Tunstall Part 1: It's Grim up North...Respect the Park

Tunstall Town Hall, May 2013 copyright the Sheriff, Mr John Green esq.

It's Grim up North

Tunstall is the most northern of the Six Towns, and I suppose you could also say it was my hometown, given that I am from the village of Packmoor a couple of miles further north. It is also the birthplace of pottery industry luminaries Suzie Cooper and Clarice Cliff, music hall star Little Gertie Gitana, and teeny-bopper idol Robbie Williams.

Tunstall is an ancient manor court, and there is mention of the name as far back as 1086, when it was a tiny village. A number of lordships controlled the village as it grew, until 1560 when the village was handed to the Sneyd family with whom it sat until the late 1700s.

The village grew rapidly as the manufacture of pottery expanded, and as the area was blessed with an abundant supply of coal and other raw materials, most notably clay, small artisan potters rapidly became big businesses. Names such as Adams, Greengate and Johnson - alongside Chatterley Valley and Goldendale - became synonymous with pottery and industry in the town, and by the early 20th century - thanks to the nearby Trent and Mersey Canal and the 'Loop Line', which linked Tunstall to the other five towns of the Potteries and the main railway line - Tunstall had grown to more or less how we know the town today.

Tunstall's heyday was probably the 1960s and 1970s, when firms such as W.H. Grindley and H&R Johnson employed thousands of local people, and the town's streets swarmed with workers who spent their earnings on the High Street.

How times have changed. Tunstall today is a completely different place. As Thatcherism and globalisation battered the town's traditional industries into submission, the town has nosedived into decline, alongside much of North Staffordshire. Indeed, there is very little of the Pottery industry left in the town, and the once thriving High Street is now a ghetto of artery-hardening food outlets, empty shops, and other depressing examples of the modern town centre; blitzed by monster supermarkets, out-of-town malls and the web.

The Sheriff - Mr John Green Esq. - and I recently paid a visit to the town; the following is the first part of our journey...

Respect the Park

Growing up in Packmoor, Tunstall was my hometown, and to me Tunstall started at the bottom of Little Chell Lane, and the entrance to Victoria Park, or Tunstall Park in common parlance.

'Welcome' to Tunstall Park

As a child, I spent many hours in Tunstall Park with my family, and have fond memories of the place. Kicking a ball around with dad. Catching small fish from the pools. Just idly wandering around in the fresh air. It was also in Tunstall Park where I first realised I had an interest in buildings and how they look: architecture.

Before the Sheriff and I arrived here, I could not remember the last time I spent serious time roaming the park, and I'm guessing there are a lot of local people that can say the same. The ragged state of parts of the park project a poor public image, and most probably persuade patrons that it isn't the best place to spend quality time. This is a terrible shame.

Respect

The park made the news recently when it was reported that the park's main pool had 'disappeared'. To me, this wasn't a great surprise: the park was laid out on a former industrial wasteland; former uses included an oil refinery, and numerous mine shafts littered the area. My guess was an old mine shaft had opened up, and this seems to have been the case. The City Council appear to have addressed the problem, though the pool is still not back to its usual levels. Given the area's history, you have to accept these things happen. However, the approach to putting things right are disappointing as usual; it appears that the solution was to simply dump a few tons of gravel in the hole.

Filling in Holes

Parts of the pool are also filthy, and the Boathouse is in a shocking state, and probably has been disused for years. It wasn't a good start, and it didn't put me in a particular positive frame of mind. However, I shouldn't have been surprised. Even when the City Council have managed to deliver positives for the park, they seem to get swallowed up in a storm of bad news. A couple of years back, the local group the Victoria Park Trust received a donation of £320,000 from the Johnson Foundation - a charity formed by descendents of the Tunstall-based potters - cash which was invested on a range of new facilities. This good news was quickly followed by reports of instant vandalism. Further stories and letters flooded the press, and locals spoke of roaming hoods and yobs, with some declaring Tunstall Park a "no-go area". And in the middle of all the chaos and correspondence, it was revealed that the City Council had spent tens of thousands of pounds providing 24 hour lighting in the park, the idea appearing to be that continued illumination would provide a deterrent to Tunstall Park's Night Stalkers. I'm not convinced that a few street lamps would stop our lovable hoodies from scribbling "fuck, cider, innit" with a felt-tipped marker on a park bench, but then I'm also not convinced that you'll find them enjoying a Moon-esque booze-addled trashing session at 3 o'clock in the morning in the middle of Tunstall Park. In other words, just what is the point of 24 hour lighting in the middle of a park?

