Stoke-on-Trent

Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles (19 km) long, with an area of 36 sqmi. Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area. This, together with the rural Staffordshire Moorlands area, forms North Staffordshire, which in 2001, had a population of 457,165.

The conurbation continues to be polycentric, having been formed by the federation of six originally separate towns and numerous villages in the early-20th century. The settlement from which the federated town (not a city until 1925) took its name was Stoke-upon-Trent, because this was where the administration (and chief mainline railway station) was located. After the union, Hanley emerged as the primary commercial centre in the city, despite the efforts of its rival, Burslem. The three other component towns are Tunstall, Longton, and Fenton.

Stoke-on-Trent is considered to be 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.

Toponymy
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 a '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 feasible. 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 by Bede 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.

Administration


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 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 of town of Stoke.

The borough proposed in 1919 to expand further and annex the neighbouring borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme and the Wolstanton United Urban District, both to the west of Stoke: this met strong objections from Newcastle Corporation and never took place. A further attempt was made in 1930, with the promotion of the Stoke-on-Trent Extension Bill. Ultimately, Wolstanton was added to Newcastle-under-Lyme instead in 1932. Although attempts to take Newcastle, Wolstanton and Kidsgrove (north of Tunstall) were never successful, the borough did however 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 applied for city status due to having outstanding importance as the centre of the pottery industry in 1925, it was initially refused by the Home Office as it had less than 300,000 inhabitants. The Home Office decision was overturned, however, when a direct approach was made to King George V and the king agreed that the borough ought to be a city. The public announcement of the elevation to a city was made by the King during a visit to Stoke on 4 June 1925.

The city's county borough status was abolished in 1974, and it became a non-metropolitan district of Staffordshire. Its status as a local government unitary authority was restored as Stoke-on-Trent City Council on 1 April 1997 whilst remaining part of the ceremonial county of Staffordshire. For Eurostat purposes, it is a NUTS 3 region (code UKG23).

Pottery
Since the 17th century, the area has been almost exclusively known for its industrial-scale pottery manufacturing, with such world renowned names as Royal Doulton, Dudson Ltd, Spode (founded by Josiah Spode), Wedgwood (founded by Josiah Wedgwood) and Minton (founded by Thomas Minton) being born and based there. The presence locally of abundant supplies of coal and of suitable clay for earthenware production led to the early but at first limited development of the local pottery industry. The construction of the Trent and Mersey Canal enabled the import of china clay from Cornwall together with other materials and facilitated the production of creamware and bone china. However, many other production centres elsewhere in Britain, Europe and worldwide had a considerable lead in the production of high quality wares. It was largely the methodical and highly detailed research and a willingness to experiment carried out over many years, initially by one man, Josiah Wedgwood, and later by other local potters such as Thomas Whieldon, along with scientists and engineers, that nurtured the development of artistic talent throughout the local community and raised the profile of Staffordshire Potteries. With the industry also came a large number of notable ceramic artists including Clarice Cliff, Susie Cooper, Charlotte Rhead, Frederick Hurten Rhead and Jabez Vodrey.

Coal mining
North Staffordshire was a centre for coal mining. The first reports of coal mining in the area come from the 13th century. Part of the North Staffordshire Coalfield, the Potteries Coalfield covers 100 sqmi.

On nationalisation of the industry in 1947, around 20,000 men worked in the industry in Stoke on Trent. Notable Collieries included Hanley Deep Pit, Trentham Superpit (formerly Hem Heath and Florence Collieries), Fenton Glebe, Silverdale, Victoria, Chatterley Whitfield and Wolstanton. The industry developed greatly and even new investments in mining projects were planned within the 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 records. Wolstanton Colliery, when modernised had the deepest mining shafts in Europe. In 1933, Chatterley Whitfield Colliery became the first Colliery in the country to mine 1 million tons of coal. In the 1980s Florence Colliery in Longton repeatedly set regional and national production records and 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 abandoned mines underground are inaccessible, though still add complications to many building projects and occasionally cause minor tremors, detectable only by specialized equipment.

Steel
Other industries have also occupied important roles in the development of the city both before and after federation. Notably the iron and steel making industry 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 and instead of producing crude Steel concentrated on rolling Steel Billet train loaded in from Scunthorpe. The Rolling Plant finally closed in 2002. From 1864 to 1927 Stoke housed the repair shops of the North Staffordshire Railway and was also the home from 1881 to 1930 of independent railway locomotive manufacturers Kerr Stuart & Co. Ltd.

