Port Vale 1959-60

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In the league (Vale’s first in the newly formed Third Division) Port Vale finished a respectable 14th, thirteen points from both promotion and relegation. Progressing to the Fifth Round of the FA Cup, the Valiants set a Vale Park and club-record attendance of 49,768, in a 2–1 defeat by Aston Villa on 20th February. Potteries born Stan Steele, named after local legends Stanley Matthews and Freddie Steele, put in his third- successive ever-present campaign.

The club toured Czechoslovakia at the end of the season, due to Stoke-on-Trent’s close relationship with the village of Lidice that developed from local MP Barnett Stross’s Lidice Shall Live campaign. Like hundreds of towns and villages during the Second World War, the people of Lidice experienced the sheer horror of Nazi terror. With the help of local miners and the support from the City’s clubs and organisations, it was our community’s response to rebuild their community.

The 1959-1960 season also saw the demolition of the last bottle kiln at Copeland’s Spode works in Stoke. The pottery works was established in 1770 by Josiah Spode and all that remains is the base of one of the old kilns. The Prince of Wales visited the factory in 1806 and after being impressed, asked the company to produce the banqueting service for the coronation of George IV.

Spode, also known as Copeland & Sons, has held Royal Warrants ever since. It has received commissions from the East India Company, Charles Dickens and the Shah of Persia. Spode is renowned for its blue and white Willow, developed by the original Josiah Spode from a pattern called Mandarin in about 1790.