STOKE-ON-TRENT (/stoʊk ɒn trɛnt/ ( listen ); often abbreviated to
STOKE) is a city and unitary authority area in
England, with an area of 36 square miles (93 km2). Together with the
neighbouring boroughs of
Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire
Moorlands , it is part of North
Staffordshire , which, in 2011, had a
population of 469,000.
Stoke is polycentric , having been formed by a federation of six
towns in the early 20th century. It took its name from
Stoke-upon-Trent , where the town hall and the railway station are
located. Hanley is the primary commercial centre. The four other towns
Burslem , Tunstall , Longton and Fenton .
Stoke-on-Trent is the home of the pottery industry in
England and is
commonly known as the Potteries . Formerly a primarily industrial
conurbation , it is now a centre for service industries and
distribution centres .
* 1 History
* 1.1 Toponymy and etymology
* 1.2 Administration
* 1.3 Industry
* 1.3.3 Steel
* 2 Geography
* 2.1 Suburbs
* 2.2 Climate
* 3 Demography
* 4 Points of interest
* 5 Economy
* 6 Government
* 6.1 Mayoral system
* 6.2 Leader and cabinet system
* 6.3 List of former council leaders
* 6.5 Council
* 6.6 Members of Parliament
* 7 Public services
* 8 Religion
* 9 Transport
* 9.1 Major roads
* 9.2 Rail
* 9.3 Bus
* 9.4 Canals
* 9.5 Cycling
* 10 Education
* 10.1 Higher education
* 10.2 Secondary education
* 10.3 Potters\' Holidays
* 11 Sport
* 11.1 Football
Other sports teams
* 11.3 Individual sports persons
* 12 Culture and arts
* 12.1 Science
* 12.2 Visual art
* 12.3 Public art
* 12.4 Theatre
* 12.5 Cinema
* 12.6 Literature
* 12.7 Young Poet Laureate
* 12.8 Media
* 12.9 Famous entertainers
* 12.10 Music
* 12.11 Food
* 12.12 Stoke Pride
* 13 Dialect
* 14 References
* 15 External links
* 15.1 Local media
TOPONYMY AND ETYMOLOGY
The name _Stoke_ is taken from the town of
Stoke-upon-Trent , the
original ancient parish , with other settlements being chapelries .
_Stoke_ derives from the
Old English _stoc_, a word that at first
meant little more than _place_, but which subsequently gained more
specific – but divergent – connotations. These variant meanings
included _dairy farm_, _secondary or dependent place or farm_, _summer
pasture_, _crossing place_, _meeting place_ and _place of worship_. It
is not known which of these was intended here, and all are plausible.
The most frequently suggested interpretations derive from a crossing
point on the Roman road that ran from present-day
Derby to Chesterton
or the early presence of a church , said to have been founded in 670
AD. Because _Stoke_ was such a common name for a settlement, some kind
of distinguishing affix was usually added later, in this case the name
of the river .
The motto of
Stoke-on-Trent is _Vis Unita Fortior_ which can be
translated as: United Strength is Stronger, or Strength United is the
More Powerful, or A United Force is Stronger.
Longton Town Hall. See also:
Federation of Stoke-on-Trent
An early proposal for a federation took place in 1888, when an
amendment was raised to the Local Government Bill which would have
made the six towns into districts within a county of "Staffordshire
Potteries". It was not until 1 April 1910 that the "Six Towns" were
brought together. The county borough of Hanley, the municipal boroughs
of Burslem, Longton, and Stoke, together with the urban districts of
Tunstall and Fenton now formed a single county borough of
Stoke-on-Trent. The combined borough took the name "town of Stoke".
In 1919, the borough proposed to expand further and annex the
neighbouring borough of
Newcastle-under-Lyme and the
Urban District , both to the west of Stoke. This never took place, due
to strong objections from Newcastle Corporation. A further attempt
was made in 1930, with the promotion of the
Wolstanton was instead added to
Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1932. Although attempts to take Newcastle,
Kidsgrove (north of Tunstall) were never successful,
the borough did expand in 1922, taking in
Smallthorne Urban District
and parts of other parishes from
Stoke upon Trent Rural District . The
borough was officially granted city status in 1925, with a Lord Mayor
from 1928. When the county borough of
Stoke-on-Trent initially applied
for city status in 1925, citing its importance as the centre of the
pottery industry, it was refused by the
Home Office as it had fewer
than 300,000 inhabitants. The decision was overturned, however, when a
direct approach was made to
King George V
King George V , who agreed that the
borough ought to be a city. The public announcement of the elevation
to city status was made by the King during a visit to Stoke on 4 June
The county borough was abolished in 1974, and Stoke became a
non-metropolitan district of Staffordshire. Its status as a unitary
authority was restored on 1 April 1997, although it remains part of
the ceremonial county of Staffordshire. For
Eurostat purposes it is a
NUTS 3 region (code UKG23).
Since the 17th century, the area has been almost exclusively known
for its industrial-scale pottery manufacturing. Companies such as
Royal Doulton ,
Spode (founded by Josiah
Spode ), Wedgwood
(founded by Josiah
Wedgwood ), Minton (founded by
Thomas Minton ) and
Baker ">_ Colorado Bouillons Regina_ and teapots, vitrified
Dudson Brothers Ltd., as exhibited by artists in London's
Pimlico Road, 2003
Other production centres in Britain, Europe and worldwide had a
considerable lead in the production of high quality wares. Methodical
and highly detailed research and experimentation, carried out over
many years, nurtured the development of artistic talent throughout the
local community and raised the profile of
Staffordshire Potteries .
