This drawing from a book written in 1906 by William Scarratt called "Old Times in the Potteries" illustrated the area called 'Stoke Fields' which was purchased to build Hanley Park. 

A footpath from Stoke to Hanley is running diagonally across the picture and the path crosses the Caldon Canal over the bridge. This area was described:

"Down Stoke Fields were a few whitewashed huts with patches of garden. The Victoria Road bridge existed, but for the use of the farm only. The one to the left of the park pavilion was the one on the Stoke Fields footpath. Shardruck, mounds and ventilating shafts were far more plentiful than houses." 

Thomas Mawson, a landscape architect who later developed international distinction, designed Hanley Park  - this was one of his early commissions.  

Mawson designed gardens in various parts of Britain, and others in Europe and Canada. In 1908 he won a competition to lay out the Peace Palace gardens at The Hague.

From 1910 to 1924 Mawson lectured frequently at the school of civic design, Liverpool University In 1923 he became president of the Town Planning Institute, and in 1929 the first president of the Institute of Landscape Architects.

This bandstand and pavilion are situated in the middle of Hanley Park.  It is the largest park in the City and covers an area of over 62 acres. 

The bandstand was the benefaction of George Howson (1818-96). 

A Chartist sympathiser. Methodist and a pottery manufacturer at the Eastwood Works, Hanley. He was associated (along with J W Powell) in the development of music in the area. He founded a scholarship for North Staffordshire students in the Tonic Sol-Fa College, London