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Stoke-on-Trent Districts: Foley

The Foley, Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

 


Next: Census details for Foley


1895 map showing location of Foley
1922 map showing Foley in detail

 

The Foley, Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

The area known as "The Foley" is centred on King Street, near the Longton boundary. By the 1830's there were several potworks and some large houses.

Foley Place
Foley Place
(photo 2003)

Foley Place
Foley Place is near the east end of King Street and was probably built in the 1830's or 1840's and is an example of middle-class housing with some attempt at a formal layout, rare in the Potteries at that date. It consists of an L-shaped block of two-stories stucco houses with basements, late Georgian in style. There were originally eleven houses and an inn, the 'Foley Arms,' while a communal garden (now covered by a garage and petrol station) was laid out to the west.  [see map]

Foley House
Foley House, lying south of the railway line and just west of the boundary with Longton, still existed as a farm in the early 1950's.

Dominican nuns
Early in 1851 a small community of Dominican nuns under Mother Margaret Hallahan opened a convent at the Foley. On the the expiry of the lease in 1854 the convent was moved to Stoke. (Our Lady of the Angels, Stoke). 

Pottery history
About 1750 John Barker, one of Thomas Whieldon's ovenmen in 1749, began to make shining black ware and salt-glazed stone-ware at the Row Houses near the Foley. He worked in partnership with this brothers and with Robert Garner, who had been one of Whieldon's apprentices. He later he also made cream-coloured ware.

At the end of the 1700's Richard Astbury (John Astbury's grandson), was recorded as a potter at the Foley.


Wesley's preaching at Foley...

Extract from John Wesley's journal:

"1790, Sunday, March 28th - I preached soon after one, in Mr. Myatt's yard at Lane End; the house would not contain a quarter of the people. At Burslem, also, I was obliged to preach abroad; such were the multitudes of the people.'

"This is the last entry in reference to the labours of this venerable divine, in the potteries. He was then in his 88th year, and died within a few months afterwards."  

                on Wesley & the Potteries

 

Foley in the history books....

Foley - 1829
"The FOLEY has only a few houses, and three Manufactories in it. The Manufactory of Messrs. Elkin, Knight, & Bridgwood, is a new and very complete establishment; having in addition to the customary buildings a powerful Steam Engine and Flint Mill. The productions of this establishment are very superior in their quality, and have obtained celebrity in the markets. The proprietors are gentlemen of the most respectable character as tradesmen and members of civil society.
Opposite are the house and Manufactory of C. Bourne, Esq., the former the best on this side, for excellence of construction, and the elegance of appearance. Connected with it are spacious Gardens; and contiguous is the manufactory.
At the southern extremity are the House and Factory of the late Mr. Myatt; one of the first persons who received the Wesleyan Methodist Preachers; and in whose parlour the late Rev. J. Wesley stood, while from the window he preached to a vast congregation, when last he passed thro' Staffordshire only a few months prior to his decease."

"History of the Staffordshire Potteries", Simeon Shaw.1829

Foley - 1843
"The FOLEY is the farthest portion of the three-fold division we make of the Fentons, and is situate wholly in Fenton-Culvert; whether the name was derived from the Lords Foley, former proprietors of the adjoining manor of Longton, or was a sarcasm on some person's taste in architecture, we are ignorant.

Here are two extensive manufactories: viz., the modern and very complete works held by the firm of KNIGHT, ELKIN, and BRIDGWOOD, for china and earthenware, erected a few years since, by the late John Smith Esq., combining a steam-engine, a flint mill, and every other convenient adaptation to the business - also the manufactory, with and excellent house attached, erected by the elder Josiah Spode, for his second son, Mr. Samuel Spode.
These have since been occupied by various tennants, and were last held by Mr. Charles Bourne, but are, whilst we write, unoccupied.
Adjacent thereto is a manufactory occupied by R. Gallimore, formerly belonging to Mr. Joseph Myatt, from the front of the house adjoining which the late rev. John Wesley preached on his last journey to a large to a large auditory as mentioned in his journal."

"The Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent ", John Ward. 1843


Mother Margaret Hallahan (orphaned at the age of seven, earning her own living as a housemaid in her childhood years) was the foundress of the English Congregation of Nuns of the Third Order of St. Dominic, who have convents and hospitals at Stoke on Trent and Stone. The latter is the burying place both of Archbishop Ullathorne and Mother Margaret.
Mother Margaret Hallahan is one of the Catholic patron saints of the gravely ill.
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1895 map showing location of Foley

1895 map showing location of Foley
1895 map showing location of Foley
Foley - a small area centred on King Street, west of the boundary with Longton.

Foley - from 1922 map

Foley - from 1922 map
Foley - from 1922 map


Next: Census details for Foley


questions / comments / contributions? email: Steve Birks

December 2007