Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and
unitary authority area
A unitary authority is a type of local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed ...
in
Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...
, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022,
making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire and one of the largest cities of the
Midlands
The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...
. Stoke is surrounded by the towns of
Newcastle-under-Lyme
Newcastle-under-Lyme is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. It is adjacent to the city of Stoke-on-Trent. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the population ...
,
Alsager
Alsager ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It is located to the north-west of Stoke-on-Trent and east of Crewe. At the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 cen ...
,
Kidsgrove
Kidsgrove is a town in the borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England, on the Cheshire border. It is part of the Potteries Urban Area, along with Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme. It has a population of 26,276 (2019 census) ...
and
Biddulph
Biddulph is a town in Staffordshire, England, north of Stoke-on-Trent and south-east of Congleton, Cheshire.
Origin of the name
Biddulph's name may come from Old English language, Anglo-Saxon/Old English ''bī dylfe'' = "beside the pit or q ...
, which form a
conurbation
A conurbation is a region consisting of a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most ...
around the city.
The city is
polycentric
Polycentric is an English adjective, meaning "having more than one center," derived from the Greek words ''polús'' ("many") and ''kentrikós'' ("center"). Polycentricism (or polycentricity) is the abstract noun formed from polycentric. They may r ...
, formed from
the federation of six towns in 1910. It took its name from the town of
Stoke-upon-Trent
Stoke-upon-Trent, also known as Stoke, is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Staffordshire, Hanley, Burslem, Fenton, Staffordshire, Fenton, Longton, Staffordshire, Longton and Tunstall, Staffordshire, Tunstall form the city of Stoke-o ...
where the main centre of government and the principal
railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
in the district were located.
Hanley
Hanley is one of the Federation of Stoke-on-Trent, six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Staffordshire, Longton, Fenton, Staffordshire, Fenton, Tunstall, Staffordshire, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke- ...
is the primary commercial centre. The other four towns which form the city are
Burslem
Burslem ( ) is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Staffordshire, Hanley, Tunstall, Staffordshire, Tunstall, Fenton, Staffordshire, Fenton, Longton, Staffordshire, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in ...
,
Tunstall,
Longton and
Fenton.
The home of the
pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...
industry in England, it is known as
The Potteries
The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Staffordshire, Fenton, Hanley, Staffordshire, Hanley, Longton, Staffordshire, Longton, Tunstall, Staffordshire, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, Stoke ( ...
. It is a centre for
service industries
Service industries are those not directly concerned with the production of physical goods (such as agriculture and manufacturing).
Some service industries, including transportation, wholesale trade and retail trade are part of the supply chai ...
and
distribution centres. It formerly had a primarily
heavy industry
Heavy industry is an industry that involves one or more characteristics such as large and heavy products; large and heavy equipment and facilities (such as heavy equipment, large machine tools, huge buildings and large-scale infrastructure); o ...
sector.
History
Toponymy and etymology
The name ''Stoke'' is taken from the town of
Stoke-upon-Trent
Stoke-upon-Trent, also known as Stoke, is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Staffordshire, Hanley, Burslem, Fenton, Staffordshire, Fenton, Longton, Staffordshire, Longton and Tunstall, Staffordshire, Tunstall form the city of Stoke-o ...
, the original
ancient parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
, with other settlements being
chapelries. ''Stoke'' derives from the
Old English
Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
''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 unknown which of these was intended here, and all are plausible.
The most frequently suggested interpretations derive from a crossing point on the
Roman road
Roman roads ( ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Em ...
that ran from present-day
Derby
Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...
to
Chesterton or the early presence of a
church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...
, said to have been founded in 670 AD. Because ''Stoke'' was such a common name for a settlement, some kind of distinguishing
affix
In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. The main two categories are Morphological derivation, derivational and inflectional affixes. Derivational affixes, such as ''un-'', ''-ation' ...
was usually added later, in this case, the name of the
river
A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...
.
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 into districts within a county of "Staffordshire Potteries". On 1 April 1910 the "Six Towns" were brought together. The
county borough of Hanley, the
municipal borough
A municipal borough was a type of local government
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state.
Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...
s of Burslem, Longton, and Stoke, together with the
urban districts of Tunstall and Fenton now formed a single county borough of Stoke-on-Trent.
In 1919, the borough proposed 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 never took place, due to strong objections from Newcastle Corporation. A further attempt was made in 1930, with the promotion of the Stoke-on-Trent Extension Bill. Ultimately, Wolstanton was instead added to Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1932. Although attempts to merge Newcastle, Wolstanton and
Kidsgrove
Kidsgrove is a town in the borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England, on the Cheshire border. It is part of the Potteries Urban Area, along with Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme. It has a population of 26,276 (2019 census) ...
(north of Tunstall) were never successful, the borough expanded in 1922, taking in
Smallthorne Urban District and parts of other parishes from
Stoke upon Trent Rural District.
The borough was granted
city status
City status is a symbolic and legal designation given by a monarch, national or subnational government. A municipality may receive city status because it already has the qualities of a city, or because it has some special purpose.
Historically, ci ...
in 1925, with a
lord mayor
Lord mayor is a title of a mayor of what is usually a major city in a Commonwealth realm, with special recognition bestowed by the sovereign. However, the title or an equivalent is present in other countries, including forms such as "high mayor". A ...
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
The Home Office (HO), also known (especially in official papers and when referred to in Parliament) as the Home Department, is the United Kingdom's interior ministry. It is responsible for public safety and policing, border security, immigr ...
as it had fewer than 300,000 inhabitants. The decision was overturned, when a direct approach was made to
King George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.
George was born during the reign of his pa ...
, 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 in June 1925.
The county borough was abolished in 1974. Stoke became a
non-metropolitan district
Non-metropolitan districts, or colloquially "shire districts", are a type of Districts of England, local government district in England. As created, they are sub-divisions of non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties (colloquially ''s ...
of Staffordshire. Its status as a unitary authority was restored in April 1997. It remains part of the
ceremonial county
Ceremonial counties, formally known as ''counties for the purposes of the lieutenancies'', are areas of England to which lord-lieutenant, lord-lieutenants are appointed. A lord-lieutenant is the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, monarch's repres ...
of Staffordshire. For
Eurostat
Eurostat ("European Statistical Office"; also DG ESTAT) is a department of the European Commission ( Directorate-General), located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statist ...
purposes it is a
ITL 3 region (code TLG31).
Industry
Pottery
Since the 17th century, the area has been almost exclusively known for its industrial-scale pottery manufacturing. Companies such as
Royal Doulton
Royal Doulton is an English ceramic and home accessories manufacturer that was founded in 1815. Operating originally in Vauxhall, London, and later moving to Lambeth, in 1882 it opened a factory in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, in the centre of Engl ...
,
Dudson
Dudson is a British company that manufactured tableware, glassware and porcelain, in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. It is one of the oldest brands of its industry in England, founded in 1800.
The former pottery works is the location of the Dudson C ...
,
Spode
Spode is an English brand of pottery and homewares produced in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Spode was founded by Josiah Spode (1733–1797) in 1770, and was responsible for perfecting two important techniques that were crucial to the worldwide su ...
(founded by
Josiah Spode
Josiah Spode (23 March 1733 – 18 August 1797) was an English potter and the founder of the English Spode pottery works which became famous for the high quality of its wares. He is often credited with the establishment of blue underglaze trans ...
),
Wedgwood
Wedgwood is an English China (material), fine china, porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons L ...
(founded by
Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood (12 July 1730 – 3 January 1795) was an English potter, entrepreneur and abolitionist. Founding the Wedgwood company in 1759, he developed improved pottery bodies by systematic experimentation, and was the leader in the indu ...
),
Minton (founded by
Thomas Minton
Thomas Minton (1765–1836) was an English potter. He founded Thomas Minton & Sons in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, which grew into a major ceramic manufacturing company with an international reputation.
During the early 1780s Thomas Minton ...
) and Baker & Co. (founded by William Baker) were established and based there. The local abundance of coal and clay suitable for earthenware production led to the early (initially limited) development of the local pottery industry. The construction of the
Trent and Mersey Canal
The Trent and Mersey Canal is a canal in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire in north-central England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities to the east of Burton upon Trent and north of Middl ...
(completed in 1777) enabled the import of
china clay
Kaolinite ( ; also called kaolin) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedron, tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen ...
from
Cornwall
Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
together with other materials and facilitated the production of
creamware
Creamware is a cream-coloured refined earthenware with a lead glaze over a pale body, known in France as '' faïence fine'', in the Netherlands as ''Engels porselein'', and in Italy as ''terraglia inglese''.Osborne, 140 It was created about 175 ...
and
bone china
Bone china is a type of vitreous, translucent pottery, the raw materials for which include bone ash, feldspathic material and kaolin. It has been defined as "ware with a translucent body" containing a minimum of 30% of phosphate derived from c ...
.
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
The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Tunstall and Stoke (which is now the city of Stoke-on-Trent) in Staffordshire, England. North Staffordshire became a centre of c ...
. This was spearheaded by one man,
Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood (12 July 1730 – 3 January 1795) was an English potter, entrepreneur and abolitionist. Founding the Wedgwood company in 1759, he developed improved pottery bodies by systematic experimentation, and was the leader in the indu ...
, who cut the first sod for the canal in 1766 and erected his
Etruria Works
The Etruria Works was a ceramics factory opened by Josiah Wedgwood in 1769 in a district of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which he named Etruria. The factory ran for 180 years, as part of the wider Wedgwood business.
Wedgwood kept hi ...
that year.
Wedgwood built upon the successes of earlier local potters such as his mentor
Thomas Whieldon
Thomas Whieldon (September 1719 in Penkhull, Staffordshire – March 1795) was an English potter who played a leading role in the development of Staffordshire pottery.
The attribution of actual pieces to his factory has long been uncertain, an ...
and along with scientists and engineers, raised the pottery business to a new level.
Josiah Spode
Josiah Spode (23 March 1733 – 18 August 1797) was an English potter and the founder of the English Spode pottery works which became famous for the high quality of its wares. He is often credited with the establishment of blue underglaze trans ...
introduced
bone china
Bone china is a type of vitreous, translucent pottery, the raw materials for which include bone ash, feldspathic material and kaolin. It has been defined as "ware with a translucent body" containing a minimum of 30% of phosphate derived from c ...
at Trent in 1796, and
Thomas Minton
Thomas Minton (1765–1836) was an English potter. He founded Thomas Minton & Sons in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, which grew into a major ceramic manufacturing company with an international reputation.
During the early 1780s Thomas Minton ...
opened his manufactory. With the industry came a large number of notable 20th-century ceramic artists including
Clarice Cliff
Clarice Cliff (20 January 1899 – 23 October 1972) was an English ceramic artist and designer. Active from 1922 to 1963, Cliff became the head of the Newport Pottery factory creative department.
Early life
Cliff's ancestors moved from the ...
,
Susie Cooper
Susan Vera Cooper OBE (29 October 1902 – 28 July 1995) was a prolific English ceramic designer working in the Stoke-on-Trent pottery industries from the 1920s to the 1980s.
Life and work
Born in Burslem, Staffordshire, she was the youngest ...
