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Source: Paul Frost

The Staff Of Life was situated at 255 Newcastle Street.

My great grandfather, John Hassall, was a ‘victualler’ and ran he Staff of Life pub for some years. He ran other pubs too including The Volunteer at the bottom of St John’s Square (aka locally as ‘Fountain Square’ on account of it having a fountain at the top of it) in Burslem which later became Woolworths. The Volunteer Inn was pub downstairs and boarding rooms upstairs. Artists appearing at the Queen’s Hall, Burslem would stay there (upstairs was the bedrooms). It was a large pub and on one occasion a drunk came in the first door and was told he was too drunk so they wouldn’t serve him, so he went but then appeared through the second door thinking it a different pub, again he was told to go, and then the same happened with him coming in at the third door. John was known as ‘Honest John’ because he could be relied on. He had a shelf of toby jugs and assigned them to each of his regular customers. When the customers popped in for a drink afterwork and after having been paid he would put their wages (cash) into the designated toby jug and it would be there for the worker/customer’s wife to come to collect. Some money would remain in the jug for payment of drinks on further days, and if the person’s funds were running low he would suggest that the person calls it a night so that they have some money left over for the coming days. Honest John developed a number of businesses in Dalehall in premises around Newcastle Street. It was said that he had an empire but which fitted ‘within the space a circus tent could cover’. He opened at 06h00, as the pot banks and the steelworks at Shelton Bar changed shift at that time, and sold bacon butties to the workers coming off shift. His son, Ernest, opened the shoe repair shop on the corner of Newport Street.

Janes Clewes (June 2024)

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