Pig-headed mayor never gave up in his bid to fund borough improvements!

JOHN Aynsley II built Longton's famous Portland Works in 1861. He was one of the town's outstanding employers whose public spirit endeared him to communities far beyond his factory gates.

- Fred Hughes - Historian and author

He was elected to the town council in 1865 in the year Longton was created a borough.

A year later he became mayor, a position he held for four successive years.

As Longton's first citizen, he led the campaign to raise funds to build Longton's Queens Park, Stoke-on-Trent's first public park, which opened in 1888.

This achievement was supported by the Duke of Sutherland who donated 45 acres of his estate at Dresden for its completion.

This hugely successful venture inspired Aynsley to go a step further by raising money to build Longton Cottage Hospital.

And once again he turned his attention to the generosity of Trentham's 4th Duke, Cromartie, who with his wife Millicent, liked to be seen as popular patrons.

In his first term as mayor, Aynsley was a guest at the opening of the Trentham Hotel located on the site of the burnt-out historic Roebuck Inn, which the Duke owned.

Relishing Aynsley's unorthodox ways of raising money, the hotel's landlord offered to wager a sum of money to the mayor on condition that he walked a pig to Longton market.