,
Charlotte Rhead,
Frederick Hurten Rhead and
Jabez Vodrey
Jabez Vodrey (1795–1861) is generally thought to be the first English potter to emigrate to and work west of the Appalachian Mountains in the United States.
Early years
Vodrey was born on 14 January 1795 in Tunstall, Staffordshire, a centuries ...
.
Coal mining

North 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 .]
Striking coal miners in the Hanley
Hanley is one of the Federation of Stoke-on-Trent, six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Staffordshire, Longton, Fenton, Staffordshire, Fenton, Tunstall, Staffordshire, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke- ...
and Longton area ignited the nationwide 1842 general strike and its associated Pottery Riots.
When coal mining was nationalised
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English)
is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with ...
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, Norton, Chatterley Whitfield
Chatterley Whitfield Colliery is a disused coal-mine on the outskirts of Chell in Stoke-on-Trent. It was the largest mine in North Staffordshire and was the first colliery in the UK to produce 1,000,000 tons of saleable coal in a year.
In 197 ...
and Wolstanton
Wolstanton is a village on the outskirts of Newcastle-under-Lyme, in the Newcastle-under-Lyme district, in the county of Staffordshire, England.
History
The Roman road the Rykeneld Street passed through Wolstanton.
Wolstanton is mentioned in ...
.[ The industry developed greatly, and 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
Wolstanton is a village on the outskirts of Newcastle-under-Lyme, in the Newcastle-under-Lyme district, in the county of Staffordshire, England.
History
The Roman road the Rykeneld Street passed through Wolstanton.
Wolstanton is mentioned in ...
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 remain on the landscape. Slag heaps are still visible on the skyline, now covered with flora and fauna. The Chatterley Whitfield
Chatterley Whitfield Colliery is a disused coal-mine on the outskirts of Chell in Stoke-on-Trent. It was the largest mine in North Staffordshire and was the first colliery in the UK to produce 1,000,000 tons of saleable coal in a year.
In 197 ...
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
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...
by English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...
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.
Steel
The iron and steel industries occupied important roles in the development of the city, both before and after the federation. Especially notable were those mills located in the valley at Goldendale and Shelton Shelton may refer to:
Places
United Kingdom
*Shelton, North Bedfordshire, in the parish of Dean and Shelton, Bedfordshire
* Lower Shelton, in the parish of Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire
* Upper Shelton, in the parish of Marston Moretaine, Bedf ...
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 transported from Scunthorpe
Scunthorpe () is an industrial town in Lincolnshire, England, and the county's third most populous settlement after Lincoln, England, Lincoln and Grimsby, with a population of 81,286 in 2021. It is the administrative centre and largest settleme ...
by rail. The rolling plant finally closed in 2002. From 1864 to 1927 Stoke housed the repair shops of the North Staffordshire Railway
The North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) was a Great Britain, British railway company formed in 1845 to promote a number of lines in the Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire Potteries and surrounding areas in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shro ...
and was the home of independent railway locomotive manufacturers Kerr, Stuart and Company
Kerr, Stuart and Company Ltd was a locomotive manufacturer in Stoke-on-Trent, England.
History
It was founded in 1881 by James Kerr as "James Kerr & Company", and became "Kerr, Stuart & Company" from 1883 when John Stuart was taken on as a par ...
from 1881 to 1930.
Shelton Steel Works and the mining operations were heavily involved in the World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
industrial effort. Central to the RAF's success was the Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and other Allies of World War II, Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. It was the only British fighter produced conti ...
designed by Reginald Mitchell
Reginald Joseph Mitchell (20 May 1895 – 11 June 1937) was a British Aerospace engineering, aircraft designer who worked for the Southampton aviation company Supermarine from 1916 until 1936. He is best known for designing racing seaplanes ...
who, whilst born at 115 Congleton Road in the nearby village of Butt Lane
Butt Lane is a village in North Staffordshire near the town of Kidsgrove in the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme, North Staffordshire. Butt Lane borders on Church Lawton in Cheshire. A Butt Lane (ward), ward of the borough is named after the plac ...
, had his apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...
at Kerr, Stuart and Company's railway works.
Other
The Michelin
Michelin ( , ), in full ("General Company of the Michelin Enterprises P.L.S."), is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes '' région'' of France. It is the second largest t ...
tyre company has a presence in Stoke-on-Trent, and in the 1920s built their first UK plant in the city. In the 1980s nearly 9,000 workers were employed at the plant. In 2006 about 1,200 worked there. RAF Meir was located on the outskirts of the city.
Geography
Location
Stoke-on-Trent has an area of . It is located between Manchester
Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
, Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...
and Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
on the M6 corridor in the West Midlands region. It lies on the upper valley of the River Trent
The Trent is the third Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, longest river in the United Kingdom. Its Source (river or stream), source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midlands ...
at the south-west foothills of the Pennines
The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of highland, uplands mainly located in Northern England. Commonly described as the "Vertebral column, backbone of England" because of its length and position, the ra ...
, near the uplands of the Peak District
The Peak District is an Highland, upland area in central-northern England, at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It is subdivi ...
to the north-east and the lowlands of the Midlands
The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...
and Cheshire Plain
The Cheshire Plain is a relatively flat expanse of lowland within the county of Cheshire in North West England but extending south into Shropshire. It extends from the Mersey Valley in the north to the Shropshire Hills in the south, bounded by t ...
to the south and west. The city ranges from 96 to 250 metres (315 to 820 ft) above sea level.
As well as Newcastle-under-Lyme
Newcastle-under-Lyme is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. It is adjacent to the city of Stoke-on-Trent. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the population ...
, which adjoins it to the west, other nearby towns include Crewe
Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the parish had a population of 55,318 and the built-up area had a population of 74,120. ...
, Nantwich
Nantwich ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It has among the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England, with notably good examples of Tudor and Georgian architecture ...
, Alsager
Alsager ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It is located to the north-west of Stoke-on-Trent and east of Crewe. At the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 cen ...
, Congleton
Congleton is a market town and civil parish in Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. It is on the River Dane, south of Manchester and north of Stoke on Trent. At the 2021 census, the parish had a population of 28,497 and the built-up area ha ...
, Biddulph
Biddulph is a town in Staffordshire, England, north of Stoke-on-Trent and south-east of Congleton, Cheshire.
Origin of the name
Biddulph's name may come from Old English language, Anglo-Saxon/Old English ''bī dylfe'' = "beside the pit or q ...
, Kidsgrove
Kidsgrove is a town in the borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England, on the Cheshire border. It is part of the Potteries Urban Area, along with Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme. It has a population of 26,276 (2019 census) ...
, Stafford
Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about south of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Wolverhampton, and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021–2022 United Kingd ...
, Uttoxeter
Uttoxeter ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in the East Staffordshire borough of Staffordshire, England. It is near to the Derbyshire county border.
The town is from Burton upon Trent via the A50 and the A38, from Stafford via the A51 ...
, Eccleshall
Eccleshall () is a town and civil parish in the Stafford district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is located seven miles northwest of Stafford, and six miles west-southwest of Stone. Eccleshall is twinned with Sancerre in France.
...
, Cheadle, Stone
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
and Leek
A leek is a vegetable, a cultivar of ''Allium ampeloprasum'', the broadleaf wild leek (synonym (taxonomy), syn. ''Allium porrum''). The edible part of the plant is a bundle of Leaf sheath, leaf sheaths that is sometimes erroneously called a "s ...
.
The Five Towns conurbation
Stoke-on-Trent is often known as "the city of five towns", the name given to it by local novelist Arnold Bennett
Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist, who wrote prolifically. Between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaborati ...
, 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". 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
A conurbation is a region consisting of a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most ...
. In this case, the conurbation is bigger than Stoke itself, because the urban area of Stoke is contiguous with that of administratively separate Newcastle.
The six towns run in a rough line from north to south along the A50 road
The A50 is a major trunk road in England between Warrington and Leicester; historically it was also a major route from London to Leicester.
Route
The current A50 runs south-east from Warrington via Junction 20 of the M6 motorway, M6, Knu ...
– 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.
For Eurostat
Eurostat ("European Statistical Office"; also DG ESTAT) is a department of the European Commission ( Directorate-General), located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statist ...
purposes, it is a NUTS 3 region (code UKG23); it is also one of four counties or unitary districts that compose the Shropshire and Staffordshire NUTS 2 region.
Suburbs
As well as the Six Towns, there are numerous suburbs. These include Abbey Hulton
Abbey Hulton is an area of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, named after the abbey that existed between the 13th and 16th centuries.
History
The name Abbey Hulton is derived from 'hilltown' (Anglo-Saxon ''hyll'' + ''tūn''; Middle Engl ...
, Stockton Brook, Adderley Green, Ball Green, Baddeley Green
Baddeley Green is an area of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshir ...
, Bentilee
Bentilee is a housing estate in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, between Hanley and Longton, and parallel with Fenton.
History
Built in the 1950s, Bentilee was at that time one of the largest estates in Europe, with around 4,500 propert ...
, Birches Head, Blurton
Blurton is a district in the south of Stoke-on-Trent, in the English county of Staffordshire. Hollybush, Old Blurton, Blurton Farm and Newstead are the names of the areas in which make up the town known as Blurton.
Education
Sutherland Primar ...
, Bucknall, Bradeley, Chell, Cliffe Vale, Cobridge
Cobridge is an area of Stoke-on-Trent, in the City of Stoke-on-Trent district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. Cobridge was marked on the 1775 Yates map as 'Cow Bridge' and was recorded in Ward records (1843) as Cobridge Gate.
Cobridg ...
, Dresden
Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
, Etruria
Etruria ( ) was a region of Central Italy delimited by the rivers Arno and Tiber, an area that covered what is now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and north-western Umbria. It was inhabited by the Etruscans, an ancient civilization that f ...
, Fegg Hayes, Florence, Goldenhill
Goldenhill is an area on the northern edge of Stoke-on-Trent, in the Stoke-on-Trent district, in the ceremonial county of Staffordshire, England. It is centred along the High Street, part of the A50 road that runs from south-east to north-west. ...
, Hartshill
Hartshill is a large village and civil parish in North Warwickshire, England, contiguous with the much larger town of Nuneaton, the town centre of which is 2.5 miles (4 km) to the south-east. The parish borders the district of Nuneaton a ...
, Heron Cross
Heron Cross is a suburb situated between Blurton and Fenton, in Stoke on Trent. It has a pharmacy, two corner shops, two pubs, two hairdressers, a park and a pot bank. It has two main streets, Grove Road and Heron Street.
Heron Cross is a ho ...
, Meir
Meir () is a Jewish male given name and an occasional surname. It means "one who shines". It is often Germanized as Maier, Mayer, Mayr, Meier, Meyer, Meijer, Italianized as Miagro, or Anglicized as Mayer, Meyer, or Myer. Alfred J. Kolatch, ''T ...
, Meir Park, Meir Hay, Middleport, Milton,Newstead,Normacot, Northwood, Norton le Moors
Norton le Moors is in the north-east of the city of Stoke-On-Trent, Staffordshire, England, mostly within the city boundary, with the rest in the Staffordshire Moorlands district.
Geography
The suburb borders Ball Green in the north, Stockto ...
, Oakhill, Packmoor, Penkhull
Penkhull is a district of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, part of Penkhull and Stoke electoral ward, and Stoke Central parliamentary constituency.
