Hanley

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Critchlows Corner

The building in view was a Post Office and General Stores, the area was known as "Critchlows Corner" after the name of the family that owned the shop. The post office was the only one in the area. At the age of 10 I would cycle to the Post Office to collect our familys child benefit.
The bridge in the background was used by railway engines taking coal from Hem Heath Colliery to Florence Colliery. The trains travelled slowly and on many occasions I have "caught" the train to Longton Park as the line passed it.
Sadly the shop no longer exists and the gardens in which it stood are now a small housing estate. The rail line is no longer ...read more here
A memory of Blurton contributed by David Moore

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 ...read more here
A memory of Longton contributed by Barbara johnson

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 ...read more here
A memory of Longton contributed by Barbara johnson

Good times

We came down from Scotland to Stoke in 1953 as my dad had got a job in the newly opened Pit Hem Heath. As children we used to stay at the house which is sitting in front of the pit . We used to go across the brook on the pipe what ran from one side to the other so we could buy sweets from the pit canteen and wave to the miners, many of who we knew as dads friends and workmates, then back across the pipe to play in the fields all round the house which is still there. Sadly the pit no longer stands but we had some really good times. In case anybody reads this and worked ...read more here
A memory of Hem Heath contributed by pauline thorley