908. It included a fine pavilion, overlooking two bowling greens; this is still there but has been vandalised over the years. Much of the labour in building this park was done by unemployed men of the town. Whist the men were getting gravel and sand from land near Chatterley Whitfield, a huge granite boulder, weighing six and a half tons, was unearthed. It was removed to a point near the clock tower. It was found that the boulder was deposited in the area during the Ice Age and had been carried by ice from 'Southern Scotland'. I have a story about this rock, when I was a youngster of 5 or 6 my dad used to take me to Tunstall Park quite often, his story of events were slightly different. He would take his cap off as we approached the boulder and pause for second. He would tell me about when he was young, he saw a bright light in the sky one night, a meteor, and it fell to the ground and landed on to a bobby who just happened to be walking past. The bobby was still under this boulder as it was to heavy to move. This I believed for some years and I even tried to tell my children the same story, but they were to clever, or I left it to late.

Fenton Park was opened on Monday April 14th 1924 at a cost of under £10,000. Alderman F. Collis opened the park. The original park covered 17 acres. On Monday October 5th 1959 the Lord Mayor Alderman Harold Clowes opened the extensions to Fenton Park. The extensions cost £40,000. The land had once been wasteland, marshy land with pit mounds. I suppose you could say this was land reclamation. The park now covers 35 acres.

In 1956 a park was opened in Bucknall, this park was laid out on the site of a former sewage works. This park has two bowling greens, tennis courts and football pitches. This park today is the flag ship of the city parks. It has developed a pets corner known locally as Finney Gardens Pet Corner and to get you around the animals you can ride a miniature railway ran by volunteers. This park is highly recommended.