Waterloo Road station

Waterloo Road Railway station was located nearer to Vale place just below Alfred Street, (now Winifred Street) but as near to halfway between the Cobridge lights that made no difference. The railway at that time was not part of British Rail as that organisation had not been thought of, it in fact belonged to a company called L.M.S. (London Midland Scottish Railways).

The cinema

A group of us used to travel from Waterloo Road station to Burslem station every Saturday morning to go to the children's cinema matinee, either at the Palace or at the Coliseum. The princely sum of 2d was charged for the whole morning's entertainment. Heroes and baddies, as always, figured in our entertainment; Characters like Tom Mix, Gene Autrey, Hopalong Cassidy, Tex Ritter, Dick Foran and last but not least, Roy Rogers with Trigger his world famous horse were Cowboy heroes; while Flash Gordon was the man of the future in space, fighting his arch enemy Ming. It was all good fun and rarely was there more than boisterous behaviour on these outings.

Usually after the show had ended, we would walk back home to give ourselves an appetite (as if we needed one) and that took care of the morning. After dinner we would all meet again to decide where we would go for the afternoon. We had two choices: the Hollies or the Grange.

Both were local fields but lay in opposite directions the Grange was the most favoured as there was more to interest us, like the crate yard where crates were made to transport crockery,  having first packed with straw. This was a local industry and with so many pottery factories to supply was kept very busy. The wood which was first soaked in water in two very large concrete tanks set into the ground. This was done to make it more flexible, as part of the process was to weave it around the main frame and form the complete container.

Next to the crate yard was a small pond which was fed by an underground spring. This pool was a veritable paradise for newts, frog spawn, and small fish. Sadly none of these places remain and as a part of life's education is denied to today's youngsters.

 

typical Potteries crate makers c.1950

© Charles Trelfa  The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery
Staffordshire Past Tracks

Entertainment

The public house

Weekends usually saw the local public houses full. Drinking was a social activity used purely as a "get together" for a drink, a chat, and a sing song and it was very unlikely that anyone became nasty because of too much drink. Some people preferred to have a drink in the home and it was not uncommon to see the women with large earthenware jugs fetching the beer from the Granville Inn, the local public house.

There was one particular woman who had to go a little father to fetch the beer down to Vale Place to the Railway Tavern, as the beer sold there was brewed by Bass and was preferred to other brands. It was very rare to see ladies drinking spirits, the usual tipple was half a mild while the men drank bitter.  Sunday morning was reserved for a visit to the swimming baths, sometimes the indoor pool at Hanley, and, in the summer months, a visit to the Sneyd open air baths which was situated on the site once occupied by Eric Bristow's club "The Crafty Cockney" at the top of Moorland Road.

The Railway Tavern - Vale Place, bottom of Waterloo Road
photo:  Ken Cubley
 

The cinema

Another form of entertainment was the cinema which had a very big following. Many times one had to stand in a queue to get in but, as people were  used to queuing during the war, this was nothing out of the ordinary. Hanley had six picture houses: the Odeon, Regent, Capitol, Palace, Empire, and finally the Roxy which was known affectionately as the Bug Hut. There was a local saying after a visit to the Roxy: "walk in ride out". If we had been to the Capitol , even though we may have had an ice cream inside the cinema, we were always ready for a bag of small baked potatoes from the potato man who stood with his machine of gleaming brass and copper with a small bag of coal which hung beneath it. He always stood in the same place every week, at the bottom of Huntbach Street, in front of the buildings now occupied by Nat West Bank, and Boots the Chemists.

 

Life and people were much more tolerant even though the war made things unpleasant, I think that simple pleasures had a lot to do with the easy going attitude that prevailed.

Radio

Radio played a big part in everyday life. Special programmes for the workers were broadcast such as "Worker's Playtime" which came live from a factory each day with the opening remark, "Today's programme comes from a factory somewhere in England". This statement was used in an attempt to keep the enemy from guessing where the factory was located. Although television was first transmitted in 1939, the war put a stop to its development.

Each person had his own favourite radio programme whether it was comedy, topical, drama, or spine chilling. There was a show to cater for everyone's needs. I had quite a number of favourites: "Monday night at eight", "Dick Barton, special agent" and "The Man in Black", with Valentine Dyall. After listening to one of these frightening stories, it was always a ritual when going to bed to take a close look around the root and beneath the bed to see that there was no monster or whatever creature in the play was lurking there.