This was spearheaded by one man, Josiah
Wedgwood , who cut the first
sod for the canal in 1766 and erected his
Etruria Works that year.
Wedgwood built upon the successes of earlier local potters such as his
Thomas Whieldon and along with scientists and engineers, raised
the pottery business to a new level. Josiah
Spode introduced bone
china at Trent in 1796, and
Thomas Minton opened his manufactory. With
the industry came a large number of notable 20th-century ceramic
Clarice Cliff ,
Susie Cooper ,
Charlotte Rhead ,
Frederick Hurten Rhead and
Jabez Vodrey .
Staffordshire was a centre for coal mining. The first reports
of coal mining in the area come from the 13th century. The Potteries
Coalfield (part of the North
Staffordshire Coalfield) covers 100
square miles (300 km2).
Striking coal miners in the Hanley and Longton area ignited the
1842 General Strike and its associated
Pottery Riots .
When coal mining was nationalised in 1947, about 20,000 men worked in
the industry in Stoke-on-Trent. Notable Collieries included Hanley
Deep Pit, Trentham Superpit (formerly Hem Heath,
Stafford and Florence
Collieries), Fenton Glebe, Silverdale , Victoria, Mossfield, Parkhall,
Chatterley Whitfield and
Wolstanton . The industry developed
greatly, and new investments in mining projects were planned within
City boundaries as recently as the 1990s. However, 1994 saw the
last pit to close as the Trentham Superpit was shut.
The Stoke mining industry set several national and international
Wolstanton Colliery, when modernised, had the deepest mining
shafts in Europe at 3,197 ft. In 1933,
Chatterley Whitfield Colliery
became the first Colliery in the country to mine one million tons of
coal. In the 1980s Florence Colliery in Longton repeatedly set
regional and national production records; in 1992 the combined
Trentham Superpit (Hem Heath and Florence) was the first mine in
Europe to produce 2.5 million saleable tonnes of coal.
Today the mines are all closed, though the scars of mining still
remain on the landscape. Slag heaps are still visible on the skyline,
now covered with flora and fauna. The Chatterly Whitfield site
reopened as a museum two years after its closure in 1976. The museum
closed in 1991 and the site became a local nature reserve . It was
declared a scheduled monument by English Heritage in 1993. The
abandoned subterranean mines are inaccessible, though they still add
complications to many building projects and occasionally cause minor
tremors, detectable only by specialised equipment.
The Phoenix Trust, an independent not-for-profit foundation, is
campaigning to turn
Stoke-on-Trent and the wider North Staffordshire
Coalfield into a
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site due to its historic economic
significance, its leading role in the industrial revolution, and as
the birthplace of
Primitive Methodism .
The iron and steel industries occupied important roles in the
development of the city, both before and after federation. Especially
notable were those mills located in the valley at Goldendale and
Shelton below the hill towns of Tunstall ,
Burslem and Hanley. Shelton
Steelworks ' production of steel ended in 1978—instead of producing
crude steel, they concentrated on rolling steel billet which was
Scunthorpe by rail. The rolling plant finally closed
in 2002. From 1864 to 1927 Stoke housed the repair shops of the North
Staffordshire Railway and was the home of independent railway
Kerr Stuart & Co. Ltd. from 1881 to 1930.
Shelton Steel Works and the mining operations were heavily involved
in the World War II industrial effort. Central to the RAF 's success
Supermarine Spitfire designed by
Reginald Mitchell who, whilst
born at 115 Congleton Road in the nearby village of
Butt Lane , had
his apprenticeship at
Kerr Stuart in 2006 about 1,200 worked there.
Tunstall Tower Square.
Stoke-on-Trent is situated about half-way between
Birmingham and adjoins the town and borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme
, which is administered separately and is situated to the west. The
city lies on the upper valley of the
River Trent at the south west
foothills of the
Pennines , ranging from 106 to 213 metres (350 to 700
ft) above sea level. The city is considered to be the southernmost
end of the Pennines, bounded by the lowlands of the Midlands to the
south, including the
Cheshire Plain lying west of Newcastle. The Peak
District National Park lies directly to the east, and includes part of
Staffordshire Moorlands District, as well as parts of
Manchester and West and
South Yorkshire .
Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region (code UKG23) and is one
of four counties or unitary districts that compose the "
Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region .
Stoke-on-Trent is often known as "the city of five towns", because of
the name given to it by local novelist
Arnold Bennett and is the only
polycentric city in the UK. In his novels, Bennett used mostly
recognisable aliases for five of the six towns (although he called
Stoke "Knype"). However, Bennett said that he believed "Five Towns"
was more euphonious than "Six Towns", so he omitted Fenton (now
sometimes referred to as "the forgotten town").
As it is a city made up of multiple towns, the city forms a
conurbation (although in this case the conurbation is bigger than
Stoke itself, because the urban area of Stoke is now continuous with
that of administratively-separate Newcastle).
The six towns run in a rough line from north to south along the A50
road – Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton.
