Tunstall’s golden gates!
BUT METALWORK MAESTRO WILLIAM BARRATT DUROSE WAS ALSO RESPONSIBLE FOR SO MUCH MORE, AS HISTORIAN MERVYN EDWARDS EXPLAINS
THE ornamental gates enticing visitors into Tunstall Park are one of the finest examples of decorative metalwork in the Potteries. Bringing considerable dignity to Victoria Park Road, they were created by a long-lived firm that was prolifically busy.
Among the structures that embraced wrought iron work and fittings manufactured by the Tunstall firm of Durose and Sons were the Moorland Road Council School in Burslem (1910), the Holden Bridge, spanning the Hanley to Leek road (1930), Meir’s Broadway Cinema (1936), Hanley’s Odeon Cinema (1937) and the rebuilt Theatre Royal in Hanley (1951) – not to mention many pubs. They also fitted such as stainless steel butchers’ bars and grills in the emporia of the Burslem and District Industrial Co-op Society.
The Durose story is an engaging one, beginning in 1880. The firm’s history relates that William Barratt Durose had it in mind to spend some 25 shillings savings on a holiday in the Isle of Man, after having completed a seven-year apprenticeship with a coach-builder.
However, he decided to put his money to better use. So he rented a stable in Tunstall, which he used as a workshop, and bought himself some tools.
Operating as a blacksmith, wheelwright and even a coffin-maker, he prospered, and so moved to Washington Street, Tunstall. His talents complemented each other, as in those days, wheel rims on traps and carts were made from iron while many of these horse-drawn conveyances had decorative brackets. His skills as a blacksmith also found a use in the pottery industry as metal bonts (or bands) were used on bottle ovens so as to stabilise the brickwork during the firing process.
From the beginning, Durose cultivated an artistic streak, becoming known for his wrought iron work. He came to create ornamental signs, church fittings and gates. So busy did he become that I wonder whether he ever managed to take that holiday in the Isle of Man.
His work became well-known in Tunstall, where he found a kindred spirit, namely the manufacturer and civic bigwig, John Nash Peake, who was interested in the development of arts and crafts and who was a talented amateur artist himself. Tunstall Park gates and the signs hanging from the Victoria Institute and the Post Office in Tunstall were all gifts from John and created by William.
The beautiful and ornate ‘Tunstall Free Library’ sign of 1901, hanging outside the former library in the Institute has, on each face, the words ‘John Nash Peake gave this’ and ‘William Durose made this.’ It hung over the side of the building in Greengate Street.
Elsewhere in Tunstall, the impressive entrance gates to the Memorial Gardens in Station Road (now the Boulevard) were Durosemade. They were given by the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Stokeon-trent – cinema pioneer George Barber and his wife - and opened in 1929. When Tunstall’s Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart opened a year after, some of the inside fittings were made by Durose, who distinguished himself in respect of ecclesiastical buildings as he also crafted the lovely screen at Oulton Abbey.
The firm’s ornamental work appeared in many private and public buildings in London and several English counties, often in Roman Catholic churches and convents. Durose work also found its way to India. Much nearer to home, the firm made tools, spades and ploughs for local tradesmen, as well as surgeons’ instruments.
The company traded in Washington Street and High Street in Tunstall and at Majestic Buildings in Stoke. William also had a business connection with the Price Foundry Company in Tunstall.
Outside of the day job, William Durose was a bustling Tunstall worthy, dubbed the ‘father’ of Tunstall Amateur Swimming Club, which was gloriously successful in its time.
In his day, he was a fine polo player, keeping goal for the Tunstall team. A framed photograph of William, recognising his sterling service with the club, was presented by his family in 1928 and for many years hung in the hall of Tunstall Baths. He was variously described in press reports as a fine organiser and a sometimes rugged personality who sometimes spoke out about the rules of the sport and how they should be interpreted.
His four sons and daughters shared his interest in sport. He was prominently associated with the Jubilee Methodist Church in Tunstall and was a member of Burslem Conservative Club.
William lived to a ripe old age, attending business every day and travelling from his home in Endon. His 80th birthday was celebrated at
the Sneyd Arms in Tunstall in 1939 and attended by staff and workers. He had between 70 and 80 employees at the time and had long established a worldwide reputation. Harry Hancock, who was chosen to present William with a commemorative cut glass vase, had himself been an employee for 52 years and remembered joining the firm when there were only three or four employees.
William died on Christmas Day, 1941, having been rushed to the Haywood Hospital in Burslem. He was 82 and he was buried in Tunstall Cemetery. Perhaps we should remember him as Tunstall’s very own Hephaestus.
This was not the end of William Durose and Sons, however, as his boys were to carry on the business for many years, manufacturing such as staircases, balustrades, brackets for the sanitary industry, fire escapes, fire-proof doors, public house signs and ornamental ironwork for the breweries.
However, we return to the grand portal of Tunstall Park, undoubtedly the most admired reminder of the Durose contribution in the city.
The gates were formally opened in 1908 by the widow of John Nash Peake, with the town’s Chief Bailiff and the members of the Tunstall Urban District Council present. This outstanding piece of ironmongery was then intended to be known for all time as the Peake Memorial Gates, though sad to say, few people living in Tunstall today are aware of the Peakes’ contribution, even though John Nash Peake and other family members donated the gate.
They were constructed in honour of Thomas Peake, the father of JNP, who was nothing if not painstaking in supervising aspects of the design and manufacture of the gates. He made regular visits to Durose’s smith’s shop while they were being crafted. Durose’s gates – built by W. Bonner, a Tunstall stonemason – hung upon four stone pillars and incorporated the seal of the Tunstall Urban District Council. With municipal parks having already been established in Longton, Hanley and Burslem, this was undoubtedly Tunstall’s day in the sun. Incidentally, I still get asked about the spelling of the town’s name on the park gates. John Nash Peake favoured a Latin inscription at the time, but was at a loss to find the most accurate Latinisation of Tunstall – and so wrote to his friend, F. E. Kitchener, who appears to have been something of an authority. Kitchener quoted varied spellings from old documents but the upshot, reported The Sentinel, was that “out of regard for pride of origin and euphony, the style Tunestal was chosen for the gates.”
Costing £450, they were originally intended to be placed at an angle at the junction of Queen’s Avenue and what was then Victoria Road, but the eventual size of the gates persuaded Tunstall Urban District Council to think again.
Back in 1908, they were painted green with the inscriptions picked out in gold letters, though in 2021, Stoke-on-trent City Council restored the gate in resplendent black and gold colours. Today, they remain a delight to the eye and a lasting reminder of the civic pride that went into creating our public parks.
■ Mervyn will lead a Green Door history walk around Tunstall Park on Monday, starting from outside the Floral Hall in the park at 11 am promptly. Admission is £3.50, pay on the day.