Penkhull is a conservation area, and includes Grade II listed buildings suc ...
, Sandyford, Shelton Shelton may refer to:
Places
United Kingdom
*Shelton, North Bedfordshire, in the parish of Dean and Shelton, Bedfordshire
* Lower Shelton, in the parish of Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire
* Upper Shelton, in the parish of Marston Moretaine, Bedf ...
, Smallthorne
Smallthorne (population: 5,827 – 2011 Census) is an area in the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is in the north-east of the city, near Burslem. Smallthorne borders Bradeley and Chell, Staffordshire, Chell in the north, No ...
, Sneyd Green
Sneyd Green is an area in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, in the north-east of the city, from Hanley, Staffordshire, Hanley. Sneyd Green borders Smallthorne in the north, Milton, Staffordshire, Milton in the east, Birches H ...
, Trentham, Trent Vale
Trent Vale is a suburb of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, bordered on the south by Hanford, to the west by Clayton, to the north by Newcastle-under-Lyme, to the southeast by Oakhill and Penkhull to the northeast. The Springfields and Tr ...
and Weston Coyney
Weston Coyney is a suburb of the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. It lies on the south eastern edge of the city and borders the neighbouring Staffordshire Moorlands district.
Originally developed around a crossroads the area now also ...
. Blythe Bridge
Blythe Bridge () is a village in Staffordshire, England, south-east of Stoke-on-Trent.
Etymology
Blythe Bridge is so called as it is built around the site of a bridge over the River Blithe (spelt differently from the name of the village itsel ...
, Werrington and Endon
Endon is a village within the Staffordshire Moorlands district of Staffordshire, England. It is southwest of Leek and north-northeast of Stoke-on-Trent. Endon was formerly a township in civil parish of Leek.
Together with neighbouring Stanl ...
, although outside the city's boundaries, are part of the built-up area.
Climate
Stoke-on-Trent, as with all of the United Kingdom, experiences a temperate maritime climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring ...
, lacking in weather extremes. The local area is a little more elevated than much of Staffordshire and Cheshire, resulting in cooler temperatures year-round compared to the nearby Cheshire Plain. On calm, clear nights this is often reversed as cold air drainage causes a temperature inversion
In meteorology, an inversion (or temperature inversion) is a phenomenon in which a layer of warmer air overlies cooler air. Normally, air temperature gradually decreases as altitude increases, but this relationship is reversed in an inver ...
to occur. As such, the Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle areas are generally not susceptible to severe frosts. The nearest Met Office
The Met Office, until November 2000 officially the Meteorological Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather and climate service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and ...
weather station is Keele University
Keele University is a Public university#United Kingdom, public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, it was granted uni ...
, about four miles west of the city centre.
The absolute high temperature is , recorded in July 2022. More typically the average warmest day of the year should be . Just under fourteen days per year have a temperature of 25.1 °C (77.2 °F) or above.
The absolute minimum temperature stands at −13.3 °C (8.1 °F), recorded in January 1963. In an average year, 48.3 air frosts are registered.
Rainfall averages around 806 mm a year.
Green belt
Stoke is at the centre of the Stoke-on-Trent Green Belt, which is an environment and planning
Planning is the process of thinking regarding the activities required to achieve a desired goal. Planning is based on foresight, the fundamental capacity for mental time travel. Some researchers regard the evolution of forethought - the cap ...
policy that regulates the rural space in Staffordshire surrounding the city and Newcastle-under-Lyme, and extending into Cheshire. It is in place to prevent urban sprawl
Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted ...
and minimise further convergence with outlying settlements such as Kidsgrove and Biddulph
Biddulph is a town in Staffordshire, England, north of Stoke-on-Trent and south-east of Congleton, Cheshire.
Origin of the name
Biddulph's name may come from Old English language, Anglo-Saxon/Old English ''bī dylfe'' = "beside the pit or q ...
. First defined in 1967, the vast majority of area covered is outside the city.
There are some landscape features and places of interest that are covered by the designation, mainly along its fringes. These include the Trentham and Goldenhill golf courses, Hem Heath Wood Nature Reserve, Meir Heath, Barlaston Common, Caverswall Cricket Club, Park Hall Nature Reserve, Chatterley Whitfield
Chatterley Whitfield Colliery is a disused coal-mine on the outskirts of Chell in Stoke-on-Trent. It was the largest mine in North Staffordshire and was the first colliery in the UK to produce 1,000,000 tons of saleable coal in a year.
In 197 ...
Country Park and Enterprise Centre, the villages of Baddeley Edge
Baddeley Edge is a hamlet in the north of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, in the north of the county of Staffordshire.
Electoral Boundaries
It was formerly part of the Leek Rural District. Today Baddeley Edge is part of the Abbey Green local Counc ...
and Ravenscliffe, Bucknall Reservoir, Caldon Canal, the River Blythe, and the Head of Trent, Wedgwood Museum and estate, Strongford Treatment Works and Trent Vale Pumping Station.
Demography
In the 2011 census, the population of the city was 249,008. This was a modest increase from the 240,636 recorded in the 2001 census. 50.2% of the population is female. 91.68% of the population of Stoke-on-Trent were born in the UK.
86.43% of the population identified themselves as White British
White British is an ethnicity classification used for the White population identifying as English, Scottish, Welsh, Cornish, Northern Irish, or British in the United Kingdom Census. In the 2011 census, the White British population was 49 ...
, 4.19% identified as British Pakistani
British Pakistanis (; also known as Pakistani British people or Pakistani Britons) are Britons or residents of the United Kingdom whose ancestral roots lie in Pakistan. This includes people born in the UK who are of Pakistani descent, Pakis ...
, and 1.88% identified as Other White
The term Other White, or White Other, is a classification of ethnicity in the United Kingdom, used in documents such as the 2021 United Kingdom Census, to describe people who identify as white persons who are not of the English, Welsh, Scotti ...
. 1.35% identified as Other Asian and 1.36% as Black
Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...
. Regarding religion, 60.89% described themselves as Christian
A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
, 6.02% as Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
and 25.19% had no religion. 14.28% of the population was retired and 5.61% were students.
Ethnicity
Religion
Points of interest
The city's ceramics collection is housed in the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery
The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery is in Bethesda Street, Hanley, one of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. Admission is free.
One of the four local authority museums in the city, the other three being Gladstone Pottery Museum, ...
in Hanley. Etruria Industrial Museum
The Etruria Industrial Museum is located in Etruria, Staffordshire, in England. The museum is a typical and well-preserved example of a nineteenth century British steam-powered potter's mill. It is situated between the Trent and Mersey Canal a ...
on the Caldon Canal
Caldon Canal is a branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal which opened in 1779. It runs from Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, to Froghall, Staffordshire. The canal has 17 locks and the Froghall Tunnel.
History
The first plans by the proprietors of ...
, and Gladstone Pottery Museum
The Gladstone Pottery Museum is a working museum of a medium-sized coal-fired pottery, typical of those once common in the North Staffordshire area of England from the time of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century to the mid 20th centu ...
in a former potbank in Longton are dedicated to the city's industrial heritage. There is Stoke Minster
Stoke Minster is the Minster church of St Peter ad Vincula and main church in Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, England. It is now the main church of the wider city of Stoke-on-Trent.
Name and dedication
The dedication to St Peter ad Vincu ...
which is located in the Stoke-upon-Trent area and is the only official church with Minster status.
Most of the major pottery companies based in Stoke-on-Trent have factory shops and visitor centres. The £10 million Wedgwood Museum
Wedgwood is an English fine china, porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd. It was rapidl ...
visitor centre opened in the firm's factory in Barlaston
Barlaston is a village and civil parish in Staffordshire, England, halfway between Stoke-on-Trent and Stone. At the 2011 census, the population was 2,858.
History Historic buildings St John's Church
The old parish church of Saint John is site ...
in October 2008. The Dudson Centre in Hanley is a museum of the family ceramics business, which is partly housed in a Grade II listed bottle kiln. It is a volunteer centre.
Burleigh in Middleport is the world's oldest working Victorian
Victorian or Victorians may refer to:
19th century
* Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign
** Victorian architecture
** Victorian house
** Victorian decorative arts
** Victorian fashion
** Victorian literatur ...
pottery. There are smaller factory shops, such as Royal Stafford in Burslem, Moorcroft
W. Moorcroft Limited (trading as W Moorcroft Ltd) is a British art pottery manufacturer specialising in richly decorated earthenware, based at Burslem in Stoke-on-Trent, England. The company was founded in 1913 by William Moorcroft. In 2025 ...
in Cobridge and Emma Bridgewater in Hanley. There are ambitious plans to open the huge Chatterley Whitfield
Chatterley Whitfield Colliery is a disused coal-mine on the outskirts of Chell in Stoke-on-Trent. It was the largest mine in North Staffordshire and was the first colliery in the UK to produce 1,000,000 tons of saleable coal in a year.
In 197 ...
Colliery as a mining museum since it has been given scheduled monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...
status.
The Elizabethan
The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female per ...
Ford Green Hall is a 17th-century farmhouse which is now a historic house museum
A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that is preserved as a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a variety of ...
in Smallthorne
Smallthorne (population: 5,827 – 2011 Census) is an area in the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is in the north-east of the city, near Burslem. Smallthorne borders Bradeley and Chell, Staffordshire, Chell in the north, No ...
.
Although Trentham Gardens
Trentham Estate in the village of Trentham, Staffordshire, England, is a visitor attraction on the southern fringe of the city of Stoke-on-Trent.
History
The estate was first recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086. At the time it was a roya ...
is in the Borough of Stafford
The Borough of Stafford is a local government district with borough status in Staffordshire, England. It is named after Stafford, its largest town, which is where the council is based. The borough also includes the towns of Stone and Ecclesha ...
, it is just south of the city and is considered by many locals to be part of Stoke-on-Trent. Next door is Trentham Monkey Forest, which houses 140 Barbary macaque
The Barbary macaque (''Macaca sylvanus''), also known as Barbary ape, is a macaque species native to the Atlas Mountains of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, along with a small introduced population in Gibraltar.
It is the type species of the genus ' ...
s in a enclosure that visitors can walk through.
The Alton Towers Resort
Alton Towers Resort ( ) (often shortened to Alton Towers) is a theme park and resort complex in Staffordshire, England, near the village of Alton. The park is operated by Merlin Entertainments Group and incorporates a theme park, water park, m ...
is east of Stoke-on-Trent and is one of the United Kingdom's best-known attractions. The Waterworld
''WaterWorld'', also known as ''WaterWorld: A Live Sea War Spectacular'', is a stunt show attraction based on the 1995 film '' Waterworld'' found at Universal Studios Hollywood (1995), Universal Studios Japan (2001), Universal Studios Singap ...
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
Burslem Park is a public park in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, operated by Stoke-on-Trent City Council. It was opened in 1894, and is essentially unchanged from the original layout. It is listed Grade II* in Historic England's ...
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
A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...
. Hartshill Park in Stoke is a nature reserve. 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. Queens Park or Longton Park in Dresden is one of the city's heritage parks and is famous for its horticulture and lakes. It houses several buildings including a clock tower and three bowling pavilions.
