The Phoenix Trust supports the campaign to save Fenton Town Hall.
On his Facebook page, David Martin, the trust’s Chief Executive, wrote: “Stoke-on-Trent does not value its heritage. If we allow Fenton Town Hall to be demolished every historic building in The Potteries faces an uncertain future. Everyone who cares about Stoke-on-Trent’s built heritage should support the campaign to save Fenton Town Hall. If the battle to save the town hall is lost, many people believe that other historic buildings in the city, including The Victoria Institute in Tunstall and The Wedgwood Institute in Burslem, could be knocked down.”
An international heritage lawyer and historian, David believes that if the town hall is demolished “the heart will be ripped out of Fenton” and it will become a ghost town.
At one time Stoke-on-Trent City Council put people first. Today, all it seems to care about is regenerating Hanley. People living in other parts of the city are justified in thinking that their town does not matter.
During the 18th century Hanley and Shelton became the most important towns in The Potteries.
Between 1762 and 1801 their populations grew from 2,000 to 7,940. Hanley’s first church, St. John’s, erected in 1738 was enlarged during the 1760s. Stage coaches called at The Swan, an old inn in the town centre. Pack horses and wagons carried ware from Hanley and Shelton to the Weaver Navigation’s wharfs at Winsford and brought back ball clay and household goods. A covered market designed by architect James Trubshaw was built in Town Road during 1776.
The Trent & Mersey and the Caldon Canal stimulated economic expansion and population growth.
Entrepreneurs opened factories and iron works. People from the surrounding countryside came to Hanley looking for work and new houses were constructed.
In 1791, a trust was formed to acquire the market hall and build a town hall. The trustees leased land in Market Square from John Bagnall, the Lord of the Manor, where they erected a town hall.
Markets were held in the square on Wednesdays and Saturdays. A fortnightly cattle market was established at the beginning of the 19th century. In 1813, Parliament gave the trustees power to regulate the market place and make by-laws. The trustees demolished the old town hall and built a poultry market and a stone lock up where prisoners were held until they were brought before the Magistrates’ Court which sat in a room at the Swan Inn.
Punishments in the 18th century were severe and intended to deter the offender by degrading and humiliating him.
Men found guilty of being drunk and disorderly were put in the stocks and pelted with bad eggs, rotten tomatoes and potato peelings by jeering crowds. Women convicted of street fighting or brawling were placed on the ducking stool and dipped in Clementson’s Pool until they begged for mercy. Men and women caught stealing from market stalls were tried at the county Quarter Sessions and received a public whipping or were transported to Australia for seven years.
Despite these draconian penalties, law and order broke down. The annual wakes turned into a drunken orgy which was followed by rioting and looting.
Fearing for their own safety, Hanley’s unpaid constables turned a blind eye when serious crimes were committed. In the evenings, robbers lurked in doorways waiting to pounce on unsuspecting victims walking home through narrow unlit streets.
Having no confidence in the constables, residents employed watchmen to patrol the streets and protect their property. A society for the prosecution of felons was formed and in 1825 a professional police force was created.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council hopes to sell the Stoke Town Development Site, which includes the Spode Works, the Civic Centre, the Town Hall, the King’s Hall and Gordon House.
Already 29 organisations have shown an interest.
Engineering consultants Wardell Armstrong have been commissioned to carry out structural surveys of buildings on the site and a flood risk assessment.
Councillor Ruth Rosenau, cabinet member for regeneration, planning and transformation, said: “The results of these preparatory surveys will make the site more attractive to interested parties and help to secure a development partner to regenerate the area.”
Money from the sale of the site will be used to help finance the new civic centre which is being created in Hanley.
A report, by Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners and Lunson Mitchenall, assessing the need for more shops in Stoke-on-Trent says there is limited scope for new retail development in the city centre.
The report prepared for Capital Shopping Centres, who own The Potteries Centre in Hanley, claims the evidence on which Stoke-on-Trent’s planning policy is based is out of step with today’s economic climate and needs updating.
According to the report, Stoke-on-Trent does not need any major new retail outlets in the foreseeable future and its authors ask whether the City Sentral development scheme is economically viable.
North Staffordshire’s popular daily newspaper, The Sentinel, started life in 1854.
Originally called The Staffordshire Sentinel and Commercial Advertiser, the first edition was printed and published from offices in Cheapside, Hanley on January 7th, 1854.
A weekly paper, which cost 3d, The Sentinel supported the Liberal Party and campaigned successfully to make Hanley a borough.
Its first editor was Thomas Phillips, a bookseller and printer from Northampton, who remained with the paper until 1859.
During 1860, Thomas Andrews Potter, a journalist who had worked on The Bradford Observer, bought The Sentinel becoming its owner/editor.
Introducing himself to Sentinel readers, Potter wrote in his first leader: “It will be the aim of the new proprietor to make… the Sentinel increasingly valued as the paper of this populous and thriving district. The wants of the locality will be carefully studied and its passing events will be fully and truthfully recorded through the agency of an efficient staff of reporters and correspondents.”
At 4.00pm on April 15th, 1873, Potter brought out Staffordshire’s first daily paper,The Daily Sentinel,which had four pages and cost a halfpenny.
The Daily Sentinel was a great success and by the end of the year it had readers throughout The Potteries and in Congleton, Macclesfield, Leek, Stafford, Market Drayton, Uttoxeter and Crewe.
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