Lord Street, Etruria
Lost and forgotten roads of Stoke-on-Trent

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Lord Street, Etruria

The first houses and the inns:

It was Thomas Bentley who suggested to Josiah Wedgwood that the workforce should be accommodated in cottages scattered over the estate but this proposal was quickly rejected in favour of a simple linear development on the land below the factory down to the Fowlea Brook. (as usual the works owner lived on the high ground -Etruria Hall- and the employees lived on the damp lowland areas). 

1877 OS map showing the first Wedgwood workers houses
1877 OS map showing the first Wedgwood workers houses
on the edge of the works and by the Etruria Inn

The first six houses were built as part of the factory complex next to the southern roundhouse and probably accommodated the lodge keeper and key workers such as the firemen. 

When the dual carriageway was built the bridge over the canal was moved away from Lord Street, this is shown by the fact that on the 1887 map there is a good space between the bridge and the round house - the MS live search map below shows how close the new bridge is.

2008 map showing the nearness of the round house to the bridge
2008 map showing the nearness of the round house to the bridge
compare this to the 1877 map above

 


 


photo of Lord Street taken from the Etruria Bridge - Warrillow Collection

the Bridge Inn and Etruria Inn on the right
with the first of the workers cottages



The side of the Bridge Inn - Etruria

This view taken from the Trent & Mersey Canal - the roadway in front is the road from Lord Street to the frontage of the Wedgwood factory alongside the canal.

 

Bridge Inn - at the far end of the photo
Bridge Inn - at the far end of the photo

 


Etruria Inn near to the camera and Bridge Inn  at the far end of the photo

to the right is Lord Street

photos taken 1985 just before demolition  - Ken Green
 

"Complete with a Methodist Chapel, this street (Lord Street) which formed the original Etruria contains old-established shops, many of which have been carried on by the same families for generations. Here, then, are to be found at least five provision shops ; a very old established meat trader's business ; a post office that was occupied until recent years by a lady whose uncle was postmaster before her (Mrs. B. E. Oldacre, now in well-earned retirement in Wales, was the first telegraph girl in Etruria and her reminiscences will be found in other chapters). This Post Office has recently been modernised, but when last viewed the old bottle glass was still to be seen in one of the windows of the scullery.

Here, too, will be found the modern shoe shop kept by an Etruscan famous throughout England for his choral work. In addition, there is a very old-established cobbler's shop, where one's shoes may be mended with true Etruscan thoroughness.

The village street is complete with two barbers' shops and five village inns, namely, the Bridge Inn, now sunk well below the level of the canal ; the Etruria Inn ; the Lamb at the corner of Forge Lane ; the Vine ; and the Railway Inn. In addition, there are several other small shops, perhaps the most interesting of which is the little gas-lit establishment, still under the name of Smallwoods, which still deals exclusively in Wedgwood ware, despite the departure of the firm.

This small shop has sold exquisite Wedgwood ware for several generations. The pleasantly set out window does not, owing to prevailing austere conditions, present the splendid array once to be seen, but it keeps the name of Wedgwood to the forefront in Etruria."

Warrillow - History of Etruria 1952


next: Development of the housing
previous: The development of Etruria