Tunstall - one of the Six Towns of Stoke-on-Trent

`Furlong Road` (Tunstall) looking from Christ Church at the top of Tunstall High St. towards Pittshill.
on the right is the Greengates pottery works of William Adams & Sons

The bridge in the picture carries a spur line used to transport
raw materials (clay, etc) to Newfield Pottery via Tunstall.
The Loop Line bridge is out of sight over the next hill.
To the right is the Adams Greengates Pottery Works

Tunstall is the most northern town of the city. Historians have found that iron was being produced in the town as far back as 1280. It stands on a ridge surrounded by old tilemaking and brickmaking sites, some of which probably date back to the late middle ages.

Lord of the Manor Walter Sneyd, Esq. of Keel, was lord of the manor.

"TUNSTALL is a considerable village within the township of Tunstall Court, a liberty in the parish of Wolstanton, four miles from Newcastle, pleasantly situated on an eminence, deriving its name from the Saxon word, tun or ton, a town, and stall, an elevated place, seat or station."

"In this township abounds coal, ironstone, marl and fine channel coal; and the manufactories of earthenware are very extensive here."
1828 journal

Dates in the history of Tunstall

1282 - References to coal mining at Tunstall.
1821 - Tunstall Court liberty contained 2,622 inhabitants.
1885 - Tunstall's new Town Hall completed. Designed by A. R. Wood.
1893 - Clock Tower erected in Tunstall's Tower Square - on the site of the original Town Hall.
1894 - Tunstall and Fenton became urban districts.

Dates in the history of Stoke-on-Trent

Facts about Tunstall from old journals

The grand Trunk canal is within half a mile of the village; and the Harecastle tunnel, running nearly two miles underground, is within a short distance.
There is a spacious market, erected in 1858. The market days are Saturday and Monday, the former being the principal. There are no fairs.,
In the Market Square is a clock-tower (1893) commemorating Sir Smith Child, of Stallington Hall, a great benefactor to the town.
The chief manufacture of the town is earthenware; there are also extensive iron work for the manufacture of pig, bar, and sheet iron.

"Walks" and articles on Tunstall
and the surrounding area

Tunstall:
In this township abounds coal, ironstone, marl and fine channel coal; and the manufactories of earthenware are very extensive here.

Brownhills:
"Brownhills is situate upon the main Turnpike Road (from Burslem to Lawton,) at the junction of the Branch which comes from Newcastle through Longport; and is at nearly equal distances from the market-places of Tunstall and Burslem; which are rather more than a mile apart. It is within the township of Burslem, which extends, north-westward, as far as an inn called High gate, close up to the town of Tunstall."

Brownhills & Dr. Oliver:
The young surgeon, Dr Thomas Oliver, cut a pathetic figure as he was led to the gallows at Stafford Gaol in 1797 for shooting dead John Wood of Brownhills.

Ladywell, Tunstall:
'a town of courts, wells and windmills' The road to Tunstall from Brownhills leads through St Mary’s and Ladywell areas of Tunstall, the most northern of the Six Towns.

Adams and Greengates, Tunstall:
“One family from Tunstall goes back to 1299,” the early Adams’s owned quite a bit of land in Tunstall and had rich relations in adjacent counties.

Boathorse Road, Harecastle, Goldenhill:
The Harecastle tunnel - an essential part of the transport system to take raw materials and finished ware to and from the Potteries.

James Brindley:
'bad planning or pioneer of transport engineering?'

the historic boatman's walk to Kidsgrove:
“The old legging tunnel was a three hours journey giving the boatmen plenty of time to meet their boat while they walked their horses over the top,”

Kidsgrove:
'getting into the spirit of a truly historic town' They reckon that Kidsgrove is full of ghosts. Never mind the canal boggart Kit Crewbucket, just listen to the good burghers and you’ll realise what an assembly of apparitions this place is.

Famous potters located in the town have been the Adams dynasty of potters as well as Alfred Meakin, Booths and Enoch Wedgwood.
Decorative ceramic tiles are still made in Tunstall by H and R Johnson-Richards Tiles Ltd.

List of potters who were located in Tunstall