Shelton Steel Works as well as the mining operations were heavily involved in the World War II industrial effort. Central to the RAF's success was the Supermarine Spitfire designed by Reginald Mitchell who, whilst born at 115 Congleton Road in the nearby village of Butt Lane, Kidsgrove had his apprenticeship at Kerr Stuart & Co. Ltd's railway works.

Other
The Michelin tyre company also has a presence in Stoke-on-Trent and in the 1920s built their first UK plant in the city. As recently as the 1980s nearly 9,000 workers were employed at the plant. Nowadays around 1,200 are employed at the site.

Geography


Stoke-on-Trent is situated approximately half-way between Manchester and Birmingham and the city adjoins the town and borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme, which is administered separately and situated to the west. To the east is the Peak District, which includes part of the Staffordshire Moorlands District, as well as parts of Derbyshire, Greater Manchester and West and South Yorkshire.

For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region (code UKG23) and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and 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. 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").

A city like Stoke made up of multiple towns is known as 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 commercial centre.

Suburbs
As well as the Six Towns, there are numerous suburbs including Abbey Hulton, Adderley Green, Baddeley Green, Bentilee, Birches Head, Blurton, Bucknall, Bradeley, Cliffe Vale, Etruria, Fegg Hayes, Hartshill, Heron Cross, Meir, Meir Park, Meir Hay, Middleport, Milton, Penkhull, Shelton, Smallthorne, Sneyd Green, Trentham and Trent Vale.

Climate
Stoke-on-Trent, as with all of the United Kingdom, experiences a temperate maritime climate type, lacking in weather extremes. The local area is relatively elevated, resulting in cooler temperatures year round compared to the nearby Cheshire plain; although on calm, clear nights this is often reversed as cold air drainage causes a temperature inversion to occur. As such, the Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle area are generally not susceptible to severe frosts. The nearest official 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 six 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 785 mm a year, with 1 mm or more falling on just over 139 days. All averages refer to the 1971–2000 observation period.

Demographics
Based on the 2001 census, the total population of the city is 240,636 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. With 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 and 21.0% 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.

Main sights
The city's world-class ceramics collection is housed in the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery in Hanley. Etruria Industrial Museum on the Caldon Canal and Gladstone Pottery Museum in a former potbank in in Longton are dedicated to the city's industrial heritage. Ceramica in Burslem used to be an interactive ceramics museum based in Burslem, but it closed in 2011 due to council funding cuts.

Most of the major pottery companies based in Stoke-on-Trent have factory shops and visitor centres. The £10-million Wedgwood Museum visitor centre opened in the firm's factory in Barlaston in October 2008. The Dudson Centre in Hanley is a museum of the family ceramics business that's partly housed in a Grade II listed bottle kiln. It is also a volunteer centre. Burleigh in Middleport is the world's oldest working Victorian pottery. There are also smaller factory shops, such as Royal Stafford in Burslem, Moorcroft in Cobridge and Emma Bridgewater in Hanley. And there are ambitious plans to open the huge Chatterley Whitfield Colliery as a mining museum, since it has been given Ancient Monument status.

The Elizabethan Ford Green Hall is a 17th Century farmhouse which is now a historic house museum in Smallthorne.

Trentham Gardens is in the south of the city and a £100 million refurbishment was completed in 2005. Next door is Trentham Monkey Forest, which houses 140 Barbary Macaques in a 60 acre enclosure that visitors can walk through.

The Alton Towers Resort is 10 mi east of Stoke-on-Trent and is one of the United Kingdom's best known attractions. The Waterworld indoor swimming complex on Festival Park near Hanley is also a significant children's attraction.

Each of the six towns in Stoke-on-Trent has at least one park. At nine hectares, Burslem Park is one of the largest registered Victorian parks in the UK. Park Hall Country Park in Weston Coyney is a National Nature Reserve, and its sandstone canyons are a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Hartshill Park in Stoke is also a nature reserve, and Bucknall Park is home to the City Farm. Westport Lake in Longport is the largest body of water in Stoke-on-Trent and has a nature reserve.

