Description:This photograph is thought to have been taken from the top of St James the Less Church tower opposite Barlow Street (Upper Hill Street), first looking down Barlow Street and onto Paragon Road (Ford Street). The Stoke to Derby railway line is in front of the early Victorian pottery an mine workers' terraced houses with outside lavatories in the East Vale district of Longton. This area was known as “Money Island”. It is not known for certain why that local name was adopted. However, some people who lived there say it was because you could jump from a house in one street to a house in the adjacent street which backed onto each other.
All the old East Vale houses were finally slum cleared in the early 1960’s and rebuilt on with houses thereafter.
Pot Banks in the photograph looking down Barlow Street are as follows :-
Middle left is the Duchess China works owned by A.T. Finney & Sons Ltd,
Middle lower left level is Paragon China Ltd – Sutherland Rd,
Colclough China Ltd was situated in East Vale over the railway line on the left.
The bottle ovens front right belonged to the Garfield Works .
The bottle ovens middle right, after the Garfield works, belong to the Longton Pottery Company, owned by A.T. Finney & Sons Ltd.
The bottle ovens bottom right in Sutherland Road were eventually the site of Regency China.
Photographer: William Blake of Longton