Historian Fred Hughes writes....

Philip Elliott was born in Newcastle where he trained to be a draper at his father’s shop. Later in life he moved to Longton and ran two clothes shops in Fenton.

“Elliott was the typical commercial Liberal, a new breed of local representative that emerged as a strong factor on new urban councils after a number of reform acts offered an enlarged electorate a wider choice of candidates,” says Potteries historian Steve Birks.

“Naturally everyone knew the shopkeepers in their town. They were the pillars of society, admired self-made men who were always on hand for advice, always helpful to a community who were their customers as well as their constituents. Local politics before was governed by the unreachable upper classes that were predominantly landowning Conservatives holding power in the County Councils. The vast majority of people were never occupied by elections. But as the industrial towns settled to civic regulation so the electorate became more in tune with the men who looked after their interests on the doorstep.”

“Elliott and his contemporary John Shaw Goddard were seen as domestic revolutionaries,” Steve continues.

“Goddard was part of the new wave of pottery manufacturers. Both men were elected to Fenton Urban District Council in the 1890’s. Both men held high positions, and both became chairman of Fenton council. But while Elliott was fiercely opposed to federation, Goddard held a more moderate view. They were brilliant political protagonists successfully contesting the Duke of Sutherland’s court action accusing Fenton council of polluting the River Trent as it passed through Trentham. They powerfully argued Fenton’s case too when it came to settling the burning question of unequal parity of post-federation collective rates contributions. And Elliott controversially opposed Cecil Wedgwood in his bid to become the first mayor.”

Yet despite their dissent, or perhaps because of it, both men were chosen to be the third and fourth mayor of the new Stoke-on-Trent council – Elliott 1913-1915 and Goddard 1915-1917.

“They were strong characters,” declares Paul. “And they promoted Fenton at a time when it could easily have become the forgotten town that Arnold Bennett had controversially omitted. Although Fenton has proven historical antecedents it came to be seen as a place between county boroughs – a place that lay between towns on the way to somewhere else. But men like Elliott and Goddard would have none of this. Sadly nowadays Fenton has had its heart torn from it. There is no centre which is something I’d like to see addressed with improving regeneration policies.”

Fenton and Tunstall were both urban district council and consequently had no mayor prior to federation.

“All the ceremony the other towns had was denied to Fenton and Tunstall,” continues Paul. “There were no robes or chains of office, trappings that were incorporated into the new Stoke-on-Trent. Yet I have heard recently that the administrative jewel of Fenton’s civic authority, a badge denoting its heritage, has been discovered in a private collection. If it can be recovered I’d love to see it placed in the current Lord Mayor’s chain of office if only to recognise the achievements of men like Elliott and Goddard and the importance Fenton played in the making of the City of Stoke-on-Trent.”

Apart from Elliott and Goddard only four others have held the high office of Mayor and Lord Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent for consecutive terms, Cecil Wedgwood, Fred Geen and William Robinson. The last was John Henry Dale 1935-1937, although in more recent times John Birkin, Douglas Brown and William Austin have been twice elected but on separate occasions.

“Elliott felt blessed to represent Fenton referring to it as an ‘earthly paradise’,” concludes Steve. “It was a eulogy that was regularly thrown back into his face by opponents who derided a Newcastle man professing such love for Fenton yet choosing to make his home in Longton.”