Economy


North Staffordshire is a world centre for fine ceramics – a skilled design trade established in the area since at least the 12th century. But in the late-1980s & 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 renowned Shelton Bar steelworks. This resulted in a sharp rise in unemployment in the 'high-skilled but low-paid' workforce. However, by 2004 the unemployment rate had recovered to almost the same as in the wider West Midlands. Pottery firm Wedgwood and its subsidiary Royal Doulton are based in nearby Barlaston, although much production now takes place in the firm's Indonesian factory. Portmeirion is based in Stoke town, and now owns the Spode and 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 Burslem, 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.

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.

The Michelin tyre company has a complex in the city housing its commercial head office, training centre and a factory re-treading truck tyres. Sainsbury's supermarket and The Co-operative Pharmacy have large warehouses in the city. The Co-operative Travel has its head office in Burslem, 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 Square.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council is the city's largest single employer. Another major employer is the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, with over 7,000 staff.

KPMG's '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 The 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/tours and by the improved canal network.

The main shopping centre is Hanley; location of the Potteries Shopping Centre (housing many well known national retail outlets), many well-known high street shops and some unique specialist retailers. The Potteries Shopping Centre has recently opened chain coffee shops including Starbucks and Costa Coffee. And with the Peak District just ten miles (16 km) away, Hanley naturally boasts five outdoors clothing & equipment shops.

Other notable business people from the city includes Reginald H. Jones (Chairman of General Electric), venture capitalist Jon Moulton and John Madejski, chairman of Reading F.C. and former owner of Auto Trader.

Night-time industry has boomed in recent years, with Hanley becoming increasingly popular for its nightclubs, theatres, pubs, bars and restaurants.

Government
The city is covered by three House of Commons constituencies: Stoke-on-Trent North, Stoke-on-Trent Central and Stoke-on-Trent South. All three have returned Labour MPs without interruption since their creation in 1950. The city is within the West Midlands European Parliament constituency.

Mayoral system
The city was only one of the twelve English districts with elected mayors to use the mayor and council manager system rather than the mayor and cabinet system, although it was removed following a local referendum on 23 October 2008.

A local referendum approved a directly elected mayor system on 3 May 2002 by 28,601 votes to 20,578 (turnout of 27.8%).

Mike Wolfe, an independent candidate, became the first directly elected mayor after an election on 17 October 2002, narrowly beating Labour Party candidate George Stevenson by just 300 votes. The elected Mayor from 5 May 2005 – 5 June 2009 was Mark Meredith (Labour Party). The 2005 election was notable because approximately 10% of the ballot papers were either spoiled or ineligible. Meredith's election platform included a pledge to have another referendum on the post of elected mayor. This was scheduled for May 2007 and passed in favour of retaining the current political system.

On 23 October 2008, voters returned to the polls to choose between modifying the system (to Mayor and Cabinet) or abolishing the position of elected Mayor. Votes were 21,231 for abolition and 14,592 for modification on a turnout of 19.23%.

Leader and Cabinet system
Following a city wide referendum abolishing the position of elected mayor a Leader and Cabinet system was adopted on 5 June 2009. The Leader of the Council is elected by councillors. Each cabinet members makes the decisions on their portfolio area and explains the decisions at the monthly cabinet meetings.

Lord Mayor
The position of Lord Mayor is largely ceremonial. The title of Lord Mayor was first conferred on the City of 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 Terry Follows.

Council
In May 2011 the electoral map of the city changed. From a council of 60 members representing 20 wards with 3 councilors each, the size of the council was reduced to 44 councilors representing 37 wards (31 single member wards, 5 two member wards and 1 three member ward). The change followed a 2008 report by the Stoke-on-Trent Governance Commission to the Secretary of State for Local Government that was highly crtitical of the political system then in use in the city.

The political composition of Stoke-on-Trent city council as of 2011 is as follows:

Public services
The city's acute hospital is the University Hospital of North Staffordshire. It is currently based over two sites (the Royal Infirmary and the City General). The hospital is being re-built on to the City General site which is located on London Road, the A34.

The city's primary care trust, NHS Stoke-on-Trent manages Haywood Hospital in Burslem, which prodives intermediate care, and Longton Cottage Hospital, which provides inpatient and outpatient clinics. North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare is the primary care trust providing mental health services locally, based at Harplands Hospital in Penkhull and Bucknall Hospital.

Policing in Stoke-on-Trent is provided by Staffordshire Police, which has police stations in Hanley, Bucknall, Burslem, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall. Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court and County Court share a building in Hanley. There is a Magistrates' Court in Fenton.

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.

Religion


Stoke-on-Trent does not have a cathedral, but the city's main civic church is Stoke Minster.

