St John the Baptist

St Joseph’s was founded as a Mission from nearby Cobridge in 1895 and in 1925 work started on the present church designed in the north Italian Lombardic or Romanesque style by the young architect JS Brocklesby.

Opened in 1930 by Archbishop Downey of Liverpool, who described the building as ‘a miracle of beauty’.

This huge 19th century chapel was once the most popular place of worship in what was to become the city of Stoke on Trent, a federation of the six towns of the Potteries.