Series: Stoke-on-Trent Archaeology unpublished report series

Prior to redevelopment, an historic building appraisal was undertaken at the former Enson Works pottery manufactory and adjacent buildings located on Chelson Street/Normacot Road, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent . The appraisal involved the visual inspection and description of all accessible rooms/areas; the verification/annotation of existing architect's drawings for the site; and the recording of the present buildings by means of 35mm monochrome and colour digital photography. The appraisal identified the historical development of the Enson Works and adjacent buildings. It revealed that vestiges of the original pottery factory survive within the fabric of the present complex, but that these have been much altered and truncated by several phases of later development. A conclusive determination of the past process flow within the works could not be made due to the lack of surviving structural evidence and diagnostic fixtures and fittings. The America Hotel comprises at least two phases of development and the third building to be considered, number 101 Normacot Road, may have its origins in a building present on site by 1856, but has been much altered in subsequent years.

Stoke-on-Trent Archaeology carried out an archaeological building recording at Brownhills High School, Brownhills Road, Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent. The building recording focused on the original school building at the south side of the modern complex. It was constructed from 1927-30 as a girls' secondary grammar school and was one of the first schools to be built in Stoke-on-Trent after the end of the First World War. The building façade was neo-Georgian in style and was of the popular pavilion plan with blocks arranged around a quadrangle divided into two separate courtyards by a central assembly hall. The original school building had both general-purpose classrooms and specialist science laboratories and art rooms, most of which have retained their original functions. Facilities for the original school building were also located within Brownhills Hall, perhaps utilised as a cost saving measure in the hard economic times of the inter-war years. The school was extended to the north of the current building between 1937 and 1950 and to the west between 1950 and 1963. The demolition of Brownhills Hall took place between 1963 and 1974 along with further extensions to the school.

A programme of archaeological building recording was undertaken at St Augustine''s Care Home, Cobridge Road, Stoke-on-Trent (NGR SJ 8750 4848). St Augustine''s was built in 1902 by the Little Sisters of the Poor as a care home for the aged poor. It continued in use as a care home for one hundred years, latterly under the management of Prime Life Ltd. Recently the building was used as a hostel for asylum seekers until its closure in 2004. The building recording identified a main east to west range with a wing at either end and a chapel at the rear. The project confirmed the chronological development of the building as is shown on the OS maps of 1899 to the present day. Some idea of the original layout and use of the individual rooms was also achieved. In the context of similar institutions of the time, St Augustine''s seems to have offered relatively comfortable accommodation and, unsurprisingly, to have provided for spiritual as well as physical needs, possibly with a great deal of tolerance towards non Catholic faiths. The later alterations that took place at St Augustine''s concentrated upon the subdivision of rooms and illustrate an increased regard for residents'' individuality and privacy.

Report on the recording of the Caledonia Pottery, an early 20th-century mill for the processing of raw materials for the pottery industry. The report includes a analytical description of the complex, plans, elevations and photographs.

Stoke-on-Trent Archaeology carried out an archaeological building recording at the former Denton Works, located on Chaplin Road, Normacot, Stoke-on-Trent. The building recording sought to record the present appearance and layout of the works by means of a measured survey, written descriptions and photographic survey. It also charted the historical development of the works. The project successfully recorded the buildings and identified successive phases of their development, although the lack of surviving internal fixtures and fittings prevented the determination of the function of many of the rooms. The former Denton Works included buildings of different date and type that were eventually adapted and extended to house the pottery manufactory. They included former residential properties and industrial premises, the earliest of which appears to have been under construction by c.1892. The core of buildings that eventually housed the Denton Works existed on the site by 1900 and included the premises of the Premier Mineral Water Co. The Denton Works occupied part of the site by 1945 and had taken over the whole site by 1956. This resulted in piecemeal alterations to the buildings already on the site and the construction of new buildings. Since 2008 multiple occupants of the former Denton Works have either made use of or adapted the existing buildings.

Stoke-on-Trent Archaeology carried out an archaeological building recording on the former Wesleyan Methodist chapel, Botteslow Street, Hanley. The Level 2 standard building recording was carried out on the 14th April 2010. The chapel was a Gothic-style building built in 1906, replacing a prefabricated corrugated-iron chapel erected in 1880. Both the iron chapel and its replacement were constructed at a time of growth in population in the Potteries generally and more particularly in non-conformist congregations. The surveyed chapel comprised a principal room, probably with seating facing a pulpit at the south-west end. Ancillary rooms at the rear of the building provided space for meetings, Sunday school classes and social gatherings, supplementing facilities already provided in the adjacent Sunday school building, built 1890. Later modifications to the building were probably carried out during the occupancy of a storage and removals company. The principal room was subdivided into a number of smaller units and a first-floor was inserted above. Access to the building was also improved with the removal of a porch on its north-west side.

Stoke-on-Trent Archaeology carried out a Level 3 standard archaeological building recording at the former Tuscan Works, Forrister Street, Longton, Stoke-on Trent. The building recording focused upon the historic core of the pottery factory. A photographic survey of peripheral areas was also carried out. The Tuscan Works was a china manufactory built in c. 1872 by the firm Robinson, Chapman and Co. The original buildings were laid out on a courtyard plan with a decorative façade to the range fronting onto Forrister Street and with kilns located in the ranges to the rear. The works had been extended by 1900 with the addition of a second courtyard. The factory later expanded in to the former Anchor Colliery site, incorporating the former colliery office on Anchor Road, which had originally been built as a domestic dwelling.

The Pit Head Baths complex at Chatterley Whitfield Colliery, Stoke-on-Trent was recorded in advance of refurbishment by Stoke-on-Trent Archaeology on behalf of Stoke-on-Trent City Council. The complex comprises buildings 18: Baths, 19: Canteen, 20: Medical Centre/ Deployment Wing and 21: Rescue Station, built between 1937 and 1976. The Baths and the Canteen were built by the Miners Welfare Commission in 1937 and are indicative of improvements in miner's welfare made from the early 1900s onwards. The Baths retained many of the original furniture and fittings specific to such a building. As the colliery grew, extra accommodation was added to the Canteen in the form of Building 21, built by 1951, and originally known as the feeding centre. Further changes were made following new standards introduced with nationalisation in 1947. In the mid-1950s Building 21 was altered to accommodate a dedicated rescue station, although little trace of this was identified within the structure. Building 21 was built in the mid-1960s as a Deployment Wing when a new, more efficient system of deployment was introduced. Following the closure of the colliery in 1976 the internal layout of the buildings was significantly altered. In particular the ground floor of the Baths was subdivided into office and workshop space for rental. The Chatterley Whitfield Mining Museum took over many of the buildings from 1978 until closure in 1991. Under their occupation Building 19 remained in use as the Canteen, however, Building 21 was partitioned to accommodate museum offices. More recently the buildings have been unoccupied with the exception of Building 20 which has been refurbished as a meeting place for the Friends of Chatterley Whitfield.