Past & Present

Church Road Smithy was a large building located at the bottom of Marychurch Road. At the time of the building being built, the road was named Church Road - before its current name of Marychurch Road.

The building was commonly known as the name that has been used on this website, which is Church Road Smithy. The reasoning for the naming of the building by local people is due to the building's link to a smithy on this site in the 19th-century. According to an Ordnance Map surveyed from 1866 to 1878, there is a structure on the site that is present in the building's exact location. However, there looks to be an extension to the side of the building at the time - which indicates that the building was later re-structured or altered to be smaller in size, if it is the same building. [2]

Whilst the building's origin is believed to have been a smithy, it was later used for a variety of other uses by various businesses over the last 100 years or so. Its last use was with Acorn Timber Decking, who used the building from 2008 until 2016. It was this business who applied for planning permission to Stoke-on-Trent City Council to change its use to retail (Class A1) in November 2007, which was approved in February 2008. [3] When the building closed a few years later, it was earmarked for residential development - and a planning application was submitted in September 2016 for demolition of the building and the erection of three 3-bedroom houses and two 2-bedroom self-contained flats. This was approved in December 2016, but the development for this proposal never started. [4] Another planning application was submitted in August 2018 for demolition of the building and the erection of new two-storey apartment blocks comprising of nine apartments. This was approved in October 2018, but the development for this proposal also never started. [5] In April 2020, the entire site was sold in an auction with Allsop - with the winning bid being £93,500. [6] A planning application was submitted after 2 years and 3 months, in July 2022, with the same proposal as the one back in September 2016. This was approved in October 2022, paving the way for development. [7] Demolition of the building began in June 2023, with residential development due to start in the coming weeks.