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. By 1811 with his brother he founded the first chapel in Tunstall. He promoted Sunday schools as a method of improving children's education as well as treating women as equals. He also 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 2011. The city's only synagogue closed in 2006, and was replaced with a smaller one in nearby Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Major roads
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 D. In addition, 500 in Roman numerals is D. The A50 cuts through the city, providing an East-West link between the M6 and M1 motorways. Improvements to the road network have led to a number of companies building distribution centres in the area.

Rail
Stoke-on-Trent railway station is a mainline station on the Stafford-Manchester Line, which is a part of the West Coast Main Line between Manchester and London, as well as the Crewe-Derby Line. Virgin Pendolino train 390029 is named after Stoke-on-Trent. Other railway stations in the city include Longport and Longton stations. Etruria station was closed in September, 2005.

Bus
Local public transport is almost exclusively by bus. Bus services are mainly operated by Potteries Motor Traction, now owned by FirstGroup under the name First Potteries. There are also several smaller companies operating bus services in the city. There are central bus stations in Hanley city centre and Longton town centre. National Express operate long distance coach services from Hanley Bus Station. As part of the city's regeneration, a new bus station is to be built in Hanley, allowing the current one to be demolished, making room for further redevelopment.

Canals
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. Recently numerous improvements to the canal system have been made.

Cycling
At November 2009 there are 77 mi of new National Cycle Network off-road bicycle paths through the city, connecting the city to the national long-distance paths which were completed in 2005. Together with those in Newcastle-under-Lyme, there are now over 100 mi 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 Cycling City.

Higher Education


There are four higher education institutions in the local area, the two further education colleges being City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College and 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 specialized, 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 Medical School uses facilities at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire in Hartshill. Keele University itself was founded as the University College of North Staffordshire in 1949 with major involvement by Stoke-on-Trent City Council, and is located in the nearby village of Keele.

Secondary Education
The city currently has thirteen 'Community' schools, four 'Church' schools, and five 'Special' schools.

The Community schools are: Berry Hill High, Birches Head High, Blurton High, The Co-operative Academy at Brownhills, Edensor Technology College, Haywood High, Holden Lane High, James Brindley Science College, Longton High, Mitchell High, Sandon High, Thistley Hough High and Trentham High.

A major re-structure of Stoke-on-Trent's High School system is currently under proposal. As part of these plans Longton High School is to close in 2010. Trentham High, Berry Hill High, and Mitchell Business and Enterprise College are also expected to close.

In terms of results, the city's top school is St. Joseph's College. In September 2007, the school was threatened with closure as part of the education re-shuffle. The school led a very high profile campaign and eventually (after speaking with Gordon Brown) the school was saved.

Potters' Holidays
One of the legacies of, especially, the pottery industry was that Stoke had its own version of the Wakes week. Although more well known in industrial Lancashire, the Stoke week is known locally as the Potters' Holidays or Potters' Fortnight and occurred as the last week in June and the first week in July and then a further week in August. This gave what appears 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. With the decreased emphasis on the traditional industries this oddity has disappeared from the local schools.

Football
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 are the second oldest professional football club in England. They currently play at the Britannia Stadium in Trentham, which has been their home since 1997 when they relocated from the Victoria Ground in Stoke after 119 years. They were among the 12 founder 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. Stoke City reached the final of the F.A. Cup for the first time in their history in 2011 but were defeated by Manchester City. Arguably the club's most famous player of all time was Stanley Matthews, who is perhaps the best known sportsperson from the city. He played football for Stoke City and Blackpool where he played in what became known as the Matthews Final. He also managed Port Vale from 1965–1968. He was the first active footballer to receive a Knighthood. The "wizard of dribble", as he became known, 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 Britannia Stadium.

The city's other professional football club are 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 The Old Recreation Ground in Hanley (1913–1950). They joined the Football League in 1892 but were forced to resign from it 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. Unlike Stoke City, their local rivals in the Potteries derby, they have never played top division football. They currently play in League Two (fourth tier). Individuals of note include: John Rudge (who managed the club for 16 years from 1983–1999), and 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 respectively. Smallthorne based Norton United still compete in the North West Counties Football League, as do Hanley Town in the Staffordshire County Senior 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 in Newcastle-under-Lyme, initially as Chesterton, before it reverted to the Stoke name. For many years the Potters raced in the 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 ski race team based at the artificial ski slope in Festival Park compete in national Snowsport England and international FIS Fédération Internationale de Ski events.

