Tales of old Longton, mixed with historical titbits going back several centuries, form the basis of a new book entitled Neck End, written by Alan Myatt in close collaboration with Longton's champion, Ellis Bevan.

"The book isn't intended to be a history of Longton," says Alan. "It's more a scrapbook of information and stories other books have missed out."

He is supported by co-author Bevan, who adds that one of their objectives is to dispel the derogatory nature of the term Neck End.

"Longton has always been a go-ahead place and used to be famous for its various industries," he says. "Rather than the neck end, I think it's the best end of the Potteries.

"When I set up in business over 50 years ago, people told me that Longton was a gold mine. At that time there were plenty of jobs in the pots and the pits and people earned good money."

T hat view is shared by Peter Beckett, author of three books on Longton potbanks, who recalls that many firms had notice boards outside the works advertising job vacancies.

"A pottery worker in Longton could leave his job at lunchtime and find another one in the afternoon," he says. "The Sentinel often had three full pages of pottery jobs, so the workers could take their pick."

In the 1950s there were 70 to 80 pottery factories in the town – the majority making bone china ware – but the industry suffered a severe blow when the Clean Air Act which forced many firms out of business.

"They either couldn't afford to make the expensive change to tunnel kilns or they didn't have the space for them," says Peter. "I was working at Thomas Forester's, which was one of the first to close in 1959."

Forester's site included the 214-foot high Harvey's chimney, a Victorian landmark which was demolished in 1962.

Alan Myatt's book includes a section on the Gladstone Pottery Museum written by Ellis Bevan, who became a trustee in the early 1970s and ran a 'pottery lottery' to raise money for the factory's restoration.

This was after the building was saved from demolition by pottery director Derek Johnson, who bought the property and handed it to the trust.

"The place was saved at the 11th hour because Alderman Albert Bennett wanted to knock it down," says Ellis, pictured below. "It was a time of demolition and rebuilding in the centre of Longton.

"In particular, this was to make way for the Bennett shopping precinct, which was actually named after Alderman Bennett, not the novelist Arnold Bennett, as many people think."

F ormer city councillor Fred Ball, who grew up near Longton, feels that the design of the Bennett precinct is out of character with the rest of the town.

"I never felt it was right for Longton," he says. "It didn't fit in with the old buildings and people were wary of going there for a long time.

"I remember that area when it was occupied by Longton's first bus station, with Wedge's cafe at the top end. I'm sure many people remember Wedge's meat and potato pies with hot gravy. There was always a queue."

Fred says the Longton of his youth was a smoky town of bottle ovens and a great many pubs – a claim backed up by Alan Myatt, who lists nearly 200 in his book.

One of these was the Pig and Whistle in Stafford Street (later The Strand), where, according to the author, a popular entertainer called Whistling Jimmy went into a cage and imitated the sound of singing birds.

Longton ironmonger Richard Cresswell recalls one of the biggest pubs, was the Heathcote Arms in Market Street, where the Salvation Army used to practice.

Richard came to Longton from Cheshire in 1950 and remembers a bustling place.

"Longton brought in people from a wide area," he says. "On market days there used to be a train arriving at Longton Station every 15 minutes."

Another chronicler of Longton's past is Roy Whitfield, whose books include Back Alley, Neck End describing his life growing up in an area close to a notorious district called The Nook.

"The Nook was a place where arguments were settled with fists," he says.

"My own father was a small man, but he was ready to pick a fight with anybody, however big they were.

"It wasn't uncommon to see two women fighting in the street. Outside the Red House pub I saw two men and two women fighting on one corner while a Salvation Army band played on another corner.

"The houses where I lived in Leak's Alley were tiny. You could jump out of the bedroom window to the ground. I discovered that two sisters were running a brothel in the next alley."

R oy says the Fascist leader Oswald Mosley was a regular visitor to working-class areas of Longton, recruiting supporters for his Blackshirts.

"My father carried a beer case out of the Cheshire Cheese pub so Mosley could stand on it to address a crowd," he says. "There was always trouble when he spoke in public.

"I know families in Longton who to this day won't talk about the Blackshirts of the 1930s because their relatives were supporters of Oswald Mosley."

Neck End by Alan Myatt and Ellis Bevan is available at Bevan's Sound Centre, The Strand, Longton, price £13.99