“I don't have any pictures, but am pretty sure it was called "Richmond Hill" before Richmond Street was laid down in late Victorian times. I accidentally came across that little factoid while doing some family history research about ten years ago.”

“thanks leeguv,how do you know this,richmond street in stoke on trent is the one im talking about.is their another richmond st,as the street sign has jubilee rd underneath the 1950s new one . Richmond st is well documented as it joins honeywall wich used to be called cliff bank.thanks for your input very interesting.”

“Actually, Honeywall has never been called Cliff Bank. That title (more accurately: Cliffe Bank) belonged to the steep strip of what is now Hartshill Road where the Catholic Church and retirement village is currently located. See here:

http://tinyurl.com/85zdsg6

Further up Cliffe Bank (now Hartshill Road) was a large house called "The Cliffe" which was occupied by the Rector of Stoke Church. Honeywall (both the name and the 'lane') actually dates back to Celtic times.

When I said the area where Richmond Street is now located was once called "Richmond Hill", I am talking about a time much further back than the 1960s. Yes, the street had a different name originally, but before the street existed (prior to the late 1800s), the area (mostly fields) was called Richmond Hill. When the street name was changed from Jubilee Road to Richmond Street in the 1950s, it was no doubt a tribute to the area's historic name.

As I said, I discovered all of this while researching my family history. The most valuable resource in that regard is Hanley Library. It's far more useful than the internet.

By the way, I had totally forgotten about this thread and was reminded of it today because the "Britain From Above" site went live, and one of the photos from 1927 shows Richmond Street park and a bit of what is now the allotment area. Did you know most of that park was occupied by a lake back then?

http://tinyurl.com/7k4398b

The photo isn't high resolution and the detail is poor, but still very interesting.”

“very good picture,thanks for getting back.i do have a picture of honeywall leading to the bottom of richmond st.i live opp the allotments.my pic shows the allotments now and in the past when it was a field with a bigish pool.it was off a plotholders father he used to fish the pool in the 1920s.the pool was fed by a spring which is still going in the middle of the allotments now.im very surprised theres not many pictures saying that they are somewere soon to be discovered.anyway thanks again..”

“Sorry to hear you've been unable to get more pictures.

If you want to check out old maps of the area, try old-maps.co.uk. The 1877 town plan for the whole area is interesting because it lets you get very close. It's cumbersome to navigate though.”

“There is a whole file of info lying rotting in a building, or was at Booth Street Depot, the Leisure Services removed it there when they left Hanley Park, it included all the Title Deeds etc. of the site, plans etc. In fact every site in the City that came under the remit of the Leisure Department was in that building, it included original documents of Mawsons plans of Hanley Park, every complaint letter ever written from the turn of the last century. In reality it is a vast archive in itself which I had the to peruse, it should be saved for posterity, but as with all things I doubt you would be able to track down who was responsible for the mass of documents now. But I hope you try it is an extremely important source of local history for the whole City.”

“im looking into that thanks”