Economy
Stoke-on-Trent was a world centre for fine ceramics—a skilled design trade has existed in the area since at least the 12th century. In the late 1980s and 1990s Stoke-on-Trent was hit hard by the general decline in the British manufacturing sector. Numerous factories, steelworks
A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-fini ...
, collieries
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extrac ...
, 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.
The pottery firm Wedgwood
Wedgwood is an English China (material), fine china, porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons L ...
and its subsidiary Royal Doulton
Royal Doulton is an English ceramic and home accessories manufacturer that was founded in 1815. Operating originally in Vauxhall, London, and later moving to Lambeth, in 1882 it opened a factory in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, in the centre of Engl ...
are based nearby Barlaston
Barlaston is a village and civil parish in Staffordshire, England, halfway between Stoke-on-Trent and Stone. At the 2011 census, the population was 2,858.
History Historic buildings St John's Church
The old parish church of Saint John is site ...
, although much production now takes place in the firm's Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
n factory. Portmeirion
Portmeirion (; ) is a folly*
*
* tourist village in Gwynedd, North Wales. It lies on the estuary of the River Dwyryd in the community (Wales), community of Penrhyndeudraeth, from Porthmadog and from Minffordd railway station. Portmeirion was d ...
is based in Stoke town, and now owns the Spode
Spode is an English brand of pottery and homewares produced in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Spode was founded by Josiah Spode (1733–1797) in 1770, and was responsible for perfecting two important techniques that were crucial to the worldwide su ...
and Royal Worcester
Royal Worcester is a porcelain brand based in Worcester, England. It was established in 1751 and is believed to be the oldest or second oldest remaining English porcelain brand still in existence today, although this is disputed by Royal Crown ...
ceramics brands. Ceramics firm Emma Bridgewater is based in Hanley. Burleigh Pottery
Burleigh Pottery (also known as Burgess & Leigh) is the name of a pottery manufacturer in Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent.
The business specialises in traditionally decorated earthenware tableware.
The factory is a nineteenth-century grade II* lis ...
is in Middleport. Wade Ceramics
Wade Ceramics Ltd was a manufacturer of porcelain and earthenware, headquartered in Stoke-on-Trent, England. Its products include animal figures for its Collectors Club, whisky flagons, and a variety of industrial ceramics.
In the 1950s, the ...
is in Etruria.
Moorcroft
W. Moorcroft Limited (trading as W Moorcroft Ltd) is a British art pottery manufacturer specialising in richly decorated earthenware, based at Burslem in Stoke-on-Trent, England. The company was founded in 1913 by William Moorcroft. In 2025 ...
and Royal Stafford are based in Burslem. Aynsley China
Aynsley China Ltd. was a British manufacturer of bone china tableware, giftware and commemorative items.
History
The company was founded in 1775 by John Aynsley in Lane End, Longton, Staffordshire. In 1861 his grandson John Aynsley built the ...
is in Longton, and is one of the last remaining manufacturers of bone china
Bone china is a type of vitreous, translucent pottery, the raw materials for which include bone ash, feldspathic material and kaolin. It has been defined as "ware with a translucent body" containing a minimum of 30% of phosphate derived from c ...
in the city. Fine china manufacturer Dudson
Dudson is a British company that manufactured tableware, glassware and porcelain, in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. It is one of the oldest brands of its industry in England, founded in 1800.
The former pottery works is the location of the Dudson C ...
have premises in Hanley and Burslem. Churchill China
Churchill China PLC () is an English pottery manufacturer based in Stoke-on-Trent in England.
History of the company
Churchill China traces its origins back to 1795 and the foundation of its first factory in what later became Stoke-on-Trent in ...
have their main factory in Tunstall. Hotelware manufacturer Steelite
Steelite International is a British ceramics manufacturer headquartered in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. They specialise in alumina-strengthened vitreous tableware for the hospitality industry.
The company had a turnover of £117 m ...
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
Bet365 is a British gambling company founded in 2000. Its product offering includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. Business operations are conducted from its headquarters in Stoke-on-Trent, alongside a satellite ...
, founded by local businessman and Stoke City
Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system.
Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...
chairman Peter Coates
Peter Coates (born 13 January 1938) is an English businessman, the co-founder of bet365, and director of Stoke City Football Club, of which he is former chairman. He has been listed as the 25th-richest person in British football. He founded St ...
, and formerly Phones4U, a large retailer of mobile phones started by John Caudwell
John David Caudwell (born 7 October 1952) is an English billionaire businessman who founded the now defunct mobile phone retailer Phones 4u. He also invests in fashion, property and other industries, and chairs Caudwell Children, a children's ...
, until it ceased trading in September 2014.
Stoke City Football Club has been a major symbol of the city since the early 20th century, having spent most of its history in the highest two divisions of the English league, constantly attracting large crowds and signing or launching the careers of many high-profile players – most notably Stanley Matthews
Sir Stanley Matthews (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English Association football, footballer who played as an Forward (association football)#Outside forward, outside right. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the Br ...
and Gordon Banks
Gordon Banks (30 December 1937 – 12 February 2019) was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he made 679 appearances during a 20-year professional care ...
. The club was based at the Victoria Ground
The Victoria Ground was the home ground of Stoke City from 1878 until 1997, when the club relocated to the Britannia Stadium after 119 years. At the time of its demolition it was the oldest operational ground in the Football League.
Histor ...
in Stoke-upon-Trent
Stoke-upon-Trent, also known as Stoke, is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Staffordshire, Hanley, Burslem, Fenton, Staffordshire, Fenton, Longton, Staffordshire, Longton and Tunstall, Staffordshire, Tunstall form the city of Stoke-o ...
from 1878 until 1997 when it moved to the Britannia Stadium (now the Bet365 Stadium
The bet365 Stadium is an All-seater stadium, all-seater Association football, football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England and the home of EFL Championship club Stoke City F.C., Stoke City. The stadium was previously called the Bri ...
) at Trentham Lakes. This was one of the early stages of regeneration in the Trentham area of the city, which included the regeneration of Trentham Gardens
Trentham Estate in the village of Trentham, Staffordshire, England, is a visitor attraction on the southern fringe of the city of Stoke-on-Trent.
History
The estate was first recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086. At the time it was a roya ...
several years later when retail and food outlets were added to the visitor attraction. Trentham Monkey Forest opened nearby in 2005.
The Michelin
Michelin ( , ), in full ("General Company of the Michelin Enterprises P.L.S."), is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes '' région'' of France. It is the second largest t ...
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
J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is a British supermarket and the second-largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom.
Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company was the largest UK r ...
supermarket and The Co-operative Pharmacy
Well, is the second largest overall pharmacy chain after the company Boots in the United Kingdom. It is the largest pharmacy chain in Wales. It is owned by the conglomerate Bestway.
The Co-operative Group, the previous owners of the chain, anno ...
have large warehouses in the city. Vodafone
Vodafone Group Public Limited Company () is a British Multinational company, multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates Service (economic ...
has a large call centre on Festival Park and the UK subsidiary of the lubricant manufacturer Fuchs Petrolub
Fuchs SE is a German multinational manufacturer of lubricants, and related speciality products.
The company's headquarters are at Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, where the company was founded in 1931. Fuchs is a public company listed on ...
has its head office at its factory in Hanley. There is a steel foundry owned by Goodwin Steel Castings Ltd
Goodwin plc is a heavy engineering firm located in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. It specialises in the supply and fabrication of Metal casting, castings. The firm is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE ...
in Joiner's Square. Premier Foods
Premier Foods plc is a British food manufacturer headquartered in St Albans, Hertfordshire. The group owns many well-known brands, including Mr Kipling, Ambrosia (food), Ambrosia, Bird's Custard, Angel Delight, Homepride cooking sauces, J. Lyons ...
make Mr Kipling
Mr Kipling is a brand of cakes, pies and baked goods made in Carlton, South Yorkshire and Stoke-on-Trent, and marketed in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and North America. It was introduced in May 1967 (at a time when cakes were more o ...
slices and Cherry Bakewells in Trent Vale. The Co-operative Travel
The Co-operative Travel is a travel agency brand used by some independent retail co-operatives in the United Kingdom, such as Midcounties Co-operative, through their access to The Co-operative brand. Between 2011 and 2016, the brand was also use ...
had its head office in Burslem, before it merged with Thomas Cook
Thomas Cook (22 November 1808 – 18 July 1892) was the founder of the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son. He was born into a poor family in Derbyshire and left school at the age of ten to start work as a gardener's boy. He served an appren ...
in 2010.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council
Stoke-on-Trent City Council is the local authority of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. Since 1997 it has been a unitary authority, a district council which also performs the functions of a county council, independent from Staffordshire C ...
is the city's largest single employer. Another major employer is the Royal Stoke University Hospital
Royal Stoke University Hospital (formerly the University Hospital of North Staffordshire) is a teaching and research hospital at Hartshill in the English county of Staffordshire. It lies in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, near the border with Ne ...
, with over 7,000 staff.
KPMG's ''Competitive Alternatives
KPMG's Competitive Alternatives is a biennial guide to comparing international business site locations in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. The primary focus of the study is international business costs. The study measures the impact of sig ...
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
The Peak District is an Highland, upland area in central-northern England, at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It is subdivi ...
, Stone
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
, south Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...
, and has 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.
The main shopping centre is the Potteries Shopping Centre
The Potteries Shopping Centre (formerly Intu Potteries) is an indoor shopping centre in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, in the Staffordshire Potteries.
Stores and facilities
The centre houses anchor outlet Primark, as well as a Starbucks coffee shop, a ...
in Hanley, which has of retail space with 87 units including major stores for New Look, Monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annu ...
, HMV
HMV is an international music and entertainment retailer, founded in 1921. The brand is owned by Hilco Capital and operated by Sunrise Records, except in Japan, where it is owned and operated by Lawson.
The inaugural shop was opened on Lo ...
, River Island
River Island (stylised as RiverIsland and abbreviated as RI) is a London-based, multi-channel fashion brand, founded in 1948 by Bernard Lewis (entrepreneur), Bernard Lewis. The retailer has a presence in over 125 of worldwide markets, in stores ...
, H. Samuel
H. Samuel is a mass-market jewellery chain, operating in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is part of the Signet Group of jewellery retailers.
History
In the mid-1800s, Moses Samuel, Moses and Lewis Samuel ran a well-known ...
and Superdrug
Superdrug Stores plc (trading as Superdrug) is a health and beauty retailer in the United Kingdom, and the second largest behind Boots UK. The company is owned by AS Watson (Health & Beauty UK) Limited which is part of the A.S. Watson Group. ...
. Marks & Spencer
Marks and Spencer plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks & Sparks or simply Marks) is a major British multinational retailer based in London, England, that specialises in selling clothing, beauty products, home produc ...
and T.K. Maxx also have stores in Hanley. A new shopping centre on the site of Hanley's former bus station was due to open in 2016, but development has been delayed and the project is now in doubt.
The other five towns of the city all have their own smaller town centres. Festival Park is a large retail and business park located in Etruria, built on the former Garden Festival site. There are retail parks in Tunstall, Fenton and Longton. A new retail park in Longton opened and has Currys, Smyths, Pets at Home and Matalan. A pub, McDonald's and Pizza Hut are on the site.
