Penkhull Street

[Mancunian_Nick]

Thanks for your efforts, Paul. That's brilliant. Really appreciate it.

Cheers, Nick

[Wheelsliz]

I live in the area. There's a Penkhull New Road and a Penkhull Terrace.

[RadicalRichard]

As a resident of Penhull village and a Potter born and breed etc. I can confirm that Penkhull St is St Thomas place. It is a short section of road running from what was the old village centre and blending with Honeywall by the old Grove School. Originally it was part of the main road running down into Stoke-upon-Trent. Penkhull straddles the border between Stoke and Newcastle-u-Lyme and dates back to Celtic times. Although part of Stoke-on-Trent it still has a rural feel and as a child in the 60's I remembered cattle being herderd through the streets to Penkhull Farm.

Hope that helps.

Hi Zen Rabbit, found the above whilst researching the gap in the properties on the St Thomas Place end of Princes Road, houses 354 to 388 are missing and there is now a car park for the bungalows fronting on to Honeywall in their place.  I was wondering if you know what happened there to create this gap and how long ago.

Many thanks

[Zen rabbit]

It is possible that these went with the near destruction of Penkhull in the 60's when the council layed waste to great sections of the village in a drive for modernisation. The Royal Manor of Penkhull by Richard Talbot may shed some light on the missing houses

[RadicalRichard]

Thanks that could be helpful, I just wondered if perhaps a stray bomb intended for Michelin in the war had landed there but I guess they could also have been demolished if they were in a bad state of repair.  Its strange as the remaining three houses 390-394 on Princes Road still stand.

[Zen rabbit]

Checking on my old maps shows that the original houses fronted on to Honeywall, with the portion that is now the car park area being the gardens of the house(s). They were still there on the 1955 edition of the OS map that I have. If that is any help. I will try and find out more if I can

[RadicalRichard]

That's really intriguing as it does sort of lend credence to my theory that a bomb took out the original houses as they would normally have fronted onto Princes Street, otherwise there would not be a gap in the house numbers. 

I can trace the existing bungalows back to planning permission in 1975 and further planning consent in 1979

https://planning.stoke.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=_STOKE_DCAPR_23956

I am guessing that the houses on your OS map were new build after the war, but then if that was the case you would have thought that they would have lasted from 1955 beyond 1975 and does not explain why there are now 5 single bedroom bungalows on the combined plot, unless perhaps the buildings on your map were prefabs which of course were popular at that time and would lend further credence to my theory of a war time bomb being the cause of the gap in the house numbers.

I am also wondering if this has anything to do with your original statement that St Thomas Place was originally Penkhull Street and maybe is connected with the name change.  Can you shed any light on why the name was changed and when?  as well as your thoughts on my theory.

Many thanks

[Zen rabbit]

I don't know why they changed the name (possibly to avoid confusion with the Penkhull st in Newcastle but that is just a guess). The houses though are quite intriging.
on the earliest map I have is the 1898 OS (Godfrey edition) and this shows 10 (terraced)houses fronting onto Honeywall with an alley between them and the three on the corner, next to them are fields or waste land. they are still there in 1925 but now a house has been built next to them. This is a larger scale map though.

[Zen rabbit]

A bit more info. The houses at the top of Honeywall (The gardens of which backed onto Princes St) were called North Terrace and were built in 1861 as well proportioned middle class homes. "The Royal Manor of Penkhull" book has a more detailed map section from 1925 and a photo of the houses in their decline with the windows bricked up.