The last of the duckett toilets? Uttoxeter Road, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent 1989-91

In 1989, my dad Ken Platt revisited 5 Uttoxeter Road (formerly High Street), Longton, where his dad ran a barber’s shop until his death in 1963. This tiny one-and-a-half up, two-down cottage was home to my dad, his parents Edgar and Sis, his brother Geoff and their grandmother ‘Little Ma’ until he left to get married in 1953. It still had only a standpipe in the back yard for running water and an outside ‘ducket’ toilet when it was demolished in 1991.
Originally condemned before the First World War, the property was finally pulled down for a new office development. Thirty years later, the site is still derelict.
The last tenant before demolition ran a wool shop there. In this film my dad records what it was like in 1989, what still survived from when he lived there (including the toilet) and his memories of what it used to be like. He goes on to film and provide a running commentary on the surrounding area, the Gladstone pottery museum and Longton more generally. The film finishes after the demolition in 1991.