Longton, Staffordshire

Longton is one of the six towns which amalgamated to form the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910, along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Burslem and Stoke-upon-Trent.

Longton

Longton Town Hall
Longton
Location within Staffordshire
Population27,214 
OS grid referenceSJ911433
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townSTOKE-ON-TRENT
Postcode districtST3
Dialling code01782
PoliceStaffordshire
FireStaffordshire
AmbulanceWest Midlands
UK Parliament

History
The girder bridge adjacent to Longton railway station
Aynsley Pottery

Longton ('long village') was a market town in the parish of Stoke in the county of Staffordshire. The town still has a market housed in an attractively renovated market hall.

Coal miners in the Hanley and Longton area ignited the 1842 general strike and associated Pottery Riots.

In March 1865, Longton and Lane End were incorporated as the Borough of Longton. On 1 April 1910, the town was federated into the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent. In 1925 the area was granted city status. One legacy of Longton's administrative independence from 1865 to 1910 is Longton Town Hall, a prominent landmark in the town centre.

In 1986 Longton Town Hall faced demolition by Stoke-on-Trent City Council amid considerable local protest. Work on stripping the interior had already begun before an injunction was brought and the building saved.

Together with Rochdale, then in Lancashire, Longton was host to the first Workers Educational Association tutorial classes. R.H. Tawney, known as "the patron saint of adult education",[1] taught the classes for three years starting in January 1908.

For a time, until he moved to Manchester in 1909, Tawney was working as part-time economics lecturer at Glasgow University. To fulfil his teaching commitments to the WEA, he travelled first to Longton for the evening class every Friday, before travelling north to Rochdale for the Saturday afternoon class.

Arnold Bennett referred to Longton as Longshaw in his novels centred on the Potteries towns.

Industry

The district has a long history as a base for the pottery industry, such as Paragon China and Aynsley, and several major manufacturers still have a presence, along with Gladstone Pottery Museum. Roslyn Works, which adjoins the latter, is now home to several small-scale manufacturers of ceramics.

Transport

In 1997 the one-way system was finally bypassed when a new section of the A50 was opened, running past the town in a cutting. The one way system remains, but is no longer the main route into the main town centre of Hanley.

Longton is served by a railway station which was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway on 7 August 1848. A new bus interchange was opened adjacent to it in 2003 on the site of a former Co-op supermarket.

The A50 near to its cutting. The prominent building is Longton's library.

Education

Secondary schools in the area include St Thomas More Catholic Academy and Stoke Studio College.

Retail

A new shopping precinct, the Bennett Precinct, opened in 1962.[2] It is now named Longton Exchange.

In 2003 a large Tesco Extra superstore was built and has helped to rejuvenate the town. Since then, other major retailers such as Argos, Next, Pizza Hut, Matalan, Wilko and B & M have opened new premises.

Then, building firm St. Modwen's, opened an £8 million retail complex in April 2012. The stores there include McDonald's, Pets at Home, Smyths and Currys.

Other local business like Hylands Ltd ( www.hylands.tv ) and Bevans have also thrived in the area.

Nightlife

Jollees Cabaret Club was a very popular nightspot in the 1970s, attracting some of the biggest names in entertainment. In the early 1990s, Shelley's Laserdome became widely known throughout the Midlands as a rave venue, but it was forced to close in 1992.

Notable people

Trivia
  • Longton is the birthplace and home of Alan Povey's character Owd Grandad Piggott
  • Black Country folk singer/songwriter, Neil Morris, now lives near Longton
  • Sutherland Institute, Longton. Completed in 1898 on land donated by the Duke of Sutherland who lived at nearby Trentham Hall.
  • Panel above entrance to Sutherland Institute
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References
  1. Elsey, B. (1987) ‘R. H. Tawney – Patron saint of adult education’, in P. Jarvis (ed.) "Twentieth Century Thinkers in Adult Education", Beckenham: Croom Helm
  2. Abberley, John (2003). The Way We Were in the 1960s: Memories of Staffordshire in Photographs. Altrincham: Hochland Communications Ltd. ISBN 1-904038-07-7.
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