Description:Street scene taken at Wharf Street, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
This is possibly the best known image from the collection. Blake, in a library entry for the North Staffs Field Club, describes the scene as such;
"Children wait patiently to pick up small lumps of coal dropped by the coal merchants. Once bought by a merchant then dropped in transit the coal became fair game. Children would hurry the coal home for use on the fire. Domestically, coal was used for heat, to cook and to heat water."