Tunstall is the youngest of the "five towns" which go to make up the Staffordshire Potteries, but it is one of the most vigorous and flourishing of them. Ward, in his history, so far back as 1843, states that "Tunstall from being a small village of scattered inhabitants had become a large and populous town, and had furthermore exhibited such an extraordinary increase within the present century as could scarcely be paralleled" If this was true of the Tunstall of more than half a century ago, it is more than ever true of the Tunstall of to-day.

In 1851, eight years after the historian wrote, the population was 9,566; to-day it is estimated at 27,850. In 1851, the rateable value was £18,788; in 1906, it was £67,284. The chief manufacture of the town is earthenware, and the products of many of the local firms are of world-wide reputation. Coal and iron are largely raised in the town and its immediate neighbourhood. The Chatterley-Whitfield Collieries, one of the largest and best on the local coalfield, are close to the town, and the huge collieries and ironworks of Messrs. Robert Heath and Sons are situated only a short distance away. There is also a considerable manufacture of bricks and tiles.

The town has a station on the Loop Line of the North Staffordshire Railway, and also a station on the main line (from Stoke to Manchester) on the same railway, at Chatterley. The Trent and Mersey Canal passes it. The town has had the benefit of good and enlightened government for many years past, and there are few modern institutions which it lacks. The Chairman of the Urban Council goes by the name of the Chief Bailiff, or Chief Constable, a title borne by the principal townsman in the early part of the last century. In 1837, the Lighting and Watching Act was adopted; in 1847, the Tunstall Improvement Act (under which the market was bought) came into operation; in 1855, a Local Board of Health was set up; and in 1894, the present Urban Council came into being. The town was divided into two wards, but owing to extensions of boundary, the additional wards of Chell and Goldenhill have been created.

An application for the incorporation of the town is talked of. The Town Hall, a structure of red brick and stone in the Renaissance style, was erected in 1885 at a cost of about £14,000, and faces the Market-square. A fine block of public buildings stands in Station road. Of these, the chief is the Victoria Institute, built to commemorate the Jubilee of Queen Victoria, which comprises School of Science, Art, and Technology, public library, and museum. A splendid work is carried on in this building. The study of art has been co-ordinated in the town, and the students are engaging in the application of art to pottery with ever-increasing success. The other buildings are public baths, fire brigade station, and drill hall, with armoury adjoining. The recreation ground is close by. A handsome park is in course of construction. In the Market-place stands a clock tower, erected to the memory of Sir Smith Child, Bart., a benefactor of the town and district. The Marketplace is open every day (except Sunday) for the sale by wholesale of marketable commodities, and a spacious market hall is open on Mondays and Saturdays, on which days cheap market return tickets are issued on both main and loop lines in the surrounding towns.