The city has a number of amateur sports clubs, including rugby union and cricket, the latter competing in the North Staffs and South Cheshire Cricket League. The cricket ground in Longton is one of the venues used by Staffordshire County 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 the 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 four 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).

Phil Taylor has won the World Championship a record 15 times, winning the championship in both the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and British Darts Organisation (BDO). Other notable darts players from Stoke include current PDC World Champion Adrian Lewis – the first player ever to hit a nine-dart finish in the PDC World Final. Others include Andy Hamilton and Ted Hankey.

World champion squash player, Great Britain and England international Angela Smith – who was largely responsible for the ladies game going open was born in the city, she is regarded as one of the sports greats. Wicket-keeper Bob Taylor, who played for Derbyshire and England was born and still lives in the area. He represented 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 (born 1973) is the KLM Open Champion 2004. David has been a member of European Tour since 1996 and he has been in Top 30 of European Tour Order of Merit twice in last three seasons.

Other notable sports people from the area include footballers turned BBC pundits Mark Bright and Garth Crooks; UFC fighter Ross Pointon; tennis player Andrew Foster; snooker players Dave Harold and Jamie Cope; field hockey player Imran Sherwani; and wrestler Peter Thornley (better known as Kendo Nagasaki).

Visual Art
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. But there are also smaller elements, including the independent Dazed Gallery and the subsidised student-run gallery AirSpace. In Fenton the Artbay Gallery has a contemporary range of original works as well as limited editions. It's 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.

In Burslem the Edwardian School of Art 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 local artists including mixed media artists Rachel Grant and Nicholas Hudson Paine, painters Paine Proffitt, Rob Pointon, Ivan Taylor, David Brammeld, Saw Law Webb and in ceramics, fine artist Philip Hardaker and work local potters Hannah Belfield and Kevin Millward and Alex Shimwell.

Stoke-on-Trent is also the birthplace of several artists including Arthur Berry (also a novelist, playwright & poet), Arnold Machin (sculptor, coin & stamp designer) and Sidney Tushingham, A.R.E.

Theatre
The city's main theatre is the 1603 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 expense. The Stoke-on-Trent Repertory Theatre is based in a ten year old building in Stoke and puts on amateur productions. The city council-run Mitchell Memorial Theatre in Hanley also shows amateur productions, but is currently undergoing refurbishment.

Cinema
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.

Literature


Originally through the works of Arnold Bennett, described by some as the greatest realist writer of the 20th century, the 'Six Towns' were also sometimes known as the 'Five Towns'. In his novels Bennett wrote about local events in the 19th century 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 but Fenton was still relatively new by that time, it was also the smallest in terms of population and area. As well as this Bennett changed the name of the towns' newspaper from the Sentinel to the Signal, an identity that was subsequently adopted by the city's commercial radio station.

Other notable contributors to the world of literature includes Elijah Fenton (poet), Peter Whelan (playwright), John Wain (poet, critic and scholar), Pauline Stainer (poet), Charles Tomlinson (poet, graphic artist, translator, editor and critic).

Media
The city's main daily newspaper is The Sentinel, based in Etruria. Local radio stations are BBC Radio Stoke, the commercial Signal 1 and Signal 2 along with a Christian community radio station called Cross Rhythms City Radio. Max FM broadcast nationally from Stoke on Trent and Internet station 6Towns Radio is based in Burslem. United Christian Broadcasters UK headquarters and broadcasting centre for Christian national TV and radio programming is also based in Stoke-on-Trent with sites in Hanchurch and Hanley.

Television news is covered by Birmingham-based BBC Midlands Today, and ITV Central.

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. These sites are in addition to the council, tourism board and local museum websites and those dedicated to different communities across the city.

Famous entertainers
Stoke has been the birthplace of many actors, including Hugh Dancy who has been in Black Hawk Down, Freddie Jones, Alan Lake (widower of 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. Hollyoaks actress Rachel Shenton is also from the area.

Several nationally recognised TV presenters have been born in the area including Frank Bough who presented Nationwide & 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 who hosted the station's breakfast show also presented Top of the Pops. Master illusionist Andrew Van Buren was born & is still based in the area, although he is more often found performing out of the country. Vocalist Carl De Marco was born in the area, and also studied at Stoke-On-Trent City Performing Arts College Burslem.