Other notable business people from the city include Reginald H. Jones
Reginald H. Jones (11 July 1917 – 30 December 2003) was the chairman and CEO of General Electric from 1972 to 1981.
Biography
Jones was born in Stoke-on-Trent, England, United Kingdom.
After graduating from the Wharton School of the Universit ...
(Chairman of General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston.
Over the year ...
), venture capitalist Jon Moulton
Jonathan Paul Moulton (born 15 October 1950) is a British venture capitalist. He is the founder and managing partner of private equity firm Better Capital, and the former managing partner of private equity firm Alchemy Partners. He has been work ...
, and John Madejski
Sir John Robert Madejski, (; born Robert John Hurst; 28 April 1941) is an English businessman, with commercial interests spanning property, broadcast media, hotels, restaurants, publishing and football.
Madejski is the founder of the magazine ...
(chairman of Reading F.C.
Reading Football Club ( ) is a professional football club based in Reading, Berkshire, England. They compete in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. They play their home matches at the Select Car Leasing Sta ...
and former owner of '' Auto Trader'').
The Night-time industry has boomed in recent years, with Hanley becoming increasingly popular for its theatres and restaurants.
In 2016, Stoke-on-Trent was ranked the second-best city to start a business by Quality Formations, based on several factors including commercial property, energy, virtual offices, public transport and financial access.
Government
The city is covered by three House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
constituencies: Stoke-on-Trent North
Stoke-on-Trent North is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by David Williams, a member of the Labour Party.
Boundaries
Historic
1950–1955: The County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent wards numbers 1 to 9 a ...
, Stoke-on-Trent Central
Stoke-on-Trent Central is a constituency in Staffordshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Gareth Snell of the Labour Party, who had previously represented the constituency between 2017 and 2019. He succe ...
and Stoke-on-Trent South
Stoke-on-Trent South is a constituency created in 1950, and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Allison Gardner, a Labour party representative.
Boundaries
Historic
1950–1955: The County Borough of Stoke ...
. Until 2019 the northern and central seats had returned Labour MPs since their creation in 1950. However, in the 2019 general election, all 3 Stoke-on-Trent constituencies returned a Conservative MP. The former Labour heartland is highly eurosceptic leading to a 69.4% vote to leave the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
in 2016. The city was within the West Midlands European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...
constituency.
Mayoral system
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
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936.
George w ...
who visited Stoke-upon-Trent Town Hall
Stoke-upon-Trent Town Hall is a municipal building in Glebe Street, Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The town hall, which is the meeting place of Stoke-on-Trent City Council, is a Grade II listed building.
History
The first town hall i ...
to award the town city status on 5 June 1925. The role of Lord Mayor is decided upon by a vote amongst the elected councillors. The candidates are also selected from the councillors.
Between 1910 and 1928 the Borough, and later, the 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.
The city was one of a limited number of English districts with an elected mayor and the only council to use the 'mayor and council-manager' executive arrangements
In England, local authorities are required to adopt one of three types of executive arrangements, having an "elected mayor and cabinet", a "leader and cabinet", or a "committee system". The type of arrangement used determines how decisions will ...
.
A local referendum approved a directly elected mayor system in May 2002, by 28,601 votes to 20,578 (turnout of 27.8%). It was removed following a local referendum in October 2008.
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 to 5 June 2009 was Mark Meredith
Mark Joseph Meredith (born 21 August 1965 in Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent) was the second and last directly elected mayor of Stoke-on-Trent in England. An openly gay man and former amateur boxer he was elected on 5 May 2005, for the Labour Party ...
(Labour Party). The 2005 election was notable because about 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 an elected mayor. This was scheduled for May 2007 and resulted in the abolition of the mayoral system.
In 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%.
Council Leader and Cabinet system
Following a citywide referendum abolishing the position of elected mayor, a Leader and Cabinet
In England, local authorities are required to adopt one of three types of executive arrangements, having an "elected mayor and cabinet", a "leader and cabinet", or a "committee system". The type of arrangement used determines how decisions will ...
system was adopted in June 2009. The Leader of the council is elected by councillors. Each cabinet member makes the decisions on their portfolio area and explains the decisions at the monthly cabinet meetings. The current leader of the council is Cllr Jane Ashworth.
Councillor representation
Since the 2023 local elections the council has been controlled by the Labour Party. Between 2015 and 2023 no party had overall control of the city council.
Members of Parliament
Public services
The city's acute hospital is the Royal Stoke University Hospital
Royal Stoke University Hospital (formerly the University Hospital of North Staffordshire) is a teaching and research hospital at Hartshill in the English county of Staffordshire. It lies in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, near the border with Ne ...
run by the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust
The University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust was created on 1 November 2014. It runs Royal Stoke University Hospital, formerly run by the University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust and the County Hospital (formerly Stafford Hos ...
it is the third biggest hospital in the UK. It formerly comprised two sites: the Royal Infirmary and the City General. The hospital was rebuilt on the City General site on the A34, London Road.
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
North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust provides mental health services across Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire, England. It runs the Bungalows, Chebsey Close, Darwin Centre, Harplands Hospital, Florence House and Summer View in ...
.
Policing in Stoke-on-Trent is provided by Staffordshire Police
Staffordshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent in the West Midlands of England. It is made up of 11 local policing teams, whose boundaries are matched to the nine local authoritie ...
, which has police stations in Hanley, Bucknall, Burslem, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall. Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court and Stoke-on-Trent County Court share Stoke-on-Trent Combined Court Centre
The Stoke-on-Trent Combined Court Centre is a Crown Court venue, which deals with criminal cases, as well as a County Court, which deals with civil cases, in Bethesda Street, Hanley, England.
History
Until the early 1990s, criminal court heari ...
in Hanley. There is no magistrates' court
A magistrates' court is a lower court where, in several Jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions, all criminal proceedings start. Also some civil matters may be dealt with here, such as family proceedings.
Courts
* Magistrates' court (England and Wales) ...
. Hearings were held in Fenton Town Hall until it 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
Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service responsible for fire protection, prevention, intervention and emergency rescue in the county of Staffordshire and unitary authority of Stoke-on-Trent. The county h ...
, which has fire stations in Hanley, Longton, Burslem and Sandyford.
Severn Trent
Severn Trent plc is a water company based in Coventry, England. It supplies 4.6 million households and business across the Midlands and Wales.
It is traded on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Severn Trent, the ...
manages Stoke-on-Trent's drinking and waste water.
Since the 1970s, the city's main library had been the former Hanley Library, later known as the City Central Library & Archives in Bethesda Street, which was home to the city's archives. During this period, the City Council operated eight smaller libraries throughout the city. In July 2022, it was announced that the Hanley Library building, along with others in the city, would be closed to be sold. The city archives would be moved to the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, an adjacent building with frontages to Bethesda Street and Broad Street.
Religion
Stoke-on-Trent does not have a cathedral. The city's main, Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
, civic church, is Stoke Minster
Stoke Minster is the Minster church of St Peter ad Vincula and main church in Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, England. It is now the main church of the wider city of Stoke-on-Trent.
Name and dedication
The dedication to St Peter ad Vincu ...
. The city is within the Anglican
Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
Diocese of Lichfield
The Diocese of Lichfield is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury, England. The bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Chad in the city of Lichfield. The diocese covers of seve ...
. The city is part of the Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
Archdiocese of Birmingham
The Archdiocese of Birmingham is one of the principal Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. The archdiocese covers an area of , encompassing Staffordshire, the West Midlands, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and much of ...
and the immediate area has six Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
parishes. They are dedicated to: the Sacred Heart of Jesus
The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus () is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus Christ is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devotion to Christ is p ...
, Our Lady of the Angels, Saint George
Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...
, Saint Gregory the Great
Pope Gregory I (; ; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great (; ), was the 64th Bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 until his death on 12 March 604. He is known for instituting the first recorded large-scale mission from Rom ...
, Saint Maria Goretti
Maria Teresa Goretti (; 16 October 1890 – 6 July 1902) was an Italian virgin martyr of the Catholic Church, and one of the youngest saints to be canonized. She was born to a farming family. Her father died when she was nine, and the family h ...
and Saint Teresa.
Primitive Methodism
The Primitive Methodist Church is a Christian denomination within the holiness movement. Originating in early 19th-century England as a revivalist movement within Methodism, it was heavily influenced by American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–18 ...
was founded by Hugh Bourne
Hugh Bourne (3 April 1772 – 11 October 1852) along with William Clowes was the joint founder of Primitive Methodism, the largest offshoot of Wesleyan Methodism and, in the mid-19th century, an influential Protestant Christian movement in its o ...
, a native of Stoke-on-Trent, at a public gathering in the nearby village of Mow Cop
Mow Cop is a village on the Cheshire-Staffordshire border, England, south of Manchester and north of Stoke-on-Trent, on a steep hill of the same name rising to above sea level. The village is at the edge of the southern Pennines, with the Ch ...
. He originally followed the Wesleyan
Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...
form of Methodism
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...
, 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 school
]
A Sunday school, sometimes known as a Sabbath school, is an educational institution, usually Christianity, Christian in character and intended for children or neophytes.
Sunday school classes usually precede a Sunday church service and are u ...
s as a method of improving children's education, advocated the equal treatment of women and men, and was involved in the temperance movement in England, temperance movement. It was from the Primitive Methodists that many early trade unions found their early leaders. Also of note is John Lightfoot
John Lightfoot (29 March 1602 – 6 December 1675) was an English churchman, rabbinical scholar, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and Master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge.
Life
He was born in Stoke-on-Trent, the son of ...
, a 17th-century churchman and rabbi
A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...
nical scholar.
The city's first purpose-built mosque was completed in 2012. The city's only synagogue closed in 2006 and was replaced with a smaller one in nearby Newcastle-under-Lyme
Newcastle-under-Lyme is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. It is adjacent to the city of Stoke-on-Trent. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the population ...
.
Transport
Major roads
Stoke-on-Trent is linked to the nearby M6 motorway
The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 motorway, M1 and the western end of t ...
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
Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, eac ...
is ''D''.
The A50 provides an east–west link between the M6 and the M1 motorway
The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) motorway, A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the count ...
; it joins up with the A500 close to the bet365 Stadium
The bet365 Stadium is an All-seater stadium, all-seater Association football, football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England and the home of EFL Championship club Stoke City F.C., Stoke City. The stadium was previously called the Bri ...
. Improvements to the road network have led to the construction of product distribution centres in the area.
Rail
Stoke-on-Trent railway station
Stoke-on-Trent railway station is a mainline railway station serving the city of Stoke-on-Trent, on the Stafford to Manchester branch of the West Coast Main Line. It also provides an interchange between local services running through Cheshire, ...
is located on the Stafford–Manchester line
The Stafford–Manchester line is a major railway line branching from the West Coast Main Line serving Stafford, Stone, Stoke-on-Trent, Kidsgrove, Congleton, Macclesfield, Cheadle Hulme, Stockport and Manchester.
Train services
Avanti We ...
. The other railway stations in the city are Longport and Longton both on the Crewe–Derby line
The Crewe–Derby line is a railway line in central England, running from Crewe in a south-easterly direction to Derby, via Stoke-on-Trent and Uttoxeter. Passenger services on the line are provided by East Midlands Railway, with Avanti West Co ...
