"At the beginning of the 19th century Lane End (later known as Longton) appears to have been a settlement of irregular layout, covering a wide area but with many scattered houses serving individual potworks, ironstone mines, and coal pits.

As the century proceeded the town became more solidly built-up and the earlier courts and terraces, hemmed in by later streets, soon degenerated into slums. In the Edensor district, in John Street (now Calvin Street), in Locketts Lane, and in the area round St. James's Church conditions in the later 19th century were probably as bad as anywhere in the Potteries.

Even after the Second World War a square of thirteen houses at the junction of Normacot Road and Chelson Street was served by only one tap and one water-closet.....

By 1960 nearly all the poorer housing in Longton had been demolished and the sites were either vacant or, as in the Edensor area, had been used for new streets of council houses

From: 'Longton', A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 8 (1963)

1922 OS map of Longton showing Lockett's Lane

Rose Cottage, Locketts Lane, Longton  1991

photo: Eileen Hallam