The war years

American servicemen

For quite a long time during the war years, there was a large number of American servicemen stationed in and around the City (eighth Army Air Force). Many of them could be found occupying the American Red Cross building in Hanley, opposite to what used to be the Gas showrooms, since those days the building has housed several other tenants, the last one to my knowledge was the Halifax Building Society, not sure who is occupying it now.

As with all military personnel they had their own Military Police. In the case of the American forces these were called "Snowballs" on account of the white steel helmets worn by them. The carried truncheons about two feet in length, not concealed, but hanging by a leather thong from their wrists. I have seen them in action more than once outside the public house in Stafford Street, which at the time was called "The Port Vale”, (opposite Lewis's Store) not sure what name it goes under today. Their truncheons were applied liberally and the recipients unceremoniously thrown into the back of a Jeep and whisked away to face the wrath of their Commanding Officer. Red Caps, Shore Petrol, and British Police, all were called, depending on which authority had the responsibility, usually all of them arrived at the disturbance at the same time knowing from experience there would be several units involved.

The usual cause of these disturbances was to much to drink, women, and the abundance of ladies nylon stockings available only to the American servicemen, in those days some of the women would go to any lengths to secure a pair of these stockings, quite a few of these women had a lot of explain to do to their husbands when they returned from Military service. Fighting caused by inter-force rivalry were very few.

Women's employment

A great many women worked full time in a variety of jobs such as pottery, light engineering, and at Radway Green, also Swinnerton Ordnance factories. People who worked in the powder room of these ordnance factories suffered from colouring of the skin and hair which turned a yellowish green. I am not aware of any other side effects, but no doubt there must have been some.

There were women working at the Miner's Welfare centre which was attached to the rear of Granville School. This centre was brought into use for the sole reason of supplying sandwiches for the coal Miners, who, during the time of rationing were allowed extra food; cheese in particular. I have stood many hours during my School days at Granville looking through the windows, watching the ladies spreading margarine on the slices of bread and putting the onto the conveyer belt to send them to another area where the filling was put on, They were sent next to the packing department to be wrapped and put into containers for distribution to various pits.

Sadly the school has been demolished along with all the houses in the close vicinity. The land was at first turned into an overflow car park to accommodate the anticipated volume of traffic for the festival gardens. I spent almost every day visiting the gardens with my season ticket, it was the best thing that happened to the area, sadly it was to come to an end all to soon. After the land was used to build a brand new school which seems to be doing very well, a lot of money has been ear-marked for the redevelopment of the Cobridge area. The decline of the local industry has caused the employment situation to increase dramatically. Shelton Bar is no longer in production, and a great  many of the Pottery factories have closed, or are working at a greatly reduced output putting lots of people out of work. Perhaps in the future some of the “High Tech” businesses will move into the area and bring full employment once again to this industrial wilderness.

Cobridge pottery companies

During the time of my childhood, Cobridge was a very busy place with  numerous  Pottery  factories: Myatts, New Hall, Blue John, Dudsons, Furnivals, Soho (Simpsons), and Ridgways, all these pottery factories were very close together. lf you stood by Cobridge traffic lights you could have seen all of them from that spot. Ridgeway’s had a large beehive shaped building which I believe was used to store straw which was used to pack the crockery into the crates for distribution.

Top of Granville Street - looking towards the old Myott factory
photo: Ken Cubley

Simpson's Soho works

The Co-op

In the same area, but located just in front and to the side of Ridgeway's, was the Co-op emporium, I was always ready to go on an errand to the Co-op as I was intrigued with the system they had for sending money to the cashier. It consisted of overhead wires going from each department, to the central point where the cashiers office was located.

Attached to these wires was a small container into which the assistant would put the customers money and bill, attach it to the wire, pull a small handle located alongside the container and the would send it shooting across the shop above the heads of the customers. Once the cashier had dealt with the transaction, the process was repeated in reverse, complete with customers bill and change.

In those days the Co-op had a certain smell about it, this was caused by the sides of both smoked, and non-smoked bacon hanging from large hooks, the large rounds of all varieties of cheese, and many other related items, no pre-packed foods then. Also to add to this aromatic flavour, was the fresh sawdust spread liberally on the shop floor. Of course this would never be allowed today due to all the rules and regulations that govern the sale of food.

Nevertheless, it is my observation that there was substantially less illness in those days and food tasted much better with much more flavour. In my opinion all the additives into today’s foods have much to answer for, and contribute to many modern day illnesses.

Identity cards

Even as children we were required to carry identity cards. These were beige in colour and changed to blue at the age of sixteen.

We were also obliged to carry gas masks with us at all times. There were three different types: One had a large celluloid window to see through and another, which we called the “Mickey Mouse” had two separate glass eye windows and a separate nose piece, with which very rude noises could be made. The final type was used for very young babies, this was a large container like a carry-cot with a very big celluloid window and was made of canvass and rubber. The infant was placed inside it and the whole lot was sealed to make it airtight. On the outside was a bellows type of pump which had to be worked by the baby's parent so as to keep the baby alive.

the “Mickey Mouse” gas mask

Usually at the weekends the local Home Guard held exercises and set up local check points at which identity cards had to he produced. As is the nature of children, we took delight in passing through the check points time and time again. In retrospect, I have wondered why the soldiers never queried how we got past their check points so easily. We did it by climbing the wall of one of the houses that lead into the next street, thus avoiding the check point.

Greyhound Stadium

Just beyond Cobridge traffic lights was the Greyhound Stadium where greyhound racing took place. The amount of  people who frequented the Stadium on race nights was unbelievable. Crowds could be seen going, or queuing at the ground very much the same as at a football match. The race track had an official betting arrangement called the Tote. This was a large building which stood at one end of the track and displayed in lights the result of the race, money won, betting odds and any other information to do with the racing. This was one of the only forms of legal gambling there was and on the race nights quite a number of us went up to the Stadium and climbed on a high wall to watch the activities inside the ground.

This was frowned upon greatly by the officials and more so by the police. So much in fact that policeman paid special attention to the area on race nights and more often than not caught us. This resulted in us having names taken, and a good telling off, and sometimes having our ears boxed.

Emergency water supply

In some of the streets, large water tanks could be found. We called them static water tanks but the official title was EWS (Emergency water supply). These tanks were filled with something like twenty thousand gallons of water and were used by the locals as an open air swimming pool. After sometime in the summer the aroma that came from the stagnant water in the tank left a lot to be desired as over the weeks the water in the tanks became polluted by various objects and as often than not by the dead bodies of cats and dogs. It was a great event when the firemen came to change the water and a close up view of the fire tenders was always enjoyed.