. Etruria station was closed in September 2005. Avanti West Coast
First Trenitalia West Coast Rail, trading name, trading as Avanti West Coast, is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup (70%) and Trenitalia (30%) that operates the West Coast Partnership.
In November 2016, the Department for Tra ...
''Pendolino'' 390029 is named after Stoke-on-Trent.
Bus
Local public transport is provided almost exclusively by bus. Bus services are mainly operated by First Potteries
First Potteries is a bus company based in Stoke-on-Trent operating services in North Staffordshire, England. It is a part of First Midlands and a subsidiary of FirstGroup.
History
The business began life in 1898 as a tram operator, the Po ...
. There are also several smaller companies operating bus services in the city, like D&G Bus
D&G Bus is a bus operator based in Stoke-on-Trent, England. It operates local and interurban bus services in Cheshire, Derbyshire, Greater Manchester, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. D&G Bus is the largest bus operator in Cheshire ...
. There are central bus stations in Hanley and Longton. National Express
Mobico Group, formerly National Express Group, is a British multinational public transport company with headquarters in Birmingham, England. Domestically it currently operates bus and coach services under brands including National Express. Th ...
operate long-distance coach services from Hanley bus station
Hanley is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. The town is the main business, commercial and cultural hub of ...
. As part of the city's regeneration, a new bus station has been constructed in Hanley, allowing the old one to be demolished, making room for further redevelopment. As of January 2015 there are no local authority supported bus services in the city. Between 2013/14 and 2023, bus service provision shrank by 50%.
Canals
The city is served by the Trent and Mersey Canal
The Trent and Mersey Canal is a canal in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire in north-central England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities to the east of Burton upon Trent and north of Middl ...
, which sees traffic of some 10,000 boats a year. The Caldon Canal
Caldon Canal is a branch of the Trent and Mersey Canal which opened in 1779. It runs from Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, to Froghall, Staffordshire. The canal has 17 locks and the Froghall Tunnel.
History
The first plans by the proprietors of ...
branches off from the Trent and Mersey Canal at Etruria, within the city boundaries, going to Froghall
Froghall is a village situated approximately ten miles to the east of Stoke-on-Trent and two miles north of Cheadle in Staffordshire, England. Population details as taken at the 2011 Census can be found under Kingsley. Froghall sits in the C ...
with one branch going to Leek
A leek is a vegetable, a cultivar of ''Allium ampeloprasum'', the broadleaf wild leek (synonym (taxonomy), syn. ''Allium porrum''). The edible part of the plant is a bundle of Leaf sheath, leaf sheaths that is sometimes erroneously called a "s ...
.
Cycling
As of November 2009, there are of new National Cycle Network
The National Cycle Network (NCN) was established to encourage cycling and walking throughout the United Kingdom, as well as for the purposes of bicycle touring. It was created by the charity Sustrans who were aided by a £42.5 million N ...
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
Newcastle-under-Lyme is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. It is adjacent to the city of Stoke-on-Trent. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the population ...
, there are now over 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
Cycling England was an independent body funded by the Department for Transport to promote cycling in England. It was founded in 2005 to replace the National Cycling Strategy Board. Following the 2010 Comprehensive Spending review it was earmar ...
's support for Stoke as a Cycling City.
Education
Higher education
There are four further and higher education institutions in the local area, the two further education colleges being City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College
The City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College is a Mixed-sex education, mixed sixth form college on A52 road, Leek Road, Stoke-on-Trent. It opened its new building on Leek Road in September 2010 having previously been located on Victoria Road, ...
and Stoke-on-Trent College
Stoke-on-Trent College is a provider of further and higher education based in Stoke-on-Trent. The college has two campuses: one, called Cauldon Campus, in Shelton and one in Burslem.
Stoke-on-Trent college is part of UniQ, the University Quart ...
. Formerly of Fenton, now located in a newly built structure on Leek Road, the Sixth Form College provides A Level
The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational ...
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 home to Staffordshire University
The University of Staffordshire is a public research university in Staffordshire, England. It has its main campus in Stoke-on-Trent and four other campuses in Stafford, Lichfield, Shrewsbury, and London.
History
In 1901, industrialist Alfred ...
, 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
In the United Kingdom (UK), a post-1992 university, synonymous with new university or modern university, is a former polytechnic or central institution that was given university status through the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, or an in ...
. Keele University School of Medicine
Keele University School of Medicine is a medical school located in Newcastle-under-Lyme and Shrewsbury. The first two years of the school's MBChB degree are mostly taught on the Keele University campus, while early contact with patients is crit ...
uses facilities at the Royal Stoke University Hospital
Royal Stoke University Hospital (formerly the University Hospital of North Staffordshire) is a teaching and research hospital at Hartshill in the English county of Staffordshire. It lies in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, near the border with Ne ...
in Hartshill
Hartshill is a large village and civil parish in North Warwickshire, England, contiguous with the much larger town of Nuneaton, the town centre of which is 2.5 miles (4 km) to the south-east. The parish borders the district of Nuneaton a ...
. Keele University
Keele University is a Public university#United Kingdom, public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, it was granted uni ...
was founded as the University College of North Staffordshire in 1949 with major involvement by Stoke-on-Trent City Council. It is located in the nearby village of Keele
Keele is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. It is approximately west of Newcastle-under-Lyme, and is close to the village of Silverdale. Keele lies on the A53 road from Newcastle to ...
.
Secondary education
The city currently has 15 secondary schools: Sir Thomas Boughey Academy, Birches Head Academy, Co-op Academy Stoke-on-Trent, Discovery Academy, Excel Academy, Haywood Academy
Haywood Academy is a secondary school with academy status for 11- to 19-year-olds located on High Lane in the Stoke On Trent town of Burslem
Burslem ( ) is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Staffordshire, Hanley, Tunstall, Staf ...
, Ormiston Horizon Academy
Ormiston Horizon Academy, formerly known as James Brindley High School/James Brindley Science College, is an 11–16 co-educational secondary academy school in Chell, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. The school also had a sixth-form for young p ...
, Ormiston Sir Stanley Matthews Academy
Ormiston Sir Stanley Matthews Academy, a.k.a. OSSMA (formerly Blurton High School) is a mixed secondary school with academy status located in the Blurton area of Stoke on Trent Staffordshire, England. The school is named after the English footb ...
, St Joseph's College, St Margaret Ward Catholic Academy, Ormiston Meridian Academy, St Peter's Academy
St. Peter's Academy is an Anglican secondary school in Stoke-on-Trent, England. It is an academy sponsored by the Woodard Academies and the Diocese of Lichfield. It is the merger of two former schools: Berryhill High School and Sports Colleg ...
, St Thomas More Catholic Academy, Stoke Studio College (with sites in Longton and Burslem), Thistley Hough Academy
Thistley Hough Academy is a coeducational secondary school located in the village of Penkhull in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The school was built in 1938 as a girls' grammar school, housed in a classical Art Deco building. The old b ...
and Trentham High School
Trentham Academy (formerly Trentham High School) is a coeducational secondary school located in the village of Trentham in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England.
History
On 3 July 2015, Trentham High made national coverage on ITV's ''This Mo ...
.
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
Longton High School was a school in Longton and later Meir, Staffordshire from 1760 to 2010.
History
The school was founded in 1760 with an endowment from John Bourne and was known as the Longton Free School. By 1763, enough money had been pr ...
(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
St. Peter's Academy is an Anglican secondary school in Stoke-on-Trent, England. It is an academy sponsored by the Woodard Academies and the Diocese of Lichfield. It is the merger of two former schools: Berryhill High School and Sports Colleg ...
).
Potters' Holidays
One of the legacies of the pottery industry was Stoke's version of the wakes week
The Wakes Week is a holiday period in parts of England and Scotland. Originally a religious celebration or feast, the tradition of the Wakes Week developed into a secular holiday, particularly in North West England during the Industrial Revoluti ...
. 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 industries.
Sport
Football
Stoke-on-Trent is the smallest city to boast two professional clubs in the English Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...
(EFL). The club bearing the area's name is Stoke City
Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system.
Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...
, formed in 1863 and is the second-oldest professional football club in England. They currently play at the bet365 Stadium
The bet365 Stadium is an All-seater stadium, all-seater Association football, football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England and the home of EFL Championship club Stoke City F.C., Stoke City. The stadium was previously called the Bri ...
at Stanley Matthews Way, Stoke-on-Trent, which has been their home since 1997 when they relocated from the Victoria Ground
The Victoria Ground was the home ground of Stoke City from 1878 until 1997, when the club relocated to the Britannia Stadium after 119 years. At the time of its demolition it was the oldest operational ground in the Football League.
Histor ...
in Stoke after 119 years. They were among the twelve founding members of the Football League in 1888. They won their first and, to date, only major trophy in 1972, when they lifted the League Cup.
In 1985, Stoke City were relegated from the First Division 1st Division or First Division may refer to:
Military
Airborne divisions
*1st Parachute Division (Germany)
*1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom)
* 1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine)
* 1st Guards Airborne Division
Armoured divisions
*1st Armoure ...
and began a 23-year exile from the top flight of English football which did not end until they won promotion in 2008
2008 was designated as:
*International Year of Languages
*International Year of Planet Earth
*International Year of the Potato
*International Year of Sanitation
The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...
, by which time the First Division had become the Premier League
The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...
. Stoke City reached the final of the FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...
for the first time in 2011, but were defeated by Manchester City
Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...
. Stoke City were relegated from the Premier League in 2018.
The club and the city's most famous player is the late Sir Stanley Matthews
Sir Stanley Matthews (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English Association football, footballer who played as an Forward (association football)#Outside forward, outside right. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the Br ...
, who began and ended his playing career with Stoke City, sandwiching 14 years at Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...
where he played in what became known as the Matthews Final
The 1953 FA Cup final, also known as the Matthews Final, was the eighth to be held at Wembley Stadium after the Second World War. The football match was contested between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers, with Blackpool winning 4–3, equalling the ...
. He also managed Port Vale from 1965 to 1968. He was the first active footballer to receive a Knighthood
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity.
The concept of a knighthood ...
. Matthews made 54 appearances for his country
A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...
, scoring 11 times. There are two statues of Matthews in the city: one in Hanley and one at the Bet365 Stadium.
The city's other professional football club is Port Vale
Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in , the third tier of the English football league system. Vale are named after the valley of ports on the Trent and Mersey Canal ...
, who were formed in 1876 and play at Vale Park
Vale Park is a football stadium in the area of Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, and it has been the home ground of Port Vale Football Club since its opening in 1950. It has a current capacity of 15,695, and was renovated durin ...
in the Burslem
Burslem ( ) is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Staffordshire, Hanley, Tunstall, Staffordshire, Tunstall, Fenton, Staffordshire, Fenton, Longton, Staffordshire, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in ...
area. Previous stadiums include the Athletic Ground in Cobridge (1886–1913) and The Old Recreation Ground
The Old Recreation Ground was a football stadium located in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, England, and home to Port Vale F.C. from 1913 to 1950. It was the sixth ground the club used.
Structure and facilities
The stadium was in rather bad conditi ...
in Hanley (1913–1950).[''What If There Had Been No Port In The Vale?: Startling Port Vale Stories!'' (Witan Books, 2011, )] They joined the Football League in 1892 but were forced to resign in 1907
Events
January
* January 14 – 1907 Kingston earthquake: A 6.5 Moment magnitude scale, Mw earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, kills between 800 and 1,000.
