The Cottage - Tunstall

      (Researched and written by Mervyn Edwards 2001)

In common with numerous pubs across the country, the Cottage in Clayhills, Tunstall began as a beerhouse. Though these were often precarious retail outlets in terms of sustainability, it is clear that the Cottage was one of the more flourishing ones - as was revealed in matters discussed by the Pirehill North Adjourned Licensing Meeting in 1874. There, a Mr. Ackrill applied, on behalf of Reginald Young, for a spirit license for the Cottage Inn beerhouse, at which time the present building was in course of construction. Ackrill stated that "Tunstall had fewer licensed houses than any other town of its size, there being 14,000 inhabitants and only 10 licensed houses. Then all these licensed houses were on the opposite side of the town to that on which the Cottage Inn was situated. A public house was required in the neighbourhood; the new premises would be in every way suitable, and would prove an ornament to the town. Mr. Smith, barrister, opposed the application, but the magistrates granted the license, on the distinct understanding that the new and old houses would not be used at the same time, but that when the new premises were completed the old house would be taken down." Other neighbouring competitors perhaps feared for their own profits, with the imminent rebuilding of the Cottage, for at this time, Mr. Smith applied for a spirit license on behalf of Joseph Elkin, the landlord of the Dog beerhouse, opposite to the Cottage Inn. It was refused.

The new hostelry (the date of 1875 can be seen on its frontage) was well positioned to serve those who worked in local industries. Among the social occasions which took place at the Cottage was the annual gathering of Thomas Peake's employees in 1878, when beteen 60 and 70 people sat down to a dinner provided by Mr. Harrison. Concern was expressed about the financial position of the Tileries Colliery, and a toast was given to Thomas Peake (1798-1881), the Tunstall tile manufacturer who had been working coal and ironstone mines from the 1850s. However, not all the activities which took place at the Cottage in connection with local industry (Goldendale Ironworks, Ravensdale Ironworks, tileries and collieries were all nearby) were convivial. A coroner's inquest took place at the Cottage in 1876 following the death of a collier who had been buried beneath two tons of overburden in a roof fall at the Peacock's Hay Colliery. A subsequent coroner's inquest in 1877 was held in connection with the deaths of 11 men in a terrible boiler explosion at Heath and Sons' Ravensdale Ironworks whilst another inquest touched on the death of Thomas Jones, an ostler at Goldendale Ironworks, who died in 1879.

Unsurprisingly, meetings of the local workforce were numerous at the new hostelry, especially as the fluctuating local economy engendered tension between men and masters in the local indusries. The issues of wages and working conditions were often debated and Enoch Edwards (1852-1912) a trades unionist and treasurer of the North Staffordshire Miners' Association by 1875 (he was general secretary by 1878) was no stranger to the premises. Miners' meetings did not just take place inside the pub, either, for we read that at the time of the miners' strike in 1883, Mr. Pickard (a miners' representative from South Yorkshire) addressed a large meeting of miners "in the yard of the Cottage Hotel", whilst Edwards also delivered a "stirring address". Miners from Cheshire, Lancashire and elsewhere attended meetings at the Cottage.

Keeping a public house was often a dangerous profession, as Miles Harrison, the landlord of the Cottage, found out in 1881. A crowd had gathered outside the pub, watching Harrison's attempts to eject the drunk and distorderly William Henry Stone and Henry James. The landlord was observed "with his teeth loose, his eye swollen, and his mouth covered with blood". The offenders were subsequently fined and sent to prison.

The 1907 trade directory lists Jos. Crutchley as the licensee of the Cottage, which vied for trade with two beerhouses in Clayhills - the Dog Inn and the Bull's Head. By this time, Tunstall could boast of 12 public houses and 58 beerhouses.