Although the city is named after the original town of Stoke, and the
City Council offices are located there, the city centre is usually
regarded as being in Hanley, which had earlier developed into a major
As well as the Six Towns, there are numerous suburbs including Abbey
Adderley Green , Ball Green,
Baddeley Green ,
Birches Head ,
Blurton , Bucknall ,
Bradeley , Chell , Cliffe Vale ,
Cobridge , Dresden , Etruria , Fegg Hayes, Florence,
Heron Cross , Meir , Meir Park, Meir Hay, Middleport ,
Milton , Normacot,
Norton le Moors , Packmoor,
Penkhull , Sandyford,
Sneyd Green , Trentham ,
Trent Vale and Weston
Blythe Bridge , although outside the city's boundaries, is
part of the built up area.
Stoke-on-Trent, as with all of the United Kingdom, experiences a
temperate maritime climate, lacking in weather extremes. The local
area is relatively elevated due to its proximity to the Pennines,
resulting in cooler temperatures year round compared to the nearby
Cheshire Plain. However, on calm, clear nights this is often reversed
as cold air drainage causes a temperature inversion to occur. As such,
Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle area are generally not susceptible to
severe frosts. The nearest
Met Office weather station is Keele
University , about four miles west of the city centre.
The absolute high temperature is 32.9 °C (91.2 °F), recorded in
August 1990, although more typically the average warmest day of the
year should be 27.0 °C (80.6 °F). In total, just under fourteen
days should report a temperature of 25.1 °C (77.2 °F) or above.
The absolute minimum temperature stands at −13.3 °C (8.1 °F),
recorded during January 1963. In an average year, a total of 48.3 air
frosts will be registered.
Rainfall averages around 806 mm a year.
CLIMATE DATA FOR STOKE ON TRENT / KEELE, ELEVATION: 179M,
(1981–2010) EXTREMES (1960–PRESENT)
RECORD HIGH °C (°F)
AVERAGE HIGH °C (°F)
DAILY MEAN °C (°F)
AVERAGE LOW °C (°F)
RECORD LOW °C (°F)
AVERAGE PRECIPITATION MM (INCHES)
AVERAGE PRECIPITATION DAYS (≥ 1.0 MM)
MEAN MONTHLY SUNSHINE HOURS
Source #1: KNMI
2011 UNITED KINGDOM CENSUS
COUNTRY OF BIRTH
Based on the 2001 census, the total population of the city was
240,636 (2011 census, 249,008) in 103,196 households ). This was a
decline of 3.5% since 1991. 51.3% of the population is female. 96.3%
of the population of
Stoke-on-Trent were born in the UK. 94.8% of the
population identified themselves as white, 2.6% as Asian British
Pakistani, 0.5% Asian British Indian and 0.3% as Black Afro Caribbean.
Regarding religion, 74.7% described themselves as Christian, 3.2%
Muslim and 13.4% had no religion. In the same census, 19.9% were
identified as under 15; 21.0% were over 60. The average age of
residents was 38½. A total of 24.2% of non-pensioner households were
recorded as having no working adults. In 2011 the population had
increased to 249,000. It is the first time that the city's population
has grown since it peaked at 276,639 in 1931.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Potteries Museum & Art Gallery
The city's ceramics collection is housed in the Potteries Museum ">
The view from Festival Park , site of the National Garden Festival
1986. Terraced housing is a common feature in the city.
Stoke-on-Trent is a world centre for fine ceramics—a skilled design
trade has existed in the area since at least the 12th century. But in
the late 1980s and 1990s
Stoke-on-Trent was hit hard by the general
decline in the British manufacturing sector. Numerous factories,
steelworks , collieries , and potteries were closed, including the
Shelton Bar steelworks. This resulted in a sharp rise in
unemployment in the 'high-skilled but low-paid' workforce.
The pottery firm
Wedgwood and its subsidiary
Royal Doulton are based
Barlaston , although much production now takes place in the
firm's Indonesian factory. Portmeirion is based in Stoke town, and now
Royal Worcester ceramics brands. Ceramics firm Emma
Bridgewater is based in Hanley; Burleigh
Pottery is in Middleport;
Wade Ceramics is in Etruria;
Moorcroft and Royal
Stafford are based in
Aynsley China is in Longton, and is one of the last remaining
manufacturers of bone china in the city. Fine china manufacturer
Dudson have premises in Hanley and Burslem.
Churchill China have their
main factory in Tunstall, while hotelware manufacturer Steelite is
based in Middleport at the former Dunn Bennett site.
About 9,000 firms are based in the city. Amongst the more notable are
bet365 , founded by local businessman and Stoke
City chairman Peter
Coates ; and
Phones4U , a large retailer of mobile phones started by
John Caudwell .
Michelin tyre company has a complex in the city which houses its
commercial head office, training centre and a truck tyre re-treading
facility. Sainsbury\'s supermarket and
The Co-operative Pharmacy have
large warehouses in the city.
Vodafone has a large call centre on
Festival Park and the UK subsidisary of the lubricant manufacturer
Fuchs Petrolub has its head office at its factory in Hanley. There is
a steel foundry owned by
Goodwin Steel Castings Ltd in Joiner's
Premier Foods make
Mr Kipling slices and Cherry Bakewells in
The Co-operative Travel had its head office in Burslem,
before it merged with Thomas Cook in 2010.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council is the city's largest single employer.
Another major employer is the
Royal Stoke University Hospital , with
over 7,000 staff.
Competitive Alternatives 2004_ report declared Stoke-on-Trent
to be the most cost-effective place to set up a new UK business. The
city currently has the advantage of offering affordable business
property, while being surrounded by a belt of affluent areas such as
Peak District , Stone , south
Cheshire , and having excellent road
links via the A500 and nearby M6 and rail links.
