During my research, and thanks to pictorial contributions from other people, it is abundantly clear that aerial photos are a great source of information especially if you can compare similar shots from different years. Smallthorne was included in a local publication in the 1980’s along with other areas of Stoke on Trent.
In addition I have the following images from various sources:
Above: Ford Green Ironworks taken in 1925 and from the William Jack collection held at Keele University
Above: Aerial picture of Smallthorne in 1963 with some of the newer parts about to be built
Above: An aerial view of Smallthorne in 1974 with most terrace streets still intact
Also available on line at http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk which shows historical aerial views.
Above: The Sneyd Colliery and Brick Works with Burslem Cemetery in the background, Burslem, 1930 (above). A cropped view of the birthplace of Robert Heath, Sneyd House (below).
A chap from the Facebook group connected to this site was unknowingly a pioneer in aerial history for the Smallthorne and Bradeley areas by flying a remote control aircraft with a camera attached. The images he produced from this exercise are a valuable source of interest and history.
With the power of the internet and the advent of Google maps most of us can now access aerial views of almost anywhere and can get a range of recent years which is fantastic but we can never see what was lost without the old pictures.
With the use of simple software we can overlay modern photos with labels and tags to highlight the areas of interest of change.
The copyright agreement from the Britain From Above website gives the freedom to use images for study and for non-profit websites with free access so is ideal for our purposes.
I hope to have a more complete section for aerial photographs once all the details have been finalised. Please feel free to contact me if you have a pictorial contribution you wish to be included. All picture will be credited and copyright observed.
