David Wood has sent in the following article, which tells you what it was like in Goldenhill going back as far as the 1940s.
Back in the forties, fifties and early sixties on a good day, you could sometimes see your hand in front of your face.
The smoke, fog and subsequently the smog, was so thick that you literally could not see your hand if your arm was outstretched.
The main cause of this was the bottle ovens stretching across the length of the city from Tunstall to Longton, although the fact that everyone had a coal fire didn’t help matters.
Truly, on a clear day you could see the pall of smoke hanging over the city like a massive black blanket.
If you search the internet, you will find several photo examples of this.
Even as late as the mid sixties there were still a few houses in the village without electricity, the lighting being powered by gas.
A few houses still did not have an inside water tap, the only supply was in the outhouse down the yard next to the outside loo.
The street lighting was provided by gas lamps.
As I have mentioned before we had loads of chapels, churches and pubs, we even had three bus companies, Stoniers, Jeffreys and the PMT.
There was a cinema, not just an ordinary cinema but a Super Cinema, which was run superbly by the Johnson family.
We had butchers shops, oatcake shops, chip shops, hairdressers, newsagents, public toilets, clothes shops, coal merchants, cafes, an electrician’s shop, a DIY shop, a laundrette, a children’s playground, a pop works, a football pitch, two bakeries, and a police station, there was even a council depot with a road roller in it.
Schools were plentiful, Hollywall Lane infants and juniors, Church infants, Church juniors, Goldenhill Secondary Modern and the Catholic School.
The village was completely self contained, there was very little reason to venture out into the big wide world.
So, when you are playing on your playstations or computers, wending your way home by courtesy of your sat nav, watching one of the 250 television stations via satellite or ordering a pizza on your mobile phone, remember, things could be worse.
We didn’t have a lot, but what we had we appreciated and there was a true community spirit.
I am proud to say that I grew up on Goldenhill.
If you found the write up really interesting then why not go to the website forum page and click on the local memories tab and leave a message of some of your past recollections.
You can also use the web link to browse through the booklet that the Goldenhill & Sandyford Memories Group have produced http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1394184
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