Tourism to the city was kick-started by the National Garden Festival
in 1986, and is now sustained by the many pottery factory-shops and
tours, and by the improved canal network. Hanley , Stoke-on-Trent
The main shopping centre is the
Potteries Shopping Centre
Potteries Shopping Centre in Hanley,
which has 561,000 sq ft (52,100 m2) of retail space with 87 units
Debenhams anchor store , (formerly Lewis\'s ) and major
stores for Next , New Look , Monsoon , Gap ,
River Island , H.
La Senza ,
Topman and Burton . Marks
Majority Labour 2011-2015
Coalition between Conservative, Independent and UKIP
Lord Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent
The position of
Lord Mayor is largely ceremonial. The title of Lord
Mayor was first conferred on the
Stoke-on-Trent by King George
V on 10 July 1928. The role of
Lord Mayor is decided upon by a vote
amongst the elected councillors; the candidates are also selected from
the councillors. The current
Lord Mayor is Councillor Anthony Munday
Between 1910 and 1928 the Borough, and later,
City of Stoke-on-Trent
had a Mayor rather than a Lord Mayor. The first Mayor of
Stoke-on-Trent was Cecil
Wedgwood of the
Wedgwood pottery dynasty.
In May 2011 the electoral map of the city changed. From a council of
60 members representing 20 wards with three councillors each, the size
of the council was reduced to 44 councillors representing 37 wards (31
single member wards, five two-member wards and one three-member ward).
The change followed a 2008 report by the
Commission to the Secretary of State for Local Government that was
highly crtitical of the political system then in use in the city.
Following the local elections in May 2015 , the Labour council in
Stoke-on-Trent was replaced by an Independent/Conservative/UKIP
The political composition of
Stoke-on-Trent City Council is currently
MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT
See also: List of Parliamentary constituencies in
MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
YEAR FIRST ELECTED
The city's acute hospital is the
Royal Stoke University Hospital run
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust . It comprises
two sites: the Royal Infirmary and the
City General. The hospital is
being re-built on the
City General site which is located on the A34 ,
Community health services are run by
Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent
Partnership NHS Trust with mental health services provided by North
Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust .
Stoke-on-Trent is provided by
Staffordshire Police ,
which has police stations in Hanley, Bucknall, Burslem, Longton, Stoke
Crown Court and
Court share a building in Hanley. There is no magistrates\' court . It
was situated in the old town hall in Fenton but closed in 2012, all
magistrates proceedings now take place in Newcastle. Statutory
emergency fire and rescue service is provided by the Staffordshire
Fire and Rescue Service , which has fire stations in Hanley, Longton,
Burslem and Sandyford.
Severn Trent manages Stoke-on-Trent's drinking and waste water.
The city's main library is the
City Central Library in Hanley, which
is also home to the city's archives. The city council operates eight
smaller libraries throughout the city. The council also operates
sixteen children's centres, nine local service centres and five "one
stop shops" for council services.
Hugh Bourne, founder of
Stoke-on-Trent does not have a cathedral, but the city's main, Church
England , civic church, is
Stoke Minster . The city is within the
Diocese of Lichfield The city is part of the Roman Catholic
Birmingham and the immediate area has six Catholic
parishes; they are dedicated to: the
Sacred Heart of Jesus , Our Lady
of the Angels ,
Saint George , Saint Gregory the Great , Saint Maria
Goretti and Saint Teresa
Primitive Methodism was founded by
Hugh Bourne , a native of
Stoke-on-Trent, at a public gathering in the nearby village of Mow Cop
. He originally followed the Wesleyan form of
Methodism but in 1801 he
reformed the Methodist service by conducting it outside. He founded
the first chapel in Tunstall with his brother in 1811. He promoted
Sunday schools as a method of improving children's education,
advocated the equal treatment of women and men, and was involved in
the temperance movement . It was from the Primitive Methodists that
many early trade unions found their early leaders. Also of note is
John Lightfoot , a 17th-century churchman and rabbinical scholar.
The city's first purpose-built mosque is due to be completed in 2012.
The city's only synagogue closed in 2006, and was replaced with a
smaller one in nearby
Newcastle-under-Lyme . There are also two Sikh
temples, one in Fenton and one in Stoke.
A50 close to Longton.
Stoke-on-Trent is linked to the nearby
M6 motorway at junctions 15
and 16 by the A500. Locally the A500 is known as the _D road_, as its
loop between the two motorway junctions, along with the straight
section of the M6 between the junctions, resembles the shape of a
capital letter D. Coincidentally, the number 500 expressed in Roman
numerals is _D_.
The A50 provides an east-west link between the M6 and the M1 motorway
. The A50 joins up with A500 close to the bet365 Stadium .
Improvements to the road network have led to the construction of
product distribution centres in the area.
Stoke-on-Trent railway station, built 1848.
Stoke-on-Trent railway station is a mainline station on the
Manchester Line (part of the
West Coast Main Line between
Manchester and London) and the Crewe-
Derby Line . Virgin Pendolino
train 390029 is named after Stoke-on-Trent. The other railway stations
in the city are Longport and Longton both on the Crewe-
Derby Line .
Etruria station was closed in September 2005.
Local public transport is provided almost exclusively by bus. Bus
services are mainly operated by
First Potteries . There are also
several smaller companies operating bus services in the city, like D">
Canal on New Leek Road.
