"In White's Directory of 1834 for Staffordshire, Hanley was described as a large modern town, the largest in the Potteries and second in Staffordshire only to Wolverhampton, its streets were spacious and well paved, its houses ere neat and some of them were, like the public edifices, elegant. Small wonder then that this capital town of the whole Fowlea Valley should name a little group of its new streets after those in London. So we have Cheapside, Piccadilly and Pall Mall."

Portrait of the Potteries p56

The nearby town of Newcastle-under-Lyme was a centre of hat manufacture... 

"The most notable industry in Newcastle during the 17th and 18th centuries was the making of felt hats. As early as 1570 a hatter, Richard Norton, is recorded...

The existence of hatters presupposes that of feltmakers, of whom, in the 17th century, there was a considerable number as may be gathered from parish register entries. 

At a borough election in 1734 out of 436 burgesses on the roll 159 were described as hatters.  In the late 18th century the number of hat manufacturers totalled 27,  while in 1822 out of 1,000 householders in the borough, 307 were described as hat manufacturer, feltmaker, or hatter.  

In the early 19th century machinery was introduced, in particular a carding machine and a blowing machine for the separation of short and coarse hairs from the wool or nap. The latter was the invention of James Astley Hall, a a native of Newcastle and one of the chief hat manufacturers. 

Although in 1844 the chief manufacture of the town was still described as that of hats which were prepared for the finishers in London, the growing popularity of the silk hat for the upper and middle classes and of the cloth cap for industrial workers brought about a decline in the demand for felt hats. By the early 20th century the local manufacture of hats had ceased. The fact that in 1836 there were three straw-hat makers and in 1851 twelve  may indicate an attempt to establish an alternative, though short-lived, headgear industry of a very different kind."

Victoria History of the County of Stafford Vol. VIII