Port Vale 1934-36

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During the 2nd half of the 1934-1935 season, a match-day programme highlighted that many people including travelling supporters didn’t know where Port Vale was. A six-week consultation over a possible change of name took place, including the home fans at the Old Recreation Ground in Hanley given a ballot slip.

Names were put forward during a shareholder’s meeting at The Grand Hotel. These were: Stoke Central, Stoke United, Stoke North End, and Hanley Port Vale were all considered – however none of these names attracted enough support to institute a change.

The following season saw the club suffer the second relegation in their history. A still standing club record of conceding 106 goals in 42 league games and poor away-form resulted in a drop to the old third tier. Port Vale would have to wait nearly another 20 years to see second tier football. Some of these years were due to World War II.

Having located in various locations across the Potteries, a three hundred and eighty two acre estate located near the village of Barlaston was purchased by the Wedgwood family in 1936 for the site of a new factory. It took a number of years to move from the Etruria Works next to the Trent and Mersey Canal first purchased by Josiah Wedgwood I in 1769.

The land on which the Etruria factory was built, known as the Ridgehouse Estate, had been originally purchased by Josiah in 1767 for the sum of three thousand pounds. As production officially ending at Etruria in 1950, the new Barlaston factory was to become the most advanced pottery in Britain. Kiln firing was powered by electricity in the Brown-Boveri Ltd tunnel ovens purchased through the Switzerland based company before the clean air act of the mid1950’s. A time that saw the beginning of the end for our bottle kilns.