The city is served by the
Trent and Mersey Canal , which sees traffic
of some 10,000 boats a year. Additionally, the
Caldon Canal branches
off from the
Trent and Mersey Canal at Etruria, within the city
boundaries, going to
Froghall with one branch going to Leek .
As of November 2009 there are 77 miles (124 km) of new National Cycle
Network off-road bicycle paths through the city, connecting to the
national long-distance paths which were completed in 2005. Together
with those in
Newcastle-under-Lyme , there are now over 100 miles (160
km) of cycle paths in the urban conurbation. A further £10 million
of funding has now been secured for the city's cycling network, to be
spent in 2009–2011 through Cycling
England 's support for Stoke as a
Staffordshire University Stoke campus.
There are four higher education institutions in the local area, the
two further education colleges being
Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form
Stoke-on-Trent College . Formerly of Fenton, now located
in a newly built structure on Leek Road, the Sixth Form college
provides A-level teaching for around 1,800 students. Stoke-on-Trent
College is much larger and less specialised, offering apprenticeships
and adult education, and has a main campus (Cauldon Campus) in
Shelton, and a secondary campus in Burslem.
The city is also home to
Staffordshire University (formerly North
Staffordshire Polytechnic), with its main site in Shelton, near
Stoke-on-Trent railway station. It gained its university status in
1992 as one of the post-1992 universities .
Keele University School of
Medicine uses facilities at the
Royal Stoke University Hospital in
Keele University itself was founded as the University
College of North
Staffordshire in 1949 with major involvement by
City Council, and is located in the nearby village of
List of schools in Stoke-on-Trent
The city currently has 15 secondary schools:
Birches Head Academy ,
The Co-operative Academy of Stoke-on-Trent , Discovery Academy , Excel
Haywood Academy ,
Ormiston Horizon Academy , Ormiston Sir
Stanley Matthews Academy , St Joseph\'s College , St Margaret Ward
Catholic Academy , St Peter\'s Academy , St Thomas More Catholic
Sandon High School , Stoke Studio College (with sites in
Longton and Burslem),
Thistley Hough Academy and Trentham High School
A major re-structure of Stoke-on-Trent's high school system was
proposed in 2007. As part of these plans several established
secondary schools closed or merged including Longton High School
(closed 2010), Mitchell High and Edensor High (merged to form The
Discovery Academy), St. Peter's CE High School and Berry Hill High
(merged to form St Peter\'s Academy ).
One of the legacies of the pottery industry was Stoke's own version
of the wakes week . Although better known in industrial Lancashire,
the Stoke week is known locally as the Potters' Holidays or Potters'
Fortnight and occurred the last week in June, the first week in July
and another week in August. This gave what appeared to be strange
school holidays—with the summer term having a two-week break at the
end of June, then children returning to school for three weeks before
taking a five-week summer holiday. This observance has disappeared
from the local schools, due to decreased emphasis on traditional
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Stoke City's bet365 Stadium , opened in 1997, has a 28,384
Stoke-on-Trent is home to two professional Football League teams, and
is one of the smaller cities in
England that boasts two league clubs.
The club bearing the area's name is Stoke
City , who were formed in
1863 and is the second-oldest professional football club in England.
They currently play at the bet365 Stadium at Sir
Stanley Matthews Way,
Longton, which has been their home since 1997 when they relocated from
Victoria Ground in Stoke after 119 years. They were among the
twelve founding members of the Football League in 1888, but did not
win their first (and, to date, only) major trophy until 1972 , when
they lifted the
Football League Cup . In 1985, they were relegated
from the First Division and began a 23-year exile from the top flight
of English football which did not end until they won promotion in 2008
, by which time the First Division had become the
Premier League .
City reached the final of the
F.A. Cup for the first time in
2011 but were defeated by
City . Arguably the club's most
famous player of all time is the late
Stanley Matthews , who began and
ended his League career with Stoke City, sandwiching a 14-year spell
Blackpool where he played in what became known as the Matthews
Final . He also managed Port Vale from 1965 to 1968. He was the first
active footballer to receive a
Knighthood . Matthews made 54
appearances for his country , scoring 11 times. There are two statues
of Matthews in the city: one in Hanley, and one at the
Vale Park , home of Port Vale. Completed in 1950, at the time of
its construction it was nicknamed 'The Wembley of the North'.
The city's other professional football club is Port Vale , who were
formed in 1876 and play at
Vale Park in the
Burslem area. Previous
stadiums include the Athletic Ground in
Cobridge (1886–1913), and
The Old Recreation Ground in Hanley (1913–1950). They joined the
Football League in 1892 but were forced to resign in 1907 due to
financial problems, only to return in 1919 . Their highest league
position came in 1931 when they finished fifth in the Football League
Second Division . In 1954, while in the Third Division (North) they
progressed to the FA Cup semi-final when they were knocked out by
West Bromwich Albion at
Villa Park . This remains the
furthest they have progressed in the competition. Unlike Stoke City,
their local rivals in the
Potteries derby , they have never played top
division football and hold the record for most years spent in the
second tier without ever playing in the first. Individuals of note
John Rudge (who managed the club for 16 years from
Roy Sproson (who made a record 837 appearances for
the club from 1950 until 1972, and was later their manager).