February
* February 9 – The "Mud March (suffragists), Mud March", the ...
due to financial problems, only to return in 1919
Events
January
* January 1
** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (later Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia.
** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off th ...
. Their highest league position came in 1931
Events
January
* January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics.
* January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa.
* January 22 – Sir I ...
when they finished fifth in the Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
.
In 1954, while in the Third Division North
The Third Division North of the Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division South with clubs elected to the League or relegated from a higher division allocated to ...
, Port Vale progressed to the FA Cup semi-final when they were knocked out by First Division West Bromwich Albion
West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...
at Villa Park
Villa Park is a association football, football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, with a seating capacity of 42,918. It has been the home of Premier League club Aston Villa F.C., Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witt ...
. This remains the furthest they have progressed in the competition. Unlike Stoke City, their local rivals in the Potteries derby
In Football in England, English football, the Potteries derby is the List of sports rivalries, local derby between the two major clubs in the city of Stoke-on-Trent – Port Vale F.C., Port Vale and Stoke City F.C., Stoke City, first contested ...
, 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 include John Rudge
John Robert Rudge (born 21 October 1944) is an English former professional football player and manager who is the president of club Port Vale.
Rudge began his playing career at Huddersfield Town in November 1961, but made little impact at t ...
(who managed the club for 16 years from 1983 to 1999) and Roy Sproson
Roy Sproson (23 September 1930 – 24 January 1997) was an English footballer and football manager for Port Vale. A one-club man, he holds the all-time appearance record for Vale, making 837 starts (and 5 substitute appearances) for Val ...
(who made a club record 842 appearances for the club from 1950 until 1972 and was later their manager).
Previous clubs from the city include Dresden United, a club which was disestablished before the city was federated; as well as amateur clubs Meir KA (1972–2010) and Norton United (1989–2015). Currently, the city is represented at amateur level by Eastwood Hanley (1946–1997; re-established in 2014) and Hanley Town (established 1966).
Other sports teams
The city has several amateur sports clubs, including rugby union
Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...
, with clubs such as Stoke-on-Trent RUFC, and cricket
Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
with cricket clubs in Stoke 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
Staffordshire County Cricket Club is one of twenty national county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Staffordshire. The team is currently a member of the National Counties ...
. As well as the Longton club, Meir Heath Cricket Club are also active, though the County Ground and the Michelin Ground
Michelin Ground was a cricket ground in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. The ground was built and owned by the Michelin Tyre Company and was located along Campbell Road. Its location today would be next to the bridge halfway along Campbell Road ...
are no longer used for cricket.
There are a number of field hockey
Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...
clubs based in the area that compete in the Midlands Hockey League and the BUCS leagues. These are North Stafford Hockey Club, University of Staffordshire
The University of Staffordshire is a public research university in Staffordshire, England. It has its main campus in Stoke-on-Trent and four other campuses in Stafford, Lichfield, Shrewsbury, and London.
History
In 1901, industrialist Alfred ...
hockey club and Keele University
Keele University is a Public university#United Kingdom, public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, it was granted uni ...
hockey club.
The city speedway
Speedway may refer to:
Racing Race tracks
*Daytona International Speedway, a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida.
*Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta.
*Indianapolis Motor Spe ...
team is the Stoke Potters
The Stoke Potters previously the Hanley Potters were a British speedway team. As Hanley Potters they raced at the Sun Street Stadium from 1929 to 1963 and as Stoke, the team raced at Loomer Road Stadium in Newcastle-under-Lyme from 1973 to ...
. 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
Loomer Road Stadium was a sports stadium situated in Chesterton, Staffordshire from c.1970 to 2019. The building had considerable parking facilities, covered terracing and a bar with a view of the track. The stadium opened in 1973 and hosted gr ...
in Newcastle-under-Lyme, initially as Chesterton, before it reverted to the Stoke name. The stadium is also used for BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars
BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Cars is a class of single-seater stock-car-racing in the UK with custom-built cars, with races conducted on walled oval tracks of either shale or tarmac of approximately a quarter-mile in length. The cars follow open wh ...
and BriSCA Formula 2 Stock Cars
BriSCA Formula 2 Stock Cars is a class of single seater auto racing in the UK. Cars are custom-built and race on oval tracks of either shale or tarmac of up to a quarter-mile in length. The tracks they race on are surrounded by either steel pla ...
during the summer.
Cycle Speedway was popular in the city from the 1940s. Boys would travel all over the city to race against rival teams. The most famous team in the 1960s was the Shelton Tigers; they travelled across England and Wales to race against other teams. The Tigers won the Midland League and the British "Champion of Champions" Trophy, against Southampton.
The ski
Skis are runners, attached to the user's feet, designed to glide over snow. Typically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partially secured heel. For climbing slopes, ski skins c ...
race team based at the artificial ski slope in Festival Park competes in national Snowsport England and international FIS Fédération Internationale de Ski
The International Ski and Snowboard Federation, also known as FIS (), is the highest international governing body for skiing and snowboarding. It was previously known as the International Ski Federation () until 26 May 2022 when the name was cha ...
events.
Stoke Spitfires was the name of the city's American football
American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...
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
The British American Football League (BAFL) was the United Kingdom's primary American football league from 1998 until 2010. It was formerly known as the British Senior League (BSL) until 2005. BAFL was the trading name for Gridiron Football Leag ...
.
Individual sports persons
The city has a sporting Hall of Fame, opened in 2011 to honour sporting legends from the city. Former Stoke City and England footballer Stanley Matthews
Sir Stanley Matthews (1 February 1915 – 23 February 2000) was an English Association football, footballer who played as an Forward (association football)#Outside forward, outside right. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of the Br ...
and former darts world champion Phil Taylor were the first names to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. They were followed by former Port Vale footballer Roy Sproson
Roy Sproson (23 September 1930 – 24 January 1997) was an English footballer and football manager for Port Vale. A one-club man, he holds the all-time appearance record for Vale, making 837 starts (and 5 substitute appearances) for Val ...
and England's World Cup winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks
Gordon Banks (30 December 1937 – 12 February 2019) was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he made 679 appearances during a 20-year professional care ...
(who spent five years with Stoke City).
The World Professional Darts Championship
The World Professional Darts Championship is one of the most important tournaments in the darts calendar. Originally held as an annual event between 1978 and 1993, players then broke off into two separate organisations after a controversial split ...
was hosted in the Jollees
Jollees was a live music and cabaret venue in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom. The venue was re-established in March 2016, after having closed in 1992. The original venue was opened in October 1973 and was the largest capacity cabaret ...
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 both the Professional Darts Corporation
The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) is a professional darts organisation in the United Kingdom, established in 1992 when a group of leading players split from the British Darts Organisation (BDO) to form what was initially called the Wor ...
(PDC) and British Darts Organisation
The British Darts Organisation (BDO) was a darts organisation founded on 7 January 1973 by Olly Croft, and dissolved in 2020 under the stewardship of Des Jacklin. Made up of 66 member counties, it oversaw professional, semi-professional and ...
(BDO). Two-time PDC World Champion Adrian Lewis
Adrian Lewis (born 21 January 1985) is an English professional darts player who formerly competed in Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) events. Nicknamed "Jackpot", he is a two-time PDC World Champion, having won the title in 2011 and 2012. ...
and two-time BDO World Champion Ted Hankey
Edward Hankey (born 20 February 1968) is an English former professional darts player and convicted sex offender. Nicknamed "The Count", he won the BDO World Darts Championship in 2000 and 2009 and was runner-up in 2001.
He moved to the Professi ...
are also from the Stoke area. Other well-known players from or based in Stoke include Chris Mason, Andy Hamilton (darts player), Andy Hamilton and Ian White (darts player), Ian White.
World champion squash (sport), squash player, Great Britain and England international Angela Smith (squash), 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 (cricketer), Bob Taylor, who played for Derbyshire County Cricket Club, Derbyshire and England cricket team, England was born and still lives in the area. He represented England 58 times and still holds the world record for the most dismissals in the first-class game (1649). In golf, Trenthams' David Lynn (golfer), David Lynn, the golfer, (born 1973) was the KLM Open Champion of 2004.
Other notable sports people from the area include footballer Aaron Ramsdale and former players turned pundits Mark Bright, Garth Crooks and Robbie Earle; tennis player Andrew Foster (tennis), Andrew Foster; snooker players Ray Reardon, Dave Harold and Jamie Cope; field hockey
Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...
player Imran Sherwani; cycling world-record holder Tommy Godwin (cyclist born 1912), Tommy Godwin, wrestler Peter Thornley (better known as Kendo Nagasaki), professional strongman Eddie Hall and European taekwondo champion Charlie Maddock.
Culture, art, science and architecture
Architecture
From the Half timbered, half-timbered Vernacular architecture, farmhouse vernacular of Ford Green Hall, through the 18th-century canal-side Wedgwood
Wedgwood is an English China (material), fine china, porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons L ...
estate of Etruria Works, Etruria one of the hubs of the Industrial Revolution, to 19th-century country house estates e.g. Trentham Estate, Trentham Hall and railway buildings such as Stoke-on-Trent railway station, Stoke Station and more lately in the 20th century, the expansion and renewal of industrial, civic and amenity buildings including Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, the architecture of North Staffordshire has a history expressive of locally acquired or manufactured building materials: quarried stone, coal and clay for brick and tile-making, ash, sand gravel and cement for concrete, and also cast iron steel and timber.
Stoke-on-Trent's architecture is tied closely to the industrial heritage of the city. Bottle ovens (used for early pottery manufacture), canal-side and railway-related mill, factory, or warehouse buildings evolved – within the tightly knit street pattern of each of the six townships – from transport links and adjacency to local generationally skilled labour. Post-WWII pottery factories developed a style typified by Open plan, open-plan manufacturing areas, surrounded by wide expanses of window-walling from floor to ceiling, allowing good daylighting for intricate tasks such as lithography, fettling and decoration.
In 1966, Stone, Staffordshire, Stone (Staffordshire) born Cedric Price had proposed a Potteries Thinkbelt design which sought to make use of decommissioned railway routes following the Beeching cuts, Beeching Cuts and the scarred landscape of coal mining to provide linked learning centres for a technical industry-based curriculum. The Staffordshire University
The University of Staffordshire is a public research university in Staffordshire, England. It has its main campus in Stoke-on-Trent and four other campuses in Stafford, Lichfield, Shrewsbury, and London.
History
In 1901, industrialist Alfred ...
Architecture course has introduced an annual Cedric Price Day celebrating this and other projects of his.
Science
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 Penkhull
Penkhull is a district of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, part of Penkhull and Stoke electoral ward, and Stoke Central parliamentary constituency.
Penkhull is a conservation area, and includes Grade II listed buildings suc ...
.
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. Jessie MacWilliams (1917–1990) was a mathematician who worked on coding theory and is known for the MacWilliams identities. John L. Jinks (1929–1987) was a geneticist who worked on cytoplasmic inheritance and quantitative genetics. David J. C. MacKay (1967–2016) was a physicist and mathematician known for his work on Bayesian inference and popular writings on climate change.
