Oulton Abbey, Stone - December 2022

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Oulton Abbey, formerly Oulton House, was built by Thomas Dent, a solicitor, in about 1720. It was later owned by John Joule, the brewer, who added a new front in 1822. Between 1835 and 1838 it was occupied by the Duke of Sutherland while Trentham Hall was being altered. Between 1838 and 1853 it was Read more

Burslem Market Hall, Stoke-on-Trent - February 2022

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Another case of persistence having paid off after a decade or more of attempts, seemingly nature finally took it's course and facilitated a way in. With the best part of twenty years of disuse this is a rather nice one, basically untouched, not wrecked and just naturally decayed. The pièce de Read more

A Pair of Courts, Burton-on-Trent - 2017/2021

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Consolidation of the MoJ estate over the last decade or so has resulted in the closure of local courts all over the country, many being amalgamated into justice centre's covering larger regions. In Burton this resulted in the County Court closing in 2013, which has subsequently been converted into Read more

Newcastle-under-Lyme Civic Offices - Autumn 2021

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The Civic Offices were opened circa 1963, to the designs of architects Bradshaw Gass & Hope. The buildings replaced earlier municipal buildings such as the Municipal Hall on the Ironmarket which was controversially demolished in 1967 and the Guildhall on the High Street which still stands. The Read more

Standon Hall Hospital/Beeches Care Home, Staffordshire - June 2020

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I tend to avoid residential/care homey stuff, they're not really up my street usually but after seeing the report the other week from this local one it seemed like it would be worth a look. The aforementioned report was lacking any sort of history which was a shame because after doing a bit of Read more

Newcastle-under-Lyme Police Station - January 2020

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Newcastle-under-Lyme has had a number of police stations throughout it's history, this could probably be described as it's third. The first still stands on Water Street a little way out of the town centre, the second was on the High Street, demolished in the 1930's. This building on Merrial Street Read more

Sutherland Chambers, Stoke on Trent - October 2019

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Some history of the building, produced by local historian Andrew Dobraszczyc. Sutherland Chambers in Stoke were built by William Jackson in 1899. Jackson was a publican owning the neighbouring Grapes Public House and also the nearby Glebe Hotel. In 1898 he engaged local architects and surveyors Read more

Savoy Cinema/Metropolis Nightclub, Newcastle-under-Lyme - October 2016 / The Met - October 2019

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Now the building that used to stand on this site was originally a cinema, it later went through the fairly standard conversion into a bingo club, before getting a bit of snooker and a smaller cinema, finally ending up as a nightclub. For the majority of my life time it's been shut and it was Read more

King Edward VI Boys Grammar School, Stafford - October 2019

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The Free Grammar School of King Edward VI was first established in Stafford in 1550 to provide free education to young boys. In 1862 a new building was erected for the school on Newport Road and would serve as the home of the boys' grammar school for over 100 years. Stafford Girls' High School was Read more

Liverpool Fruit Exchange - February 2019

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There seems to be relatively little information about this place on the internet, hence I've just wheeled out the standard chunk of history that people have been using from Historic England. No.10-16 Victoria Street was built in c.1888 as a railway goods depot for the London & North Western Read more