Review by Fred Hughes
The recent local history book Memories of a Blurton Boy by Alan Myatt is the essence of a labour of love. Written and entirely illustrated by this talented Longton historian, this is a manuscript worth savouring indeed. It is Alan’s life story, from his schooldays all through his working life and to his present activities spent in a community he’s clearly very much at home with. Truth is that Alan loves Blurton. It shows in every word and in every picture (there are 83 of them, one for each page – I counted them because through some printing fault my copy had no page numbers).
Alan tells us of his personal memories: a day trip to Woodland Cottage, a house on the old Longton Hall Estate leased by Heathcote ironmasters to a number of families with pottery connections. Nothing particularly exciting about that, except that it was sold to a committee of locals, including Alan’s father, who developed it into Blurton Private Clubs, an entertainment venue with a list of famous artists appearing there, including the Potteries’ own Jackie Trent – she of the Neighbours theme tune fame. Alan recalls it before its transition as the ‘house with the scented knob’. Apparently it had a large doorknob made out of maple. Kids would be invited by older kids to sniff the sweet aroma, before some urchin pushed the back of their heads so that they bumped their noses on the door.
The defunct tilery is made into an essay narrating its history as well as recalling a number of associated anecdotes. Similar treatment is afforded to the millpond, the Aynsley’s grand house and the so-called ‘Gingerbread House’ which was once the tollgate house in Trentham Road. Even the famous first Potteries’ waste farm – sewage disposal works – has a place in this colourful and aromatic compendium.
Longton Park is a theme that runs alongside many of Alan’s personal memories. Locations such as Dresden’s Bridle Path link arms with the architecturally outrageous Moneta House in Ricardo Street. The Alhambra Cinema in Normacot, the Empire Theatre, the Focus and Alexandra Cinemas – Lost Empires, to coin author Barry Blaize’s evocative phrase – are recalled in detail along with Alan’s reminiscent illustrations. Some pubs too, such as the ancient Tam o’ Shanter in Normacot Road, are given a turn. And what about a shop named ‘Dickiefidos’ – an Aladdin’s cave of ‘animal pettery’. Even ‘Invisible Japanese Fighting Fish’ were sold there. But, as Alan says, try as he might, squint his eyes as much as he could, he still couldn’t see them: but then again as he says, he was only very young at the time. His dad wouldn’t let him have any, so he bought three yellow fluffy chicks instead.
The ‘warm holes’, ‘white rock’ and ‘poison pools’ were childish adventure playgrounds. How did the children survive? They did, and as Alan’s own memories attest, they were the better for it. Who’s to disagree?
The book can be bought from Bevans Sound Centre, 67 The Strand. Hurry before they’re all sold out.
Memories of a Blurton Boy by Alan Myatt
Life's best medicine
Local books by Fred Hughes
THEY say there’s a book in all of us, it’s just a matter of writing it. It is also said that if you can laugh in the face of adversity then your life will be long and your troubles few. Former Port Vale groundsman Denis Dawson has achieved both measures by publishing many humorous episodes from a very interesting life.
‘Laughter is Life’s Best Medicine’ is Denis’s collection of true stories from his former workplaces, including his long service with Stoke-on-Trent Parks Department. All the anecdotal stories are brought to life in fond narrative, and although names have been changed or excluded completely, there’s no doubt that anyone reading Denis’s stories will recall similar characters or even know them though their disguises.
This is a splendid book packed with hilarious reminiscences: the ghost of Rownhall Farm and ‘shocking’ tales of gravediggers complement social events and quirky procedures from a time that is almost forgotten. Perhaps most interesting for many readers will be the stories connected to Port Vale where Denis was groundsman during the career of manager Sir Stanley Matthews whom he knew well. Names of long-forgotten players abound in the witty and sometime racy text, making a fast-flowing read. He recalls the familiar cash-flow situation within the club. There was an occasion when his wife complained that he had taken the lock from the garden shed to secure the gate at Vale Park. Like everybody who loved Port Vale, Denis loved the club as if it were a member of his family. There were hard times and sad times, yes, but the humour outdoes the gloom.
This is a bumper book of fun. It is one of those volumes that make you laugh out loud and feel better for it.
I’m not going to spoil it by giving away punchlines or naming those who prefer anonymity, but those who know Port Vale will instantly recall the famous trainer who always used the word ‘fizzing’ instead of another, better-known expletive. Denis tells of the occasion when the trainer accused a lead-swinging player of labouring an injury. The player, after missing training for a few games, explained that he thought his left leg was much better. “We’re getting there,” he said. “Fizzing well getting there, fizzing well getting there. My friend I’ve suspected for some time that you were conning this club and today I’ve not touched your injured leg. You fizzing cheat, get out of here now before I fizzing well kick you out.”
