City of Stoke - on - Trent, official handbook c1947 - Corporation Electricity Department
The official handbook to the City of Stoke on Trent in Staffordshire, world famous centre of the pottery industry and the edition published in the immediate post-war period, 1947. Most local authorities produced such handbooks designed to both inform local residents of services and amenities as well as to entice vistors of both a commercial or tourist nature. It is fair to say that this for Stoke is honest in that it casts the net of tourist attractions in a wide ring around this industrial centre - that said, Staffordshire and neighbouring Derbyshire do have some very scenic delights!
The City and County Borough of Stoke on Trent was an unusually early example of local government amalgamation on a large scale in the UK prior to the 1974 local government reorganisation. Although relatively small alterations to borough boundaries, and the annexation of smaller authorities by neighbouring larger ones was common, the creation of the new County Borough in 1910 was more akin to contiental practices, such as in Germany and Wuppertal. As early as 1888 there had been pressure to reorganise the numerous small authorities in the north of Staffordshire, possibly as a County of Staffordshire Potteries. This never took off but in 1910 the six towns of Stoke-upon-Trent, Hanley, Burslem, Longton, Tunstall and Fenton amalgamated as the new County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent. It expanded and was raised to City status in 1925 and gained the office of Lord Mayor in 1928. The long term aim of including the neighbouring Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme was always thwarted due to that town's opposition and indeed even in the 1974 reorganisation they remained separate authorities.
The handbook needless to say contains much information about the city's municipal servcies that included gas and electricity supply although the guide being published months before nationalisation of both industries would have been the last edition to include them thus. Here the Electricity Department sells its wares in its final few months. The first area of the city that had started to generate electricity had been Hanley in 1894 (and the early trials and tribulations of such power stations are surprisingly well shown in an Arnold Bennett short story!) and in 1910 when the County Borough was formed this brought together this and two other smaller stations. Work was started on a new power station for the authority and this was commissioned in 1913 with later extentions. The station was 'selected' by the Central Electricity Board after 1926 and operated under the direction of the CEB in 1934. By then the station was generating under the auspices of one of the Joint Authorities set up to consolidate the industry, the North West Midlands Joint Electricity Authority. The Corporation's Department purchased supplies from them and distributed it to domestic and industrial users.
Given the smoky nature of pottery production there had been a real push to turn to alternative fuels for kins and local potters Wedgwood, were to famously shift to the use of electricity in their new works at Barlaston.
The one unusual omission for such a city was the fact that local public transport services remained in the hands of a 'private' operator who had taken over from the franchised tramways and indeed, Stoke was noted for not just the main operator, Potteries Motor Traction, but a plethora of indpendent operators who lasted for many years. It also includes a wealth of information as to the many pottery companies, ancilliary industries as well as the still important coal, iron and steel industries that made the City a famously 'smoky' place.
City of Stoke - on - Trent, official handbook c1947 - Corporation Electricity Department
The official handbook to the City of Stoke on Trent in Staffordshire, world famous centre of the pottery industry and the edition published in the immediate post-war period, 1947. Most local authorities produced such handbooks designed to both inform local residents of services and amenities as well as to entice vistors of both a commercial or tourist nature. It is fair to say that this for Stoke is honest in that it casts the net of tourist attractions in a wide ring around this industrial centre - that said, Staffordshire and neighbouring Derbyshire do have some very scenic delights!
The City and County Borough of Stoke on Trent was an unusually early example of local government amalgamation on a large scale in the UK prior to the 1974 local government reorganisation. Although relatively small alterations to borough boundaries, and the annexation of smaller authorities by neighbouring larger ones was common, the creation of the new County Borough in 1910 was more akin to contiental practices, such as in Germany and Wuppertal. As early as 1888 there had been pressure to reorganise the numerous small authorities in the north of Staffordshire, possibly as a County of Staffordshire Potteries. This never took off but in 1910 the six towns of Stoke-upon-Trent, Hanley, Burslem, Longton, Tunstall and Fenton amalgamated as the new County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent. It expanded and was raised to City status in 1925 and gained the office of Lord Mayor in 1928. The long term aim of including the neighbouring Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme was always thwarted due to that town's opposition and indeed even in the 1974 reorganisation they remained separate authorities.
The handbook needless to say contains much information about the city's municipal servcies that included gas and electricity supply although the guide being published months before nationalisation of both industries would have been the last edition to include them thus. Here the Electricity Department sells its wares in its final few months. The first area of the city that had started to generate electricity had been Hanley in 1894 (and the early trials and tribulations of such power stations are surprisingly well shown in an Arnold Bennett short story!) and in 1910 when the County Borough was formed this brought together this and two other smaller stations. Work was started on a new power station for the authority and this was commissioned in 1913 with later extentions. The station was 'selected' by the Central Electricity Board after 1926 and operated under the direction of the CEB in 1934. By then the station was generating under the auspices of one of the Joint Authorities set up to consolidate the industry, the North West Midlands Joint Electricity Authority. The Corporation's Department purchased supplies from them and distributed it to domestic and industrial users.
Given the smoky nature of pottery production there had been a real push to turn to alternative fuels for kins and local potters Wedgwood, were to famously shift to the use of electricity in their new works at Barlaston.
The one unusual omission for such a city was the fact that local public transport services remained in the hands of a 'private' operator who had taken over from the franchised tramways and indeed, Stoke was noted for not just the main operator, Potteries Motor Traction, but a plethora of indpendent operators who lasted for many years. It also includes a wealth of information as to the many pottery companies, ancilliary industries as well as the still important coal, iron and steel industries that made the City a famously 'smoky' place.