The Hales family of
Cobridge
The
Anglican community at Cobridge was supported by two important families - the
Hales and the Adams families.
The
Hales family lived at Cobridge House (now the site of St Augustine Home) from
the late 17th to the 19th century.
John
Hales (c. 1736-179 ) married Dorothy the widow of John Adams, potter, of the Brick
House, Burslem. She was 12 years his senior and he set up as a pottery
manufacturer with his stepson William Adams. A formal deed of partnership was
drawn up in 1775 between John Hales, William Adams, and Thomas Hales, for the
purpose of carrying on the business as co-partners and joint traders "in
the art, trade, and mystery or occupation of a Potter”, for twenty-one
years, with a joint capital of £1,000. The Thomas Hales referred to in the
deed married Mary the sister of William Adams. John Hales was also involved in
a partnership with John Sparrow, attorney, of Newcastle-under-Lyme. In the
1770s they bought an estate at Smallthorne for £2,403 6s 8d. and subsequently
formed the Cockshead Colliery Company to exploit the mineral reserves under
the land.
The
pottery factory run by John Hales and William Adams was on Cobridge Road (near
the present "Edgware Street"). The local “Turnpike Road” was
the present “Century Street’ (previously 'Brook Street') and was the main
access road to Hanley from the North before the construction of Waterloo Road.
There was an area of land west of Cobridge Road in the ownership of John
Hales, Esq. His son, also John Hales, subsequently built almost 40 terrace
houses on the land nearest to Cobridge Road at the centre of which was
“Hales Square”.
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