As Denis explains, there was more fizzing in the treatment room than in any fizzing mineral factory!
Go treat yourself to a dose of laughing medicine and buy this book £4.95 from Denis Dawson (email Local Edition for contact)
Life and times in Silverdale
Local books by Fred Hughes
‘LIFE and Times on the Dale’ is a classic local history book written and compiled by the much-missed Barry Williams who sadly died earlier this year. Barry is fondly remembered as one of Silverdale’s cornerstones; he was a gent’s hairdresser in the village for a generation and has seen all the changes in the village. Who better, you may ask, than the local barber to recall and record the oral history of the place where he was born in 1935 and lived for most of his life.
The first chapter is purely autobiographical and not only tells Barry’s story but that of his family and many wonderful anecdotes that outline how Silverdale has evolved over the years.
The book takes the reader on a nostalgic ramble into the fields for ‘potato-picking’ week, an annual event that reminds us how close the village was to the farming community while being established as an industrial centre. The author tells us how sport played a big part in local activities, with its famous cricket club and noted players like the Norcup brothers, batsman Joe Ankers and Graham Bytheway. He tells us too how football played an important part in community development, giving a short biography of a Stoke City favourite, the late Ian Moores, a Silverdale lad and a personal friend.
Pubs are not ignored, those that have been demolished and those that have stood the test of time such as the Bush, once known as the Sneyd Arms. Local characters come to the forefront, and Silverdale certainly had more than its fair allocation of them, for Barry has written a whole chapter about them, including the Okey-Pokey boys who made and sold ice cream. Churches, shops, policing and even local politics are discussed in fascinating detail.
But of course the Silverdale story wouldn’t be complete without the history of the collieries, Silverdale of course being the last one to close in the North Staffordshire Coalfield.
The book is lavishly illustrated and has been in publication now for nine years. But it is as fresh as it was when it first hit the bookshelves. Published by Churnet Valley Books, it is still available at all good bookshops, price £8.95.
Local books with Fred Hughes: Robert B Clarke
I must introduce you to Robert B Clarke, a modest mild-mannered man who I’ve known for a good number of years. He is a person whose friendship I treasure as much as I admire his talents as a writer, philosopher and Jungian researcher.
Robert B Clarke is not a local author in the sense of historical interpretation and local knowledge; best to say that he is a writer who was born, brought-up and is living his life locally in Potteries’ town of Burslem. But more importantly his, so far two, published works have become international best-sellers in the genre of philosophy and spirituality and have been translated into a number of languages. I think you should know more about them and about the author.
In his first book, The Four Gold Keys, with a forward by the respected criminologist Colin Wilson, the subject concerns dreams, transformation of the soul and the historiography of Western mystery traditions. It is part autobiographical and sets out to examine not the meaning of dreams, but rather the explanation of why they come to us. The book is about consciousness and the elevation into what the author calls the Higher Self. In this study he promotes self-analysis and a concept of timeless progression.
His second book, An Order Outside Time, published three years later in 2005, dissertates on the origins of Western spirituality and its passage from Egyptian establishment and Jewish promulgation via Christian presumption to a modern state using personal theory allied to Jungian symbolism.
The books, read in tandem, take the reader on journey of self-examination with the invitation and challenge to explore a world of theoretical conversion and awareness.
Some readers have seen these works as tomes on Christian symbolism and chaste spirituality. But they are more than that. It is too easy to explain away the elemental religious process and ignore the fundamental line of collective consciousness. Robert B Clarke addresses this full on. He is an important researcher of the ego and of mankind’s conscious background concerning its past, present and the future.
His books are published by Hampton Road and can be bought online from Amazon.
Book review: Wedgwood Butterflies, reviewed by Peter Corbishley
Wedgwood Butterflies by Peter Corbishley is the fourth in a series of local fiction novels by writer and former police officer Peter Corbishley from Sneyd Green. Set in the Potteries in modern times – though published in 2003 you can fit your own period to the theme – the novel is a detective story about the discovery of the whereabouts of a set of Wedgwood engravings made by the great man himself for the royal family of Russia.
The main character is Eric Rattlestone, a researcher of ceramic antiquity, has discovered a code that ultimately leads to the hiding place of the fabulous pieces that also have connection with the great Faberge. It seems the Russians are also intent to finding the treasure and all roads lead to North Staffordshire, in particular a local caravan park. Through a series of false starts and red-herring chases the mystery is finally solves as the protagonists descend on their goal. But, like all good thrillers, there is a twist in the tale that leaves the reader perplexed and wondering if there is yet another outcome. This is a novel that makes you want to read again just in case you missed some of the clues. All-in-all the book is an excellent read that is testimony to the sparkling writing of a truly clever yarn-spinner.
