mis 22 Penkhull Cottage Homes celebrate Christmas.

The land discussed here was Doody’s messuage comprising of all the land and other properties from between Kirkland Lane and St.Thomas Place.

A long barn stood facing Penkhull New Road. This was converted by Spode into ten small terraced houses, going by the name of Ten Row. There was another large property, standing back from the highway and facing St Thomas Place. This now forms four cottages converted from one.  Unfortunately, the records are not very conclusive. It could have been assumed that this building, long and narrow was a barn or a group of stables, but evidence from the manor court rolls point to the fact that it was more likely to have been one dwelling house owned by Thomas Doody.

A further entry then provides the necessary evidence: a dwelling house has for many years been subdivided into and occupied as four dwelling houses, which servants belonging to the family of Josiah Spode and his late father now deceased. This conversion must have taken place after 1811 and before 1827.  Further evidence of this is contained in records for November 1858 when the owner James Dean finally paid off the mortgage on the cottages: All those four several dwelling houses situate in Penkhull, lately converted out of a certain dwelling house known as Doody’s Messuage. The next record is dated June 1899 when the court records make note of the fact that Richard Nicholls, a timber merchant from Stoke had died the previous year.

The 1841 census records Richard Nicholls,  By 1851, Richard senior was listed as a grocer from Stoke who with his wife Anne, aged 53, had handed over the timber business to his son Richard. Twenty years later in 1871, Richard junior was the only son left at home living with his widowed father.  From the document dated 1899 the row of cottages was purchased at some date before then.

Three A4 pages. This illustrates how Penkhull started to develop from the early 1800s.

By the 1840s the annual Wakes festival became an intrinsic part of the Potteries calendar as each town was described as “full of jollity”.

The “wake” of the Parish of Stoke  in 1847 was, in reality a continual series of pleasure fares, and merrymaking, for the towns of Stoke, Fenton, Longton, Hanley and Shelton. Even by then Hanley had become the centre of attraction. Here were tents, sideshows, stalls, food, and drink outlets and shows with performances every thirty minutes with their own individual gimmicks to attract a person to spend just 2 pence.

It was until recently that it was fashionable for those considering themselves the ‘upper classes’ of society to speak of the sovereign people as the “unwashed”, but in the potteries save and except stray collier in his working dress it would be difficult to find a man, woman, or child, when from their employment, with an unwashed faces or unclean hands as they are all well dressed and scrupulously clean in their Sunday best as they promenaded around town centers and above all wanted to be seen as such. Four x A4 pages full of atmosphere.

In reality there has been no potters holiday for a number of years as the industrial landscape of the Potteries of thirty years ago has long gone as there are no longer a pottery industry to speak of, no coal mines employing thousands or the Michelin at its height employing over seven thousand employees. To be correct prior to the 1970s the title was the wakes weeks but then lost its significance as all the large industries and the schools of north Staffordshire voted to change the date from the first two weeks in August to the last week in June and the first week in July to become new the potters holiday.  Why, because the weather patterns had changed, and early August became consistent with bad weather. Before the 2^nd World War there was only one week’s holiday and that was with no pay until 1937. Two weeks holiday came after the second world war.

But what were the origns?, Well, you’ve read it here first in the Sentinel remember for press reports in 1838 the wakes in Stoke was described as an ancient festival. In fact it dates from Anglo-Saxon times probably the 6^th century when the junction of the Trent and Fowley formed a religious site for pagan worship which incorporated the festival of Lamas, a holiday celebrated on the 1st August.

However, by the late 18th century the religious aspect had been lost and became a time for holidays and enjoyment in all its varities for the working people of Stoke-on-Trent.

More than 136,000 people decided to take a holiday as the fear of it being their last for some years was dominant in their minds. Over 34,000 left the potteries on the Friday and on the Saturday, 52,000 travelled by special trains, 35,000 by ordinary service and 15,000 by coach, car, or cycle. This was even though the weather predictions were not good, but the threat of rain impaired the cheerfulness of the crowded platforms.     Three pages x A4