Posts Tagged ‘Newcastle’

Stoke-on-Trent’s First Art Schools

September 19th, 2010

The Great Exhibition 1851

The Potteries School of Design was Stoke-on-Trent’s first art school. Opened on January 25th, 1847, the school held evening classes in Hanley, Stoke and Longton. Students were taught elementary drawing, basic design, freehand painting and modelling.

Its first headmaster, John Murdock, and his successor, John Charles Robinson, made the school a centre of excellence. The students won national prizes and were awarded scholarships enabling them to continue their studies at the Government School of Design in London. Pottery they designed impressed everyone who visited the Great Exhibition in 1851 and plans were made to open more art schools in North Staffordshire.

The scheme was made public at a meeting held in the Wesleyan Schoolroom, Burslem on January 19th, 1853. Ambitious and progressive, it involved creating a regional College of Art and Technology, with University status, at Shelton and building branch art schools in Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Longton and Newcastle. North Staffordshire’s most generous philanthropist, Smith Child, and leading pottery manufacturer Herbert Minton offered to help finance the project. Civic leaders and industrialists refused to support the venture which was abandoned.

Shortly afterwards two small design schools were established – one in Newcastle, the other in Burslem. Monthly fees for students attending classes at the Burslem school were 1/9d (9p) for men and 1/6d (7.5p) for women. The headmaster was William Jabez Mückley. Born at Audnam in Worcestershire and educated at Stourbridge, he was a fruit and flower painter whose work had been exhibited at the Royal Academy. Classes were held in the assembly room at the Legs of Man, an old coaching inn frequented by thieves and prostitutes.

Despite the venue, William was a popular teacher whose personality could attract and retain students. His classes were always oversubscribed and he was forced to turn students away. Although the school gave Burslem well trained pottery designers and skilled crafts persons, neither the board of health, which governed the town, nor local manufacturers were willing to help it find new premises. The school closed in 1858 when William was appointed headmaster of Wolverhampton Art School.

(Copyright Betty Cooper – The Phoenix Trust 2010)

 

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The Advertiser – Staffordshire’s First Newspaper

September 16th, 2010

Staffordshire’s first newspaper, the Staffordshire Advertiser, was founded by Stafford printer Joshua Drury.

The first edition was published on January 3rd, 1795. It cost four pence (2p) and had four pages. Each page was divided into five columns containing news, features, poems and advertisements printed in small type without illustrations. Mail coaches brought the paper to inns and taverns in Newcastle and the Potteries where workmen gathered to have the news read to them.

England and her allies had been at war with France for two years and the paper carried news of the campaigns in Europe. It informed readers that Royal Navy warships were setting sail from Portsmouth to intercept the French fleet which was cruising in the English Channel. A dispatch from Poland told them the Russians had captured Warsaw and massacred 20,000 men, women and children. Reports from Holland showed that the Dutch disliked the British troops sent to defend them and were hoping to make peace with the French.

Home news included George III’s announcement that the Prince of Wales was going to marry Princess Caroline of Brunswick. There was a detailed account of the state opening of Parliament and the debates following the King’s speech.

Rather surprisingly very little local news was reported. Readers were told that Wolverhampton magistrate Edward Hickman had sent a rogue and vagabond, Benjamin Smith, to the House of Correction but neither Newcastle nor the Potteries were mentioned.

(Betty Cooper – The Phoenix Trust 2010)

 

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The Potteries in 1795 (Part Four)

August 29th, 2010

In parts one two and three of our edited extracts from Aikin’s “A Description of the Country From Thirty to Forty Miles Round Manchester” we saw what Goldenhill, Newfield, Greenfield, Tunstall, Longport, Burslem, Cobridge, Etruria, Hanley and Shelton were like during the last decade of the 18th century. Part Four, the last article in the series describes Stoke, Fenton and Longton in 1795.

STOKE

Stoke is a parish town with a large, ancient, well endowed church which has several chapels and churches under it. The town, like most other parts of the pottery has improved much since the Trent & Mersey Canal was cut. It contains some handsome buildings and from its closeness to a wharf on the canal is well situated for trade. There are many earthenware manufacturers some of whom own large factories. At this place, a gentleman by the name of Spode used the first steam engine to grind flint. The river Trent passes here, at times with rapidity although the brick arches which carry the canal over the river do not seem to have sustained much damage. J. Whieldon, Esq. has a pleasant rural residence here. A new road has lately been made from Stoke to join the main London Road between Newcastle and Trentham.

FENTON AND LONGTON

Fenton and Longton conclude the pottery beyond Stoke. Longton is much larger than Fenton. Part of Stoke parish it has a church, a Methodist Chapel and meeting houses for dissenters. These towns, particularly Longton, manufacture large quantities of earthenware; but it is said to be with less attention than in the other parts of the pottery, consequently it is of inferior quality although there are a few factories whose ware is second to none. At Fenton there is the residence of Charles Smith, Esq. and Sir John Edensor Heathcote lives at Longton Hall.

Some earthenware is also manufactured at Newchapel, Wolstanton, Red Street, Newcastle, Norton and a few other places.

The Potteries in 1795 (Part Four) – Edited by the Phoenix Trust

 

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