Visual art
The major art gallery is The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery
The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery is in Bethesda Street, Hanley, one of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. Admission is free.
One of the four local authority museums in the city, the other three being Gladstone Pottery Museum, ...
, 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, Stoke-on-Trent, Regent Theatre and the Victoria Hall (Hanley), 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.
Edwardian Burslem School of Art, 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 (playwright), 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 (playwright), Arthur Berry (also a novelist, playwright & poet), Glenys Barton (sculptor), Arnold Machin (sculptor, coin & stamp designer) and Sidney Tushingham, A.R.E.
Public art
The Grade II* listed statue of ''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'', which stands adjacent to the lake at Trentham Gardens, a part of Trentham Estate, is a copy of an original work by Benvenuto Cellini, which was sculpted for Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo I Duke of Tuscany from 1545 to 1554. In the early 19th century, the then Duke of Tuscany, allowed a cast of Cellini's statue to be taken for his friend, the 2nd Duke of Sutherland; it is the only bronze cast of the statue The bronze sculpture was installed at Trentham in 1840 during Charles Barry's remodelling of the estate and the statue forms a focal point for his Italianate gardens located by the lake at the south end of the central axis of the parterre. Barry designed the circular platform on which the statue is set.
Welcoming visitors to the city as they alight from their train at Stoke-on-Trent railway station, Stoke-on-Trent station is a statue of Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood (12 July 1730 – 3 January 1795) was an English potter, entrepreneur and abolitionist. Founding the Wedgwood company in 1759, he developed improved pottery bodies by systematic experimentation, and was the leader in the indu ...
, the centrepiece to the Grade II listed Winton Square area. The statue by Edward Davis (sculptor), Edward Davis was cast in bronze in 1860 and first displayed at the 1862 London Exhibition (also known as the 1862 International Exhibition, International Exhibition of 1862) which was the successor to the 1851 Great Exhibition. Funded by public subscription, the Stoke-on-Trent unveiling took place on 24 February 1863. A replica of the statue was cast in the 1950s for the Wedgwood Barlaston factory site, where it now stands – outside the Wedgwood Museum. In Josiah's hand is an example of his pre-eminent work, the Portland Vase.
''The Spirit of Fire'' also known as ''The Man of Fire'' or sometimes locally as ''Jack Frost'' or even ''The Spiky Man'', a 1964 sculpture by David Wynne (sculptor), David Wynne, is mounted upon the façade of what was the Lewis's Department Sore (designed by Percy Thomas Partnership, the Percy Thomas Partnership). The inscription below the sculpture reads: "Fire is at the root of all things visible and invisible" – a reference to the industrial heart of The Potteries: ceramics, railways, steelmaking and mining.
''CAPO'', a modern interpretation depicting the head of Josiah Wedgwood by Vincent Woropay was originally commissioned by Stoke-on-Trent City Council for the 1986 National garden festival, National Garden Festival. It was moved in 2009 to an appropriate site in Festival Way close to Wedgwood's Etruria Hall home. In February 2023, the statue was demolished by council contractors during works to widen the road. A subsequent investigation led to the resignation of the deputy council leader as the work had not been correctly planned or authorised by the council. The leader of the council has pledged to have the statue restored
''A Man Can't Fly'', commissioned by Stoke-on-Trent City Council in 1989, is a statue of "a figure of a man balancing horizontally upon one leg (Arabesque (ballet position), arabesque, a Dance positions, ballet pose), by Cheshire sculptor Ondre Nowakowski (b.1954). The pose appears as a reference to Superman in flight. It stands atop a column with the words 'A MAN CAN'T FLY' repeated vertically around its circumference". The location is at the Leek Road/ Glebe Street junction close to Stoke Station.
The outskirts of Tunstall became home to a new public art statue called Golden (sculpture), '' Golden'' in 2015. The 69 ft (21m) steel work of art by Wolfgang Buttress was privately funded with £180,000 Section 106 agreement, Section 106 monies and is made from corten steel, 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 is located on the former site of the Potteries Pyramid, which was to have been moved to a nearby roundabout.
In October 2013 a sculpture, ''Unearthed (Lidice)'' designed by Sarah Nadin (b.1983) and Nicola Winstanley (b.1984) also known as Dashyline studios, commemorating the efforts of miners to rebuild the Czech village of Lidice devastated during the Second World War was unveiled. The 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 Barnett Stross#Lidice Shall Live, 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 sculpture was manufactured and installed by local Company, Patera Engineering Ltd based in Fenton. In 2018 a pear tree, grafted from the protected pear tree which survived the destruction of Lidice, was planted in Stoke-on-Trent to commemorate the ''Lidice Shall Live'' campaign.
''Arnold Bennett Statue''
This statue celebrates the city's most famous literary son, Arnold Bennett
Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist, who wrote prolifically. Between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaborati ...
. It was unveiled on 27 May 2017, on what would have been his 150th birthday. Located on Bethesda Street on the approach to the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Hanley, the work was commissioned by the Arnold Bennett Society, and funded by the Denise Coates, Denise Coates Foundation – then, gifted to the city. The seated figure was created by local sculptors Michael Talbot and Carl Payne.
Theatre and Performing Arts
The city's main theatre is the 1,603-person capacity Regent Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent, Regent Theatre, which is in Hanley. Nearby is the main concert hall, the Victoria Hall (Hanley), 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-on-Trent Town Hall is used for smaller events. In Burslem, the Queen's Theatre, Burslem, Queen's Theatre has been refurbished and restored at private expense.
The Stoke-on-Trent Repertory Theatre is based in Stoke and puts on amateur productions. The previously city council-run Mitchell Memorial Youth Theatre, 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 World War II fighter plane, the Spitfire.
The city also has been the home to some long-running cultural organisations, including B arts, founded in the 80s as an all-female-led, participatory arts organisation. The founders were street theatre directors Hilary Hughes, Gill Gill and Yvonne Male.
Cinema
In December 2015 a new nine-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 Cinemas, Odeon multiplex cinema located in 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.
Literature
Through the works of Arnold Bennett
Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist, who wrote prolifically. Between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaborati ...
, described by some as the greatest Realism (theatre), 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. The "Six Towns" were not federated until 1910 when Fenton was still relatively new. It was 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 (poet), Peter Whelan (playwright), Peter Whelan (playwright), John Wain (poet, critic and scholar), Pauline Stainer (poet) and Charles Tomlinson (poet, graphic artist, translator, editor and critic).
In 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.
Media
Newspaper
* The Sentinel (Staffordshire), The Sentinel daily local newspaper
Radio
* BBC Radio Stoke/94.6: the third BBC local radio station to begin broadcasting
* Hits Radio Staffordshire & Cheshire/102.6: local commercial radio
* Greatest Hits Radio Staffordshire & Cheshire: local commercial radio
* 6 Towns Radio: local community radio
* Cross Rhythms City Radio/101.8: religious hit music
Television
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC West Midlands and ITV Central. Television signals are received from the Sutton Coldfield transmitting station, Sutton Coldfield TV transmitter and the Fenton relay transmitter.
The city is to be part of the second wave of UK cities to get its local TV station.
Entertainers
Stoke has been the birthplace of many actors and entertainers, including:
* Adrian Rawlins (born 1958), actor
* Bruno Brookes (born 1959), radio presenter
* Anthea Turner (born 1960), TV presenter
* Neil Morrissey (born 1962). actor
* Nick Hancock (born 1962). TV presenter
* Hugh Dancy (born 1975), actor
* Dominic Burgess (born 1982), actor
* Rachel Shenton (born 1987), actress
Music
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 (DJ), Sasha and featuring regular appearances from Carl Cox, until it was eventually shut down by Staffordshire Police
Staffordshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent in the West Midlands of England. It is made up of 11 local policing teams, whose boundaries are matched to the nine local authoritie ...
. 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''.
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 Old Town Hall, Burslem, Burslem Town Hall. In 2015, three streets in a new housing estate in Middleport were named after Williams' hit songs: Supreme (song), Supreme Street, Candy (Robbie Williams song), Candy Lane and Angels (Robbie Williams song), Angels Way.
Saul Hudson, the lead guitarist for Guns N' Roses better known by his stage name "Slash (musician), Slash", was raised in Stoke-on-Trent. His father, Anthony Hudson, was from the area, and he spent a few of his early childhood years living in the city before moving to his mother's native United States in 1970. He did not meet many of the British side of his family until 1992 when Guns N' Roses played Wembley Stadium as part of the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. 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 US and the UK.
Other notable individuals and groups from the area include Andy Moor (DJ), 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 (singer/contralto), Jem Finer (banjoist, The Pogues), Broken Bones (band), Broken Bones and Discharge (band), Discharge (punk band), who invented the D-beat style. 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 (band), Agent Blue'' (alternative rock), ''All the Young'' and ''The Title'' (indie).
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 fictional member of the group Gorillaz with the role of bass guitarist is (in his constructed biography) said to have been born in Stoke-on-Trent.
Havergal Brian (1876–1972), the classical composer and music writer, who Composer, composed 32 Symphony, symphonies and five operas, was born in Stoke (in Dresden). The large scale and unfashionable style of his compositions led to them being neglected for most of his lifetime and not a note of his music was commercially issued on record during his lifetime. He died without having heard many of his finest works.
Food
Staffordshire oatcakes (very different from the Scottish version and traditionally made in corner-shop style oatcake bakeries) is 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 (food), 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 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. Originally held in Hanley, the event was held at Northwood Park until 2016 and has since moved to Hanley Park in 2017 attracting over 7,000 attendants, six times the amount of the previous year. It continued in 2018 with increased attendance, and in 2019. It was due to continue in 2020, on 20 June, but was postponed because of COVID-19.
Dialect
The Potteries has a distinctive Potteries dialect, local dialect. 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 Old English, Saxon word ''ducas'', used to indicate respect. In Middle English this became ''duc'' or ''duk'', which denotes a leader. 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, sugar).
A local Comic strip, cartoon strip called ''May un Mar Lady (Me and my Wife)'', published in the newspaper ''The Sentinel (Staffordshire), 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 several years, are recited in the Potteries dialect by the author.
International relations
Stoke is sister city, twinned with:
* East Liverpool, Ohio, East Liverpool, Columbiana County, Ohio, Columbiana County, Ohio, United States
* Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany, since 1989
Freedom of the City
* List of Freemen of the City of Stoke-on-Trent.
See also
* List of people from Stoke-on-Trent
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
* Listed buildings in Stoke-on-Trent
* Stoke-on-Trent power station
Notes
References
External links
*
The Potteries
The history of the North Staffordshire Potteries
Creative Stoke
creativestoke.org.uk
Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archive Service
staffordshire.gov.uk
The People's Archive
Chronicling the changing face of North Staffordshire
Local media
Local Information
from ''The Sentinel (Staffordshire), The Sentinel'' newspaper
Local Information
from the ''BBC''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stoke-On-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent,
Cities in the West Midlands (region)
Local government in Staffordshire
Towns in Staffordshire
Unitary authority districts of England
Local government districts of the West Midlands (region)
NUTS 3 statistical regions of the United Kingdom
Populated places established in 1910
1910 establishments in England
Unparished areas in Staffordshire
Former civil parishes in Staffordshire
Boroughs in England
River Trent