Putting the Boot In: Filth in Tunstall Park, copyright the Sheriff

The wrecked Boathouse

Vandalism is nothing new to Tunstall or the park: it was originally designed and planned as a tool to combat rowdiness and anti-social behaviour of the growing urban populace in the late 1800s. Such antics were a problem for all of the city's parks. In 1949 a collection of ornamental birds was stolen from the aviary in Queen's Park in Longton.

The worst vandalism in Tunstall Park has been the municipal vandalism from Stoke-on-Trent City Council. Unlike the random, chaotic destruction of the Hoody Generation, this particular form of vandalism has been planned: many years of under investment and shameful neglect. Local historian Mervyn Edwards described the sad state of the park in his excellent Potters in Parks back in 1999; more than a decade later things aren't much better (save for the refurbishment of the Floral Hall). The park may have gained a couple of new basketball hoops and a climbing frame or two of late, but Victoria is still dressed in rags.

Tunstall Park dates from the 1890s when Tunstall Urban District Council acquired thirty three acres of industrial land on the eastern extremities of the town. The western edge of the site was used to construct what is now Victoria Park Road, with the land adjoining the new road allocated for housing, which was developed between 1900 and 1930.

Prolific Potteries architect A.R.Wood, who was the Borough Surveyor and had already built the nearby Victoria Institute and Jubilee Buildings and public baths, prepared a sketch plan for the proposed park, which was eventually developed over a period of eleven years (1897-1908) due to financial problems. It was originally intended to open the park in time to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, but eventually opened to commemorate the coronation of King Edward VII.

The park still retains many of its original features such as the main entrance gates that were produced by local art-metal worker William Durose, who had worked with A.R.Wood previously on the Victoria Institute and Jubilee Buildings (the gates are in a scandalously poor state), the recently renovated Floral Hall, and the Adams Clock Tower. Many of these features were gifts from local dignitaries during an era of diminishing public funding. Other features that have long since gone are the park's paddling pool, and the Glasshouse, both removed for "safety reasons".

Adams Clock Tower, copyright the Sheriff

The feature that I was most interested in when I visited the park as a child was the large boulder located near to the Adams Clock Tower. The reason for my interest was that I was told that it was the remains of a meteorite, a story I was gullible enough to believe. The thing is actually an erratic granite boulder that was discovered during excavation works and is thought to be a relic of the Ice Age, and it is estimated to weigh around six-and-a-half tons.

An Ice Age relic in Tunstall

Over the past few years, funding has been found and poured into Central Forest Park in Hanley, yet Victoria Park - a Grade II Listed public asset - has been allowed to continue its downward spiral. It is quite perverse. The recent charitable donation towards improving the park's facilities is welcome, but the basics simply have to be right for a public park to thrive. The park currently looks unloved, it looks as though our city doesn't care . And when this happens, it becomes an easy target. This presents an awful image for Tunstall, and an awful image for the city.

And so what are the chances of Tunstall Park seeing a future renaissance? We are now in an era of unprecedented austerity, cuts to public spending are only just starting to take effect and there are more on the way. The City Council has spent the past three years cutting budgets in response to this. Can things get worse still? Well, I am aware of at least one local authority in the North West that is planning to simply deliver statutory functions. This paints a pretty bleak picture for Tunstall Park. And it makes you want to scream: Tunstall Park could - and should - be spectacular, and a haven for local people.

So if the local authority cannot properly look after Tunstall Park, who can? The current Government's thinking around the Big Society would - in theory - seem to offer a solution to the park's malaise: if the local authority isn't capable of caring for it, why not move it on to a community group that can? Well, theories are great, but local evidence would suggest its not something that can work in Stoke-on-Trent. I was involved in trying to form a community group focused on improving the local environment in Biddulph some years ago, but the initiative floundered due to a lack of support from the local authority. And here in Tunstall, a local group was proposing to take on the public baths from the City Council, and this also floundered, due to a lack of support from the local community. The lessons? The Big Society will not work without the support of local authorities, support which is unlikely to be forthcoming in the current climate, and it won't work in predominantly working class areas, where people are rightly more concerned about getting through life and keeping a roof over their heads than bailing out a public sector that can no longer carry out its duties properly.

That said, though Tunstall Park has fallen on hard times, it still retains its Victorian charm and is still a wonderful local asset, a gift from more enlightened times.