please empty your brain below
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Love the Hanley duck :)
Great Aunt Annie | 08.02.15 - 6:24 a.m. | #
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Staffordshire oatcakes. Lovely.
THC | 08.02.15 - 8:21 a.m. | #
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My only memory of the Potteries is going round in circles on that 'whirling ring road' trying to find the railway station before finally realising we were in Hanley not Stoke - glad to hear there are some more positive things to do in the area.
whiff | 08.02.15 - 9:08 a.m. | #
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Great to see a visit to my home town. But reading about oatcakes on a Sunday morning, while I'm stuck down South without any, well that's just making me really hungry!
Geo_rich | 08.02.15 - 10:53 a.m. | #
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Maybe I'm just crass or have a weird mind... but the gates to the Royal D*ulto* Factory looked like gates to a concentration camp to me :(
Antipodean | 08.02.15 - 12:33 p.m. | #
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What a shock this morning to see my home town so perceptively celebrated! I left many years ago, as many people do, and now find visiting the place incredibly depressing. The vast open spaces, walkways and cycle tracks that now link the Potteries towns are certainly attractive, but every one represents a lost industry - coal mines, steelworks, railways, and most of the pottery industry itself. They're all gone.
When I grew up there in the 1950s Stoke was a filthy stinking place, but it was thriving and successful and nearly everyone had a job. It was a city of working men and women who had remarkable skills with steel and clay. All this has gone, to be replaced with cheap or boarded up shops, derelict factories and terraced houses they can't sell for £1. That the air is now clean and there are some lovely walks does make Stoke a nice place to visit on a day trip, but it also makes it easier to see the desperate state the place is now in.
ActonMan | 08.02.15 - 12:46 p.m. | #
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I was at university in Stoke about 18 years ago and it's sad when I've been back since to see how rundown the city look these days. I've still got a soft spot for the place but whereas other cities have largely regenerated after losing most of their main industry Stoke just doesn't seem to have managed it. Glad you found the interesting spots though especially Hanley Park which I used to walk through every day. If you go back then the Gladstone Pottery Museum in Longton is worth seeing too.
Anders | Homepage | 08.02.15 - 1:42 p.m. | #
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The inhabitants of the original Etruria were called Etruscans. Not many people know that, but I bet DG does!
Jim Webber | 08.02.15 - 7:20 p.m. | #
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I should think many of dg's readers know about Etruscans. We're an educated lot.
And by golly those oatcakes sound good!
Suse | 08.02.15 - 8:15 p.m. | #
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Shame you missed out on visiting the Gladstone Pottery Museum. I understand this is the last complete pottery left in the potteries albeit its a museum. They have a great toilet exhibitions!
Graham | Homepage | 09.02.15 - 8:26 a.m. | #
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I think regeneration is Stoke is hampered by the lack of a centre to focus around. The city is spread over many small towns, with sprawling suburbs and industrial land spread inbetween. A case of "united weakness is weaker", to reverse the city motto.
Geo_rich | 09.02.15 - 9:48 a.m. | #
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The "Great Escape" thing seems like a great idea.
Until you read that, no doubt entirely coincidentally, there will be no trains running in or out of Euston for the entirety of both remaining weekends.
Bargain!
Simon | 09.02.15 - 12:16 p.m. | #
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Trouble is with days out at this time of year - lots of places aren't open in February. Come back Easter weekend when they are.
Bronchitikat | Homepage | 09.02.15 - 12:29 p.m. | #
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Simon, there wasn't going to be but there is now because of the landslide blocking the Chiltern route.
al | 09.02.15 - 1:49 p.m. | #
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Our junior school trip in 1986 (from Birmingham) was to the Stoke Garden Festival. Interesting to see how much of it remains.
Chris P | 09.02.15 - 7:18 p.m. | #
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