Broad Street, Hanley, from Ashworth's chimney (late 1960's)

Broad Street, Hanley, from Ashworth's chimney (late 1960's)

Bottle ovens were still a prominent feature of the landscape in the late 1960s, judging by this spectacular view from the top of one of Hanley’s tallest chimneys. In fact, it was the last opportunity to capture this particular scene for posterity because the towering stack at Ashworth’s pottery was demolished after the picture was taken.

With Broad Street running down the centre, the photograph shows scores of old properties which have vanished to make way for the Potteries Way ring road. 
These included a small estate of prefab houses built to meet a post-war housing shortage. A reader brought up in one of the prefabs says when these houses were provided they were the only ones in that area with a bathroom and inside toilet. They also boasted ‘warm air ducting’, which preceded central heating.

In the bottom right-hand corner are a bottle oven belonging to Mason’s Ironstone pottery and one end of Old Betty Plant’s sweet factory The works in the centre with three bottle ovens close together is an electrical porcelain firm which was known as EOA — Electrical Ordinance and Accessories. 
Shelton Parish Church stands out in the middle distance. 
Swinnerton’s pottery and Cannon Street Schools also visible on the left. 
The chimney in front of the church — formerly part of Dix’s Brewery — is one of the few still standing today. 
However, everything in the picture was later dwarfed by the 240-foot-high Unity House, built in the mid-1970s on a site previously occupied by some of the prefabs.

Sentinel Newspaper 25 Jan 2003