EXISTING STATE OF TUNSTALL. 89 CHAPTER V. Tunstall, (Concluded.) ITS EXISTING STATE.-CHRIST CHURCH.-VALUE OF THE LIVING.-THOMAS PROPRIETARY.-COURT-HOUSE.-ESTAB DWELLING-HOUSES ;-POLICE ARRANGEMENTS. Ir now devolves on us to describe the existing state of TUNSTALL, which, we have already intimated, is a Town almost wholly of modern erection. It is compactly built; and the new streets which have been formed within the last twenty years, terminate either in the Market Square, or the main Road, passing through the town from north to south, which is the High Street of the Town. Tunstall has not been built altogether without a plan; and has more regularity than any of the Pottery Towns, Stoke perhaps excepted; but the reproach of irregularity in the buildings, for which the Pottery District has been often reflected on, has, by means of modern improvements in most of the Towns, been in a great degree wiped away. omet N THE want of Church accommodation at Tunstall was not seriously felt before the rapid extension of the population, which arose within the present century; but the distance which funerals had to be carried in all weathers, was a great inconvenience, and the few decided members of the establishment had to go no less than two miles to their proper place of worship, either at the Mother Church, or New Chapel. When, therefore, the Act for authorizing the building of new churches in populous places was passed, the inhabitants of Tunstall were early in their application for obtaining a church; but conflicting circumstances prevented the measure from being at first carried. In the year 1829, a fresh attempt was made, and the elegant structure called CHRIST CHURCH, with a neat. tower, surmounted by a low spire, (of which, the liberality of one of our valuable contributors enables us to give an Engraving,) was erected in 1831, under the direction of the Commis sioners, and consecrated by the late Bishop Ryder, on the 14th of August, 1832. The building is of stone, from the neighbouring quarries of Chell; and the style, of that plain description which prevailed in the reign of Elizabeth; with lancet-shaped windows, and crocketted pinnacles. The situation is very eligible, at the point where the Turnpike Road from Bosley,* in Cheshire, through Biddulph and Chell, terminates in the main road through the Potteries. The land for the site was purchased at the price of £400, from Ralph Sneyd, Esq. who generously contributed the amount towards building a Parsonage House, which at present has not been commenced, though arrangements have been made for its speedy erection, on an elevated site about a quarter of a mile west of the church. The cost of the structure was £4,000; of which £1,000 were contributed by the inhabitants and others,† and the For the making of this Turnpike Road, an Act was obtained in 1770. + The Subscription was set on foot in May, 1829; and the following is a list of the contributors of £10 and upwards £ s. d. The Hon. & Rt. Rev. Henry Ryder, D.D. Bishop of 100 0 0 Lichfield and Coventry. remainder by the Commissioners. It will accommodate 1,000 persons; there are 125 pews, 639 private sittings; the others being free. The length of the building is 73 feet, and its breadth 44 feet. It has side galleries, and one at the west-end for an organ, of which, at present, it has only a temporary accommodation. The steeple is furnished with a solitary bell. The land for the site and the cemetery is less than an acre and half, a very inadequate space for accommodating with sepulture a town that is doubling its population each fourteen years. It ought, indeed, to be enlarged, ere the opportunity of securing land adjacent be for ever lost. The Church has lately been made a DISTRICT CHURCH for the townships of Tunstall, Oldcott, and Ranscliff, to which it affords the accommodation they greatly needed prior to its erection; the only places of religious worship under the establishment, then in the parish, being the Mother Church of Wolstanton (two miles from Tunstall), and New Chapel, (about the like distance.) The income arising from the Pew Rents constitutes the whole of its present endowment, and is understood to be about £200; but it may be hoped the patron will be induced to enlarge it out of his improved income from the Tithe Compositions. The first incumbent was the Rev. William Carter, to whom succeeded, in 1835, the Rev. George Gayton Harvey, A. M. the present Vicar. The patronage accompanies that of the Mother Church of Wolstanton. A Sunday School is connected with the Church, and imparts instruction to about 500 children, some of whom are taught writing on the week-day evenings. The Dwelling-houses, Chapels, Shops, and Streets, in the principal part of the modern town (the Market Square excepted) occupy a site of land, the greater part of which was, about a century ago, the property of Thomas Child, of Tunstall, yeoman,-probably a collateral relative of the Family of CHILD, now of Newfield. He resided in an COMMENCEMENT OF MODERN TUNSTALL. 93 ancient brick-house still existing, (adjacent to the yard of a modern one now occupied by Mr. Davenport, Surgeon, and the property of Mr. John Meir,) which, as having been immemorially called the Manor House, may be considered as occupying the site of the Manorial or CourtHouse of former days. Thomas Child left six daughters, one of whom, Ann, married Enoch Booth, who settled on part of the property of her father, as a Potter, and introduced some important improvements in the Art, as we have already mentioned ; Ann Booth, one of the children of that marriage, became the wife of Mr. Anthony Keeling, who, succeeding his father-in-law, carried on a flourishing business for many years at Tunstall; and, at the commencement of the present century, was the principal manufacturer there. He, about the year 1793, erected near his manufactory a large house, which still vies with any in the place for respectability, and now belongs to Mr. Thomas Goodfellow. Mr. Keeling was not equally successful during the latter portion of his life; and in 1810 retired on a small independence to Liverpool, where he died in 1816. For many years this gentleman was the principal supporter of a place of religious worship on his premises, for a society of the sect of Christians called Sandemanians. Their number of members never exceeded eight; but they were in regular fellowship with other and larger congregations, of the same denomination, in London, &c. For some time after Mr. Keeling's removal, the society was maintained by its surviving members, but it has now entirely ceased at Tunstall and the neighbourhood. With the year 1816, commenced the most general and important improvement of Tunstall, and its amazingly rapid advancement in buildings and population. The principal inhabitants having held some meetings to concert measures how best "to promote general good order and * Page 49. |