The book is obtainable from Kingston-Corner Publications priced £10. Other works (all thrillers) by the author include Sheldon House, Sheldon House 2 – Penisarlon and First Rung on the Ladder.
Book review: History of the North Staffs Symphony Orchestra by Kathy Niblett, reviewed by Fred Hughes
Published in 2004 to commemorate the centenary of the North Staffs Symphony Orchestra, this history has been lovingly written and compiled the much-respected Potteries historian Kathy Niblett BA, AMA, FRSA. A musician herself, Kathy’s connections with the orchestra date back to its beginnings through the Wooliscroft family of whom the author is a family member.
This is the story of the most celebrated of the region’s orchestral orchestras which began life in a wood yard in Moorland Road Burslem. The legendary and enigmatic Scandinavian Madame Reymond made her home in the smoky streets of the Mother Town where she taught music from her salon at 76 Moorland Road.
Here she became the patron of her most famous protégé and scholar John Cope. Together tutor and pupil established the symphony orchestra that has performed in most of the country’s largest concert halls under the baton of many of Britain’s finest conductors.
It is a story of fame and success, a story of commitment and personal dedication as well as a story of rejection and hardship. It ends happily though with renewal and regeneration, indeed the orchestra is currently enjoying one of its most productive periods.
The book is documented chronologically and filled with anecdotal nostalgia. But it is told with historical accuracy and is well-illustrated with contemporary photographs.
The biographies of Reymond and Cope are fascinating and are complemented with mini-biographies of other principal participants. All in all it is a joy to read, to understand how much music played in Potteries’ life.
Kathy Niblett is a fine writer and this book is a tribute to her literary talents and academic research capabilities, but more than this – her love for music.
The book is still available at the Potteries Museum.
Book review: The Vine Pottery by Peter Goodfellow, reviewed by Fred Hughes
I first met the author Peter Goodfellow in the subterranean archives of the Potteries Museum when I was researching the Wood papers. Almost buried in documents this quiet former teacher and all-round athlete had decided, since his retirement in 1993, to indulge his passion for ceramic research. Where else better to start than with his own family for Peter is a descendent of the Birks’ family of the Vine Pottery which began in Stoke in 1894 with the collaboration of Lawrence Arthur Birks and Charles Frederick Goodfellow. As a result the author has produced a sumptuous manuscript of academic proportions in a story of connection and association with some of the most influential potters North Staffordshire has produced among whom are Minton, Spode, Louis Solon, Copeland, Frederick Rhead and his daughter Charlotte Rhead.
Under the name Goodfellow Birks & Co, later Birks Rawlins & Co, the company produced the Persindo Porcelain, an ivory ceramic with Middle Eastern decoration by former Minton designer Edmund G Reuter. Skills of pate sur pate and tubelining were employed fruitfully designed and created by family members earning the company many exhibition awards and the patronage of Queen Mary. The company closed in 1934.
This is a comprehensive and lavishly illustrated book wherein the author has provided us with a deep professional and personal insight of an exciting period of creativity in Potteries’ artistic design. It is a delight to read and fills a gap in Potteries’ heritage. At £35 it is worth every penny to collectors and historians alike. Published by the prestigious Antique Collectors’ Club available from the author via the Potteries Museum.
Book review: The Sneyd Colliery Disaster 1942 by Mervyn Edwards, reviewed by Fred Hughes
The Sneyd Colliery Disaster 1942 by Mervyn Edwards, £8 at Market Place Miniatures in Burslem and Proctor’s newsagent in Wolstanton High Street.
The Sneyd Colliery Disaster 1942 is clearly a labour of love. The narrative has been compiled from contemporary news and official reports together with some contemporary personal recollections and illustrated by the author’s own sketches. A most touching first-hand account is contained in an appendix written by Ernest Taylor, a miner who was one of the first at the scene.
For more than 100 years Sneyd Colliery was a major employer in Burslem. And, like the potteries, the colliery was an integral part of the town’s occupational and social fabric. It is easy to understand therefore that on that fateful New Year’s Day in 1942 every man, woman and child was in some way affected by the events that were taking place beneath their feet.
The official report into the Sneyd disaster found that fifty-five men died instantly and two later in hospital as a result of an underground explosion in number 4 pit. The cause was said to be a braking failure that caused loaded wagons to run away down an incline.
The author has written a chronological account of the disaster and of the days and months following, and of the official investigation. This is a factual book unadorned by emotion. The reader nevertheless will carry away much feeling of tragedy, anger and, yes pride, from each page.
Timed to coincide with the erection of a memorial in Burslem town centre, this book is a tribute to a lost generation and a lost industry: a comprehensive and touching account of one of Burslem’s blackest days.