In the past there existed Dresden United , a club which was
disestablished before the city was federated; amateur clubs Meir KA
and Eastwood Hanley operated between 1972–2010, and 1946–1997
Smallthorne based Norton United and Hanley Town still
compete in the
North West Counties Football League .
OTHER SPORTS TEAMS
The city speedway team is the
Stoke Potters . Speedway was staged at
the Greyhound Stadium in Sun Street, Hanley intermittently between
1929 and 1939. In 1947 the Potters were part of the post war boom
rising from Division Three of the National League to Division Two
before closing in the early-1950s. The Potters were revived in 1960
and they raced in the Provincial League until the end of 1963 when the
stadium was closed and the site redeveloped. Speedway was revived at
Loomer Road Stadium in Newcastle-under-Lyme, initially as Chesterton,
before it reverted to the Stoke name. For many years the Potters raced
Premier League , the sports second division but as of November
2010 have dropped a division and in 2011 will race in the National
League . The stadium is also used for
BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars and
BriSCA Formula 2 Stock Cars during the summer.
The ski race team based at the artificial ski slope in Festival Park
compete in national Snowsport
England and international FIS
Fédération Internationale de
The city has a number of amateur sports clubs, including rugby union
and cricket , the latter competing in the North Staffs and South
Cricket League. The cricket ground in Longton is one of the
venues used by
Cricket Club . As well as the
Longton club, Meir Heath
Cricket Club are also active, though the
County Ground and the
Michelin Ground are no longer used for cricket.
Stoke Spitfires was the name of the city's
American football team.
The team eventually folded in 1992 after a record of 35-34-1. In 1994
Staffordshire Surge was formed and played their matches in and
around Stoke-on-Trent. Currently the team play at Longton Rugby Club
in Division One North of the
British American Football League .
INDIVIDUAL SPORTS PERSONS
The city has a sporting Hall of Fame, opened in 2011 to honour
sporting legends from the city. As of March 2011, it holds the names
Stanley Matthews and Phil Taylor , legends of football and darts
respectively, were the first names to be inducted into the Hall of
Fame. They were quickly followed by Port Vale legend
Roy Sproson ,
and England's World Cup winning goalkeeper
Gordon Banks (who spent
five years with Stoke City).
World Professional Darts Championship was hosted in the Jollees
venue in the south of the city from 1979 to 1985. Phil Taylor has won
the World Championship a record 16 times, winning the championship in
Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and British Darts
Organisation (BDO). Two-time PDC World Champion
Adrian Lewis and
two-time BDO World Champion
Ted Hankey are also from the Stoke area.
Other well-known players from or based in Stoke include Chris Mason ,
Andy Hamilton and Ian White .
World champion squash player, Great Britain and
Angela Smith , was born in the city and was largely responsible for
the ladies' game going open. She is regarded as one of the most famous
players of British squash.
Wicket-keeper Bob Taylor , who played for
England was born and still lives in the area. He
England 58 times and still holds the world record for the
most number of dismissals in the first class game (1649). In golf,
Trenthams' David Lynn , the golfer, (born 1973) was the KLM Open
Champion of 2004.
Other notable sports people from the area include footballers turned
Mark Bright ,
Garth Crooks and
Robbie Earle ; tennis player
Andrew Foster ; snooker players
Dave Harold and
Jamie Cope ; field
Imran Sherwani ; cycling world-record holder Tommy
Godwin , wrestler
Peter Thornley (better known as
Kendo Nagasaki ),
Eddie Hall and European taekwondo champion
Charlie Maddock .
CULTURE AND ARTS
Burslem School of Art
Oliver Lodge (1851 – 1940) was a British physicist and writer
involved in the development of, and holder of key patents for, radio.
He was born in
William Astbury (1898 - 1962) was an English
physicist and molecular biologist who made pioneering X-ray
diffraction studies of biological molecules. He was born in Longton.
The major art gallery is
The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery , located
in Hanley. It contains a collection of fine ceramics, a rotating
programme of exhibitions and a permanent collection. In 2010, it
became one of the permanent homes of the
Staffordshire Hoard , the
most important collection of
Anglo-Saxon gold yet found.
The city's Cultural Quarter in Hanley contains the Potteries Museum &
Art Gallery, the Regent Theatre and the Victoria Hall . There are also
smaller elements, including the independent Dazed Gallery and
AirSpace, the city's only contemporary art gallery, artist-led and
artist run. The Artbay Gallery in Fenton has a contemporary range of
original works as well as limited editions. It is also the home of
many of North Staffordshire's most renowned painters, including "The
Potteries Lowry" aka Sid Kirkham, Vicky Mount, Dale Bowen, Kelvin
Evans and Harry Davies.
Edwardian School of Art in
Burslem has been refurbished with £1.2
million, and is now run without a public subsidy. The Hothouse Centre
for Ceramic Design, and the Roslyn Works complex of craft studios
operate in Longton. Also based in
Burslem is the Barewall Gallery,
which has a large collection of work by local artists including
original art by Arthur Berry (The Lowry of The Potteries), Jack
Simcock, and by new emerging Potteries artists.
Stoke-on-Trent is the birthplace of several artists including Arthur
Berry (also a novelist, playwright & poet),
Glenys Barton (sculptor),
Arnold Machin (sculptor, coin ">_ The Golden_ sculpture in March
The outskirts of Tunstall will became home to a new public art statue
called _Golden_ in 2015. The 69 ft (21m) steel work of art by Wolfgang
Buttress was privately funded with £180,000 Section 106 monies and
will be made from COR-TEN Steel , the same material as the _Angel of
the North _. The tapered lozenge design features powerful LED lights
that will illuminate 1,500 glass prisms containing the written wishes
or memories of local residents. Each prism will be suspended from the
main body of the sculpture by a short arm, giving the artwork a
bristly appearance. It will be located on the current site of the
Potteries Pyramid , which will be moved to a nearby roundabout.
