Crewe Road west – north side
Farms apart, the north side of the road was unbuilt before the mid-1870s. Between Chancery Lane and the Crewe road lies a triangle of land which during the 19th century was farmed from the Lodge inn and farm. It belonged to the Alsager estate, and was divided into fields known as Endon and Charles fields (Charles was a given name among the wider Alsager family; Charles Heaton of Endon was surveyor to the estate). The building potential of this land was recognised in the 1876 sale, though the entire triangular site was bought by Thomas Sherratt, a solicitor in Kidsgrove, the builder of Beechwood. He didn’t build that house for another decade, but its eventual view to the south was secured by the purchase, and the south-western end fronting the main road was developed first. The date 1877, on Sycamore House (no. 149) may reflect the earliest date of building on this stretch of road. This, with its stable, summerhouse and garden, was the home of Thomas Astbury, a tailor, who probably built it (though its windows have since been altered). Next door is no. 147, Heath Villa, and on the western side, no. 151, a house built by and for George Edwards, builder and brother of Joseph. During his tenure this had a builder’s yard, workshop, joiner’s shop, store and stabling for a pony.
Nos 143 and 145 are three-storey semis with front-end gables. The westernmost is given the name Endon Fields, from the earlier name of the part of the triangle of field they stand on. They were built by William Cooke on the main road frontage of the plot which also bore the house he retired to, one of three he built in Chancery Lane. He retained all the houses for rental income. From here building proceeded slowly north-eastwards, reaching the corner with Church Road at the end of the century. Barn House, a detached double-fronted house bearing the date 1893, was once known as Cleveland House. Had its date been a year or two later, when the district council was in being, more might have been ascertainable about it.
Opposite Joseph Edwards’s premises, no. 117 was known as Longton Cottage. Next door, at no. 115, lived the Asburys. Matthew Asbury was a bootmaker, and either these premises, or business premises further east, may be the ones on which he and his wife Mary ran as refreshment rooms, advertised as such in 1878 when Henry Watson was hiring boats on the Mere, and subsequently in Asbury’s own hands. If so, here is another ‘Mere House’.
To the west of Hassall Road, east of Cranberry Lane, stood a large house (now gone) called Woodlands. It was built about 1878 by Henry and Ann Burgess for their move from the White House. Confusingly, Henry Burgess was succeeded here – not long after his death in 1887 – by William Burgess, an American with Potteries connections, but apparently unrelated to Henry. William’s family were – famously – during their fairly brief residence here, visited by William Cody, ‘Buffalo Bill’, who first brought his famous show to Stoke on Trent in 1891. Neither Burgess seems to have had any direct connection with the factory of Burgess and Leigh at Middleport. Across the road from the Plough Inn, no. 247, formerly the farmhouse for Cranberry Moss Farm, was new in 1878. This was a both product of the 1876 estate sale, when the land lying between the road and Cranberry Moss wood was bought by Walter Hook, grocer of Kidsgrove. It was sold again in 1891 after Hook’s death, when the house was described as having two sitting-rooms and 5 bedrooms, as well as nearly 13 acres (leaving aside Cranberry Wood). The grounds have been redeveloped for modern houses.
An early mention of Radway House is in a directory of 1871, when its occupants were the family of Josiah Wood. He was not one of the largest ceramics manufacturers, though he employed over 60 people, more than a third of them children. The Woods probably left (for Prospect House next to Fairview on Lawton Road) about 1878, when their successors at Radway House were the large family of Robert Beswick senior. He had also once been in the ceramics business, but came here from Chell, where he owned mines, and soon became one of the Mere trustees. One of his sons, James Wright Beswick, was successful as a pottery manufacturer at Longton; William, another, founded a pawnbroking business. It did not end well however. Robert senior suffered a sad decline into blindness and bankruptcy; under his son Robert’s management the mine was the scene of a fatal explosion.
Lane End farmhouse (now extended, and the Holly Trees Hotel) was rebuilt in 1896 by the then new farmer, Thomas Lowe, who also rebuilt its stables the following year.
