The Villas

Originally a distinct settlement set in green fields, it now merges with the late 19th- and early 20th-century suburban sprawl along London Road below Penkhull village on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent and within the ward of Stoke and Trent Vale.

In designing The Villas, he chose an Italianate style similar to other Staffordshire buildings, such as Trentham Hall and Alton Towers railway station.

The purpose of the building society was to provide the means and the financial capability for its members to erect, and ultimately own, houses on copyhold land outside the town of Stoke-upon-Trent.

In 1956, a resident of number 15 The Villas, Arnold Machin, received publicity in the national press when he chained himself to the old metal lamp-post on the turning circle in protest at its planned removal.

[5] A post-mortem examination showed he had choked to death on a pickled onion, although PC John Pye believed it to have actually been a clove of garlic.