The earliest easily accessible record of land holdings in Hartshill is a Survey of

Agricultural Holdings produced by Charles Heaton in 1827 and available in the

City Archives in Hanley Library. Unfortunately the plan which accompanied it
is missing, but the fields named can be traced by reference to the Tithe Map of
1849 and where there is no information on that Map through previous Tithe
Redemption Certificates held at the Lichfield Joint Record Office.

On the north side of Hartshill Road the largest landholders are recorded as
John Tomlinson (Cliffe Ville), Mary Chatterley (Hartshill Farm - though in 1827
it became the property of Caroline Burrow, widow of Arthur Burrow and later
the wife of William Cumming) ; John Bill (Noah's Ark) Lord Stowell and the
Honourable Thomas Windsor (Stoke Old Road Farm) and Sir Thomas Fletcher
Fenton Boughy and the Reverend Lewis Armistead who owned land between
the Noah's Ark estate and the Stoke Old Road Farm estate, as well as land to
the south of Hartshill Road. There the major land holders were Josiah Spode
(the Mount); Mrs Ann Hoby (much of whose land was developed as the
Harpfield estate) and the Reverend John Whalley (Harpfield Farm).

The Hartshill Farm Estate and the Noah's Ark estates were originally part of the
lands owned by the Edwards family until the death of Thomas Edwards in 1768
and his widow in 1770.

The Cliff Ville estate centred on the mansion built by John Tomlinson, a Hanley
solicitor in 1807. The origin of the estate was said by John Ward in "The
Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent" to lie in the sale of 40 customary acres of the
land of the hunting park of Cliff Hay to two Newcastle Burgesses, Hugh
Bowyer and William Brompton, by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, in 1365.
By 1775 the estate was owned by William Whieldon and based on the Goat's
Head Farm which stood at the junction of Shelton Old Road and Hartshill
Road. The estate extended the length of Hartshill Road as far as but not
including, the Jolly Potters and included Hartshill Villa, Hartshill Cottage and
the row of six cottages, latterly called Ivy Cottages, which were on the site of
Tesco Express and by the date of the 1827 survey, covered an area of 60
acres.

John Tomlinson died in 1837 and soon after his son, Frederick Wright
Tomlinson, began to sell land on the Hartshill Road boundary, nearest to Cliff
Bank. He sold the site of the Goat's Head Farm to John Jones, a chemist, who
built a Borax works (now Homestyle) and Knowl Lodge (now Lorien Court.)
Next to that the land for a house called (originally) The Cliffe, was sold to
William Copeland and Spencer Garrett, the proprietors of the Spode Works. In
1852 he sold the land on which was built St Dominic's Convent and The
Church of St Peter in Chains and Our Lady of the Angels.

By the date of another survey of Agricultural Lands in 1862, by Samuel Bate,

the estate had been reduced to 48 acres, and after the sale of the Reservoir
Cliffs/Old Brickworks Field (known to many has Mayer's Field) to Edward
Baddeley of the Noah's Ark Inn, the land attached to the house was only 20
acres. In 1864, Cliff Ville became the rectory for Stoke-upon-Trent and the
Reverend Sir Lovelace Stamer, Frederick Wright Tomlinson's nephew, lived
there until after he became Bishop of Shrewsbury in 1888. In 1875, the Convent
extended their property by buying more land between the house and the
Convent, which included the two lower pools and where the Mother Provincial
of the Order of St Catherine of Sienna, Sister Francis Raphael, laid out a
"picturesque glen", with bluebells and primroses.

Between 1892 and 1898, Cliff Ville was rented and during this time it was
considered as a home for a Technical School and the remaining grounds as a
Park, by Stoke-upon-Trent Borough Council, but any such plans were
scuppered by the controversial purchase of the house and grounds by
Alderman Frederick Geen, He drew up plans to build on the estate, first
submitting plans to lay out eight streets, but the Council would only agree to
four streets opening on to Hartshill Road, and insisting that houses biult
fronting Hartshill Road should be of a similar standard to those opposite, i.e.
large villa residences. Geen did not pursue his idea, but did divide Cliff Ville
into two sperate dwellings, Cliff Ville and Kingsland. He also sold land to build
the Steam Laundry (Dexmore Engineering) and the Hartshill Recreation
Ground (St Dominic's Car Park of Hartshill Park).