In October 2013 a sculpture commemorating the efforts of miners to
rebuild the Czech village of
Lidice devastated during the Second World
War was unveiled. The 6.8 metres (22 ft) high steel sculpture cost
£100,000 to build and features 3,000 tags bearing the initials of
people who promise to share the story of the 1942
Lidice Shall Live
movement. North Staffordshire-based Dashyline was commissioned by
Stoke-on-Trent City Council to create the artwork, which has been
installed near Hanley bus station.
The city's main theatre is the 1,603-person capacity Regent Theatre ,
which is in Hanley. Nearby is the main concert hall, the Victoria Hall
. The purpose-built theatre in the round
New Vic Theatre is just
outside the city's boundary in Newcastle-under-Lyme. The Victorian
Kings Hall in Stoke town hall is used for smaller events. In Burslem,
the Queens Theatre has been refurbished and restored at private
Stoke-on-Trent Repertory Theatre is based in Stoke and
puts on amateur productions. The previously city council-run Mitchell
Arts Centre , based in Hanley, completed its £4.3m refurbishment in
2011 and is now known as the Mitchell Arts Centre. It is named in
honour of one of the city's most famous sons,
Reginald Mitchell ,
designer of the legendary World War II fighter plane, the
On 17 December 2015 a new 9 screen Cineworld Cinema opened in Hanley.
It is situated at The Hive which is an extension to the Intu Potteries
shopping centre. There is an Odeon multiplex cinema on Festival Park.
The independent volunteer-run art-house cinema, The Stoke-on-Trent
Film Theatre, is located very near the railway station, and shows
art-house and subtitled films, as well as films that have finished
their run in larger cinemas.
Arnold Bennett, raised in Hanley.
Through the works of
Arnold Bennett , described by some as the
greatest realist writer of the 20th century, the "Six Towns" were
sometimes known as the "Five Towns". In his novels, Bennett wrote
about local events in the 19th century and consistently changed all
proper names and associations, thus Hanley became Hanbridge and
Burslem became Bursley. It is thought that Bennett chose to write
about five towns, rather than six, because he refused to acknowledge
Fenton as a proper town. The "Six Towns" were not federated until 1910
when Fenton was still relatively new; it was also the smallest in
terms of population and area. Bennett also changed the name of the
local newspaper from _The Sentinel_ to _The Signal_, an identity that
was subsequently adopted by the city's commercial radio station.
Other notable contributors to literature include Elijah Fenton
Peter Whelan (playwright),
John Wain (poet, critic and
Pauline Stainer (poet) and
Charles Tomlinson (poet, graphic
artist, translator, editor and critic).
Jorge Luis Borges ' novel "
The Garden of Forking Paths ", Dr. Yu
Tsun goes to a suburb of Fenton to meet Stephen Albert.
YOUNG POET LAUREATE
Since 2010, the council's library service has run a competition to
appoint a Young Poet Laureate for the city. This is a competition for
local poets aged between 11 and 19. The first winner was Daniel
Tatton, and he was succeeded in 2011 by Bethanie Hardie.
The city's main daily newspaper is _The Sentinel _, based in Hanley.
BBC Radio Stoke was launched in 1968, the third
BBC local radio
station to begin broadcasting. Local commercial radio stations include
Signal 1 and
Signal 2 along with a Christian community radio
City Radio .
Max FM broadcast nationally
Community Radio station
6 Towns Radio is based in
Burslem, having been formed in 2010. The United Christian Broadcasters
UK headquarters and broadcasting centre for national TV and radio
programming is also based in Stoke-on-Trent, with sites in Hanchurch
Television news is covered by Birmingham-based
Midlands Today ,
and ITV Central and also in certain parts of the city by
BBC North West Tonight and ITV's
Stoke-on-Trent is to be part in the second wave of UK cities after
2012 to get its own local TV Station. Startup costs will be shared
BBC but the station is expected to pay its own way with
The city enjoys a considerable on-line presence. The _
Pits n Pots _
website was launched in October 2008 as a site to discuss local news.
Burslem are served by the _MyTunstall_ website. The wider
potteries area is served by _The Potteries_ website, which includes a
number of articles and historical materials. These sites are in
addition to the council, tourism board, local museum websites and
those dedicated to different communities across the city.
Stoke has been the birthplace of many actors, including Hugh Dancy
who has been in _Black Hawk Down _,
Freddie Jones , Alan Lake
Diana Dors ),
Adrian Rawlins ,
Hanley Stafford (American
radio actor, born Alfred John Austin in Hanley),
Jonathan Wilkes and
Neil Morrissey , star of _
Men Behaving Badly _.
Rachel Shenton is also from the area.
Paul Bown Comedy actor was born
in Fenton .
Several nationally recognised TV presenters have been born in the
Frank Bough , who presented _Nationwide _ and
Breakfast Time _;
Anthea Turner from _
Blue Peter _; and Nick Hancock
, who chaired the comedy quiz show _They Think It\'s All Over _ and
was host on _
Room 101 ._
Bruno Brookes , the former
BBC Radio 1 disc
jockey, hosted the station's breakfast show and presented _Top of the
Pops _. Master illusionist
Andrew Van Buren was born in the area and
is still based there, although he is more often found performing out
of the country. Vocalist Carl De Marco was born in the area, and also
City Performing Arts College Burslem.