Music
Stoke has a vibrant music scene. Local nightclub the Golden Torch 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 too, helping to launch the career of Sasha and featuring regular appearances from Carl Cox, until it was eventually shut down by Staffordshire Police. Hanley nightclub 'The Void' developed a sister relationship with Sankey's Soap in Manchester, helping the latter to revive its fortunes during the late-1990s through the promotion of club night 'Golden'.

There are three venues within the city that host regular touring bands, Victoria Hall, The Sugarmill and The Underground.

Robbie Williams is perhaps 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" and "The 80's" as well as the spoken introduction to his duet with Jonathan Wilkes of the song "Me and My Shadow", while the song "Angels" was partly inspired by the golden angel at Burslem Town Hall.

Slash, renowned guitarist for Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver was born in 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 1992 when Guns N' Roses played Wembley Stadium. Slash has recalled in numerous interviews and his autobiography that his Stoke relatives drank all of the bands 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."

The Legendary Lonnie is a rock 'n' roll guitarist and local celebrity who played with Screaming Lord Sutch in the 1970s, and is also well remembered in the area for his Radio Stoke show 'Sunday Best', as well as for standing as a Monster Raving Loony Party candidate. In Spring 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, Havergal Brian who composed 32 symphonies and five operas, Gertie Gitana (music hall star and singer), Lemmy, the founder of the rock band Motörhead,  Patricia Leonard (singer/contralto), Jem Finer (banjoist, The Pogues) and Broken Bones, Discharge (punk band). Post-hardcore band Spy Versus Spy came from Stoke-On Trent. Experimental musician Phil Todd, best known for his 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), Exhibit A (alternative metal), The Title (indie), Ghost Trains (alternative acoustic) and indie-soul band Tommy Turbo & The Turbervilles.

In October, 2007, Stoke-on-Trent City Council introduced a new theme tune – "Moving Forwards Together". It was described by the council as "part of our drive to help us move the city forward and create a better Stoke-on-Trent for people to live, learn, work and enjoy".

Murdoc Niccals, a member of the fictional group Gorillaz with the role of bass guitarist is said, in his constructed biography, to have been born in Stoke-on-Trent. Indie rocker Stephen Malkmus mentions Stoke-on-Trent in "Pink India", released on his self-titled solo album, singing that the song's protagonist, Mortimer, is a "rook" in The Great Game, who "came from Stoke-on-Trent." Billy Bragg also mentions Stoke-on-Trent as one of the places that the character in his song "Rotting On Remand" is sent to.

Peter Wyngarde as Jason King in "Flamingos only fly on Tuesdays" makes a quip about a "knicker salesman from Stoke-on-Trent". The cat in Dick and Dom in da Bungalow once sang a song about Stoke-on-Trent.

Food
Two local culinary specialities are the much loved Staffordshire Oatcakes (very different from the Scottish version and traditionally made in corner-shop style oatcake bakeries), whose fame has yet to travel far outside Staffordshire and neighbouring Derbyshire and Cheshire, and are as popular as ever although 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
Stoke Pride is the city's annual pride march that has been running since 2005 although it wasn't officially called Stoke Pride until 2008. It is a celebration of the LGBT community in the city and attracts visitors from elsewhere. There was first talks about such an event in 2003 but the idea was faced by opposition from local BNP and their local supporters. Originally held in Hanley, since 2009 the event has been held at Northwood Park. The 2011 event will take place on 6 August 2011.

Dialect
The Potteries has a distinctive local dialect. Whilst it contains many non-standard words (for example "Nesh" meaning soft, tender, or to easily get cold, and "Slat" meaning to throw ), the best known word is "duck" used as a greeting to either men or women. It is believed to be derived from the Saxon word ‘ducas’ used to indicate respect, which in Middle English became "duc" or "duk" which denotes a leader, which in turn, became the title Duke and the Old French word "ducheé" which indicates the territory ruled by a Duke.

Another common variation on the standard English dialect, is the use of the word "shug", as in short for sugar. This is usually used when closing a sentence as in "Ta Shug" (thank you sugar).

A local cartoon called May un Mar Lady, published in the newspaper The Sentinel, written in Potteries dialect, first appeared on 8 July 1986 and ran for over 20 years. Since the cartoonist Dave Follows' death 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.

Also, 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.

Local Media

 * Local Information from The Sentinel newspaper
 * Local Information from the BBC
 * Local Information from StaffsLive a website run by Staffordshire University journalism students
 * Local Information from Pits n Pots on-line newspaper