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Ash Bank
Ash Bank maps
Historic maps of Ash Bank and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Ash Bank maps
Ash Bank photos
We have no photos of Ash Bank, although we do have photos of these nearby places:
Normacot| Weston Coyney| Wetley Rocks| Caverswall| Longton| Stockton Brook| Hanley| Blurton| Burslem| Cheddleton| Endon| Brown Edge| Wolstanton| Porthill| Newcastle| Trentham| Cheadle| Goldenhill| Leek| Kidsgrove
Ash Bank area books
Displaying 1 of 4 books about Ash Bank and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Ash Bank
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Staffordshire memories
The Then Unknown
I remember going to school one morning, when a convoy of army lorries was going past, they were Americans, I did not realise it until several years later that I was witnessing the beginning of the invasion of Europe. To the shout of "Any gum, chum?"' to the passing lorries, I got loads of gum and I think there were also malted milk tablets. It never occurred to us that some of soldiers could be dead in a matter of days, but we were kids and did not have such thoughts. Even though it is over 65 years ago several of from the class of 1945 still meet bi-monthly for a meal, there are usually nine or ten of us, although all of us no longer live in Werrington, we still meet up. One comes over from Leicester (John Sherwin), we even had Stan Gilman with us from Canada, Stan was visiting his rrother Ray. Peter Thornsby (Stowemarket) has threatened us with a visit during spring. The school we attended... Read more
A Place in History! 1944 - 1963
I hope this memory of Normacot is the first of many to be placed by me and then hopefully by others.
I was born in 1944 in Lower Spring Road, (opposite Garbutts Toffee Factory), one of a family of 5 children ... Len, me! (Jeff), Dave, Rob and little sister Dorothy (Dotty). We had a very active young life, school at Uttoxeter Primary and then Queensberry Secondary Modern, nd played games (now hardly ever played by current generations) on the Alhambra Banks for hours with an army of friends no matter what the weather! We were a handful as I remember, and I'm sure that our neighbours will confirm that we were never nasty or bad, just young people enjoying safe, memorable and helpful young lives. We also formed a group that practised in the chapel at the top of Chaplin Road and had fans that followed the group over the Potteries for many years. I remember the majority of our friends as we grew up and formed our... Read more
My Mom's Side Was From Normacot
My grandparents and great grandparents lived on Lower Spring Road from the late 1800s until the houses were torn down. I spent a couple of years there in the 1960s when I lived with them. I have to say I had a lot of fun there. Seems like every time I went to the store I got candy or ice cream from the owners. And the home made bread Grandma got was the best ever. Not to mention the meat pies that the chip shop cooked. Kathy
Evacuation
My brother and I, aged six and a half and five, were evacuated to Wetley Rocks at the outbreak of war in 1939. We only stayed for six weeks but the time is imprinted on my mind. We were billeted in a farmhouse which belonged to, I believe, the Ridgway family who lived in a grander house nearby, now demolished. Miss Ridgway lived there with her brother. Their father was a pottery manufacturer. The farmhouse had a room with a large table, covered in white crockery, and glass-fronted cupboards containing the same. There was a cowman who I think was conscripted but I was told that his name was Mr Moss and he was still alive in 1991. We attended the village school - mornings one week and afternoons the next. Arriving in Wetley Rocks we were deposited in the school and given beakers of tea and a banana. On arrival at the farmhouse we went to see the cows being milked and coming out I slipped in a fresh... Read more
Recollections of A Special Village
I attended Sunday School in the 1960s at St Peter's School, Caverswall and my teacher was Mr Harp. He was a great inspiration to me as a budding historian and he sometimes took us to visit the castle and taught us much about the church. I remember being taken by Mrs Yates (the former Vicar's wife) as Brown Owl and Christine Tranter (Tawny Owl) to Caverswall Square and being taught, with other Brownies, to use the telephone box. We would attend church parades at St Peter's, often marching from the school grounds and presenting our standards. Christmas parties were at great hit, with Bert Poole in charge of the games and music. My friends Ruth and Jane Tranter had bicycles and it was still safe in those days to cycle round the village. St Peter's Church was a very important location in my childhood, however, the first time I went inside St Philomena's RC Church was on the Millennium Eve, when the 2 churches had a joint service, part of... Read more
BELCHER'S
Running parallel at the back of this church [St James] runs High street, where I was born as generations of my family were.
The two pot banks on the right represent a fraction of the "Belcher's"
that existed in Longton in the 30s/4os, they dominated everyone who lived amongst them with their endless stream of black smoke belching six days a week and covering all the buildings with soot and dirt. Night time brought short relief, until the next firing. Wash days were a nightmare, clothes went on to the line clean only to be covered later on with black spots that poured down relentlessly from the heavy smoky skies. White washing was unheard of in the Potteries until the eventual closure of the pot banks.
Perhaps on reflection in the late evenings when the kilns stood like silent sentries, silhuette outlines in the night skies, we should remember the generations of potters who worked endlessly in all this grime who gave us once an industry 2nd... Read more
My Early Years in Longton - 1870s to 1940s
I was born in Longton in 1933 at 151 High Street Post Office, Longton.
All my childhood was spent there with my grandmother Sarah Wright and my great aunt Matilda Ward (my grandmother's sister). Between them they ran the Post Office until the middle years of the Second World War.
Before it was a Post Office, my great grandfather William Ward had a tailoring business there, from 1871 until it changed to the Post Office around about the early 1900s.
This is when his two daughters took over and carried on with the family business.
Next door at 153, my great grandfather's son William Ward junior ran a mens' hairdressing shop and a newsagent ...approx c1900.
It really was the happiest time of my life with so many friends around me. The High Street was one great big family with many shops that stretched on either side of the street. It was a great place to live, and I feel privileged to have lived there at this time.