Stoke has a vibrant music scene. The
Golden Torch , a local
nightclub, became the centre of the
Northern soul scene in the early
1970s. Shelley\'s Laserdome nightclub in Longton played a pivotal
role in the house and rave scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s,
helping launch the career of Sasha and featuring regular appearances
Carl Cox , until it was eventually shut down by Staffordshire
Police . The Void, a Hanley nightclub, developed a sister
relationship with Sankey's Soap in Manchester, helping the latter to
revive its fortunes during the late 1990s via the promotion of a club
night called _Golden_.
There are three venues in the city that host regular touring bands:
The Sugarmill and The Underground. Lemmy, born in
Robbie Williams is the most famous pop star to hail from the city.
Many of his songs refer to Stoke-on-Trent, either directly or
indirectly. These include "It's Only Us", "
Burslem Normals", "The
80's" and the spoken introduction to his duet with
Jonathan Wilkes of
the song "Me and My Shadow". The song "Angels" was partly inspired by
the golden angel at
Burslem Town Hall. In 2015, three streets in a
new housing estate in Middleport were named after Williams' hit songs:
Supreme Street, Candy Lane and Angels Way.
Slash , the lead guitarist for Guns N\' Roses and
Velvet Revolver was
Hampstead , but his father was originally from the Potteries,
and he spent a few of his early childhood years in Stoke before moving
to Los Angeles. He did not meet the British side of his family until
Guns N' Roses played
Wembley Stadium . Slash has recalled in
interviews and his autobiography that his Stoke relatives drank all of
the band's considerable rider: "I witnessed one of my uncles, my
cousin, and my grandfather, on his very first trip to London from
Stoke, down every drop of liquor in our dressing room. Consumed in
full, our booze rider in those days would have killed anyone but us."
Lonnie Cook is a rock 'n' roll guitarist and local celebrity who
played with Screaming Lord Sutch in the 1970s. He is remembered in the
area for his Radio Stoke show _Sunday Best_, and for standing as a
Monster Raving Loony Party candidate. In 2010 he started getting
airplay on a New
York radio station for his 1994 song "Knock Me Down,
Pick Me Up". This led to the song being released for mp3 download in
the USA and the UK.
Other notable individuals and groups from the area include Andy Moor
who is a DJ and producer,
Gertie Gitana (music hall star and singer),
Lemmy , the founder of the rock band
Motörhead , Patricia Leonard
Jem Finer (banjoist, The Pogues), Broken Bones
and Discharge (punk band). Post-hardcore band Spy Versus Spy came
from Stoke-on-Trent. Experimental musician Phil Todd, best known for
Ashtray Navigations project, grew up in Madeley.
Other bands to
hail from the city include: _
This Is Seb Clarke _ (soul-punk), _Agent
Blue _ (alternative rock), _Epilogue _ (prog rock), _
All the Young _,
The Title _ (indie) and indie-soul band _Tommy Turbo "> Potteries
Staffordshire oatcakes (very different from the Scottish version and
traditionally made in corner-shop style oatcake bakeries) are a
much-loved local culinary speciality. They remain popular although are
no longer the cheap alternative to bread. Oatcakes can be eaten cold
or hot with any sweet or savoury fillings. Lobby , a stew not unlike
Lancashire hotpot , is still made by local people.
Stoke Pride is the city's annual pride march that has been running
since 2005, although it was not officially called Stoke Pride until
2008. It is a celebration of the city's
LGBT community and attracts
visitors from many different areas across the country and the globe.
There were talks about such an event in 2003, but the idea was faced
by opposition from the local BNP councillors and their supporters.
Originally held in Hanley, the event was held at Northwood Park until
2016 and has since moved to
Hanley Park in 2017 attracting over 7000
attendants, six times the amount of the previous year. The events
official website is stokeontrentpride.org.uk
The Potteries has a distinctive local dialect . Whilst it contains
many non-standard words (e.g. _nesh_ meaning "soft, tender, or to
easily get cold"; and _slat_ meaning "to throw" ), the best known
word is _duck_, which is used as a greeting to either men or women. It
is believed to be derived from the Saxon word _ducas_, used to
indicate respect; in
Middle English this became _duc_ or _duk_, which
denotes a leader; in turn, it became the title _
Duke _ and the Old
French word _duché_, which indicates the territory ruled by a Duke.
Another common variation on the standard English dialect is the use
of the word _shug_ for sugar. This is usually used as a term of
endearment when closing a sentence, as in "Ta Shug" (thank you,
A local cartoon called _
May un Mar Lady (Me and my Wife)_, published
in the newspaper _The Sentinel _ and written in
Potteries dialect ,
first appeared on 8 July 1986 and ran for over 20 years. Since the
death of cartoonist
Dave Follows in 2003, the full twenty-year run
(7,000) of _May un Mar Lady_ strips are being republished in _The
Sentinel_ as _
May un Mar Lady Revisited_, keeping the dialect alive
for another twenty years.
Alan Povey's _
Owd Grandad Piggott _ stories which have aired on BBC
Radio Stoke for a number of years are recited in the Potteries dialect
by the author.
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