Boughey/Armistead

The Boughey/Armistead property of the north side of Hartshill Road was a

small portion of their land in the parish of Stoke-upon-Trent, for they owned
much of Boothen and that part of Shelton east of Shelton New Road and west
of Leek Road and bounded by the Fowlea Brook, though there were some
some small holdings on the Hartshill side of the Brook which were
interspersed with those of Cliff Ville. .Some of the Shelton land would later
become Hanley Cemetery and Hanley Park. Their joint inheritance came as
heirs of Sir Thomas's grandmother Anne and Lawrence's mother, Catherine
who were the daughters of John Fenton of Newcastle who died in 1782. Their
Hartshill estate in 1827, north of Hartshill Road, consisted of Trumpeshay, an
ancient enclosure from Cliff Hay in the 15th century and portions of the KIng's
Field. South of Hartshill Road was Fletcher's Field. Trumpeshay was divided
into two parts by the construction of the continuation of Victoria Street in 1897
and the whole of the estate was sold in 1907. Purchasers included the
Silverdale Co-operative Society, who built their bakery and dairy on both sides
of what was named Balloon Street, George Evans, who built in Lansdowne and
Claridge Roads and in Basford, Stephen Heath, who built council houses on
his land in KIngsfield Road after the First World War, under the 1919 Housing
Act.

Stowell/Windsor

This estate lay north of Stoke Old Road with three fields known as Parker's
Close. The farmhouse still stands in Stoke Old Road near to the junction with
Balloon Street. In 1827 the estate was owned by Lord Stowell and the
Honourable Thomas Windsor, the husbands of the two daughters of John
Bagnall, who descended from an old Newcastle family. By the date of the Tithe
Map in 1849, the farmland had been bisected by the construction of Shelton
New Road and the further reduced by the excavation of the cutting for the
railway line from Stoke to Newcastle. By that date it was the property of
Viscount Sidmouth, husband of Lord Stowell's daughter, Marianne.

Whalley

The Reverend John Whalley, Vicar of Rushall, Walsall, had two separate
holdings south of Hartshill Road in 1827. He inherited these from his father,
Daniel Whalley, who lived at Great Fenton Hall and was the father-in-law of
Martha Constable, the sister of John Constable, the artist. The diary of Daniel
Whalley senior records that John Constable visited the family in the summer
of 1801 and rode with him to Penkhull on two occasions in July and
September. By Daniel Whalley's will of 1813 he left to his son Daniel junior the
plot of land called Constable's Patch which he had bought after the bankruptcy
of the potter John Harrison in 1802. This land was at the junction of Hartshill
Road and Princes Road opposite Hartshill Church. It was stipulated in the will
that he was to make a way at least sixteenth feet wide for horses carts and
carriages will would allow access to the rest of his lands, which on his death
would pass to his son the Reverend John Whalley. These lands stretched
along the length of Hartshill Road, almost from Honeywall to the rear of the
Longfield estate and from the road as far as Princes Road. It was these lands
that were sold c. 1830 to Josiah Spode and became part of the Mount estate,
The other property, Harpfield Farm, remained in the hands of his descendants
for the rest of the nineteenth century, though it never included the original
Harp Field, which in 1807 was owned by Thomas Kinnersley, a Newcastle
banker and contained a glue works and brick oven, and was later developed as
a tilery by the Platt family. KInnersley also owned part of the King's Field
opposite, adjoining the land belonging to Sir Thomas Fletcher Fenton
Boughey and the Reverend Lawrence Armitstead. Part of the estate became
allotments in the late nineteenth century.

Hoby

The estate of Mrs Ann Hoby was purchased from Josiah Wedgwood in 1801 by
Ann Ward, widow of Archer Ward and Joshua Walker, who had been her
husband's partner in a white lead business. The company, later trading as
Walker, Maltby & Company, built a leadworks at the junction of what is now
The Avenue and the A34, possibly because of its proximity to the |Newcastle
Canal. It is listed as Ward & Company on the 1807 Rate Assessment. It was in
operation by 1802, but does not appear in later directories. The estate formed
the marriage settlement of Ann Ward, daughter of Archer and Ann Ward on her
marriage to James Hoby in 1818. She died in 1830 and the estate remained in
her family until the end of the century, apart from land sold to the Guardians of
the Poor to build the new Parish Hospital and Workhouse in 1842. The estate
was enfranchised in 1874.Her lands In width along Hartshill Road the estate
stretched from The Avenue to Palmer's Green. From Hartshill Road it extended
south to the A34. Some land formed Stoke Road Farm (Gorton's Farm) which
stood on the site of the Coroner's Court. Much of the rest formed the Harpfield
estate of the pre and post First World War.