The Villas, Stokeville
Encyclopedia
Estate (house)
An estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is the modern term for a manor, but lacks the latter's now abolished jurisdictional authority...
of 24 Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
houses in Stoke-upon-Trent
Stoke-upon-Trent
Stoke-upon-Trent, commonly called Stoke or Stoke town, is a component town of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, in the ceremonial county of Staffordshire, England....
, England, Originally a distinct settlement set in green fields, it now merges with the late 19th- and early 20th-century suburban sprawl along
London Road below Penkhull
Penkhull
Penkhull is a township within Stoke-upon-Trent in the city of Stoke-on-Trent in the English county of Staffordshire. The Domesday Book records it as two hides of land in the Hundred of Pirehill and that it was held by Earl Algar....
village on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent and within the ward of Stoke and Trent Vale.
Most dating from 1851–55, The Villas was designed by local architect Charles Lynam, who became a prominent architect in Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, building the Minton Hollins tileworks, for example. In designing The Villas, he chose an Italianate style similar to other Staffordshire buildings, such as Trentham Hall and Alton railway station
Alton railway station, Staffordshire
Alton Towers railway station is a disused railway station in the village of Alton, Staffordshire, England.The station was a stop on the North Staffordshire Railway's Churnet Valley Line from Macclesfield to Uttoxeter.-History:...
.
In June 1850, a number of prominent inhabitants of Stoke formed "The Stokeville Building Society". The purpose of the building society
Building society
A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially mortgage lending. These institutions are found in the United Kingdom and several other countries.The term "building society"...
was to provide the means and the financial capability for its members to erect, and ultimately own, houses on copyhold
Copyhold
At its origin in medieval England, copyhold tenure was tenure of land according to the custom of the manor, the "title deeds" being a copy of the record of the manorial court....
land outside the town of Stoke-upon-Trent
Stoke-upon-Trent
Stoke-upon-Trent, commonly called Stoke or Stoke town, is a component town of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, in the ceremonial county of Staffordshire, England....
. The land, 'Big Meadow and Barker's Meadow', containing seven acres, two rods and 18 perches, belonged to the Reverend Thomas Minton, brother of Herbert Minton and son of the founder of Thomas Minton and Sons (later Mintons Ltd), pottery manufacturer of Stoke, and was finally purchased for £1,582 on 3 May 1859.
Conservation
Originally built in three distinct classes, all providing accommodation for servants to “live in”, changing times meant that many were subdivided by the 1940s.In the 1956, resident of number 15 The Villas, Arnold Machin
Arnold Machin
Arnold Machin O.B.E, R.A. was a British artist, sculptor, coin and stamp designer.Machin was born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1911. He started work at the age of 14 as an apprentice china painter at the Minton Pottery. During the Depression he learnt to sculpt at Stoke-on-Trent's Art School, which was...
, received publicity in the national press when he protested about the proposed removal of an old metal lamp-post.
Machin's protest, "against the destruction of all the beautiful things which is going on in this country." did not prevent the lamp-post from being replaced by a concrete one; however, it was given to him for his own garden and his wife Patricia unlocked him. The estate subsequently received the distinction, on 19th April 1972, of being the first designated conservation area
Conservation area
A conservation areas is a tract of land that has been awarded protected status in order to ensure that natural features, cultural heritage or biota are safeguarded...
in Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...
. Initially, only a couple of the houses were listed, but with more houses listed on 15th March 1993, The Villas now contains the highest concentration of Grade II listed buildings in the city.
The Villas Vampire Case
The area gained national attention in January 1973, when Polish immigrant Demetrious Myicuria was found dead in his bed. Apparently terrified of a vampireVampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
attack, Myicuria had strewn his room with salt and garlic in ritual fashion. A post-mortem examination showed he had choked to death on a pickled onion, although PC John Pye believed it to have actually been a clove of garlic.
External links
- Google satellite view of The Villas
- Stokeville Building Society - Residents Association of The Villas
- Images of EnglandImages of EnglandrightImages of England is an online photographic record of all the listed buildings in England at the date of February 2001. The archive gives access to over 323,000 colour images, each of which is matched with the item’s listed designation architectural description.This ‘snapshot’ is not an...
entries for house numbers: , , , , , , - Nine more images