mis 2 Bakewell Street Park, Penkhull – its history 3 pages

Quite by chance I came across an article dated 26^th December 1846 which pre-dates the official published date of 1847. In the article recorded in the Potteries Mercury it first acknowledged the work of Prof Simpson, who had demonstrated chloroform for its anaesthetic properties on humans but in fact had applied numerous experiments on himself and others first which gave rise to its rapid increase by the of the medical profession in favour to that of ether. The interesting fact remains is that surgeons at Etruria had performed operations with the use of chloroform several months prior to the work of Simpson being published, such was their skill of administering the drug resulting in a number of successful operations. Two pages

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.

For those coming up the hill to Penkhull from Stoke, the question was where did Stoke end and Honeywall start?  In fact, the name of Honeywall, a rather strange name, did not start from the bottom as it does today. That area was originally called Castle Cliff- changed to Cliff Bank. The next higher section was called Upper Cliff Bank followed by Princess Street before being known the whole length by the name of Honeywall. The name of Castle Cliff is really important and yet there is no evidence to support this name of a castle at the top of the hill. Perhaps this explains why parts of what Honeywall is now went by the name of Castle Cliff. Food for thought! The area known as Honeywall commences from just about where the Beehive now stands to its junction with Penkhull Terrace and in fact refers to the hamlet of Honeywall and not the road name.

To add even further to the mystery in 1870, whilst digging near to the White Lion an ancient boulder pathway was found.  Could this have any connection with some form of early settlement? 

Rev.Aston, in his little book of 1942 suggests without any evidence to support his claim that it could mean Hole in the Wall, pointing to a possible wall around the ancient royal forest where a hole in the wall was used for game hunters!  But in saying this there is an argument presented to that part of Honeywall being the boundary of the once Iron Age Fort that capped the hill of Penkhull. Why? We have the name of Castle Cliff, and we have the evidence of a boulder pathway being uncovered outside the White Lion.  Also, the name of Honeywall could derive from the old English – ‘hill fortress’ and lastly, it’s the name given to a small hamlet not a road.  People would be known by the place where they lived (not a street name, but a district) and the name Hole in the Wall, the entrance area of the hill fort, could be just that place where a group of small traders resided. Lastly, it was recorded in the 19th century that beekeepers were resident in the area, so could the name originated from there? The Bee Hive Inn could be named following the known occupation of Bee Keepers in the area. A further conundrum. Two pages and photographs.