Stoke-upon-Trent

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Stoke-upon-Trent
  • Stoke
Federated Town and District
Stoke-upon-Trent - Town Hall and The Glebe - geograph.org.uk - 2897424.jpg
London Road in Stoke-Upon-Trent - geograph.org.uk - 3676119.jpg
Stoke Minster.jpg
Looking south-west along Elenora Street - geograph.org.uk - 4940327.jpg
Stoke-upon-Trent - Glebe Street bridge - geograph.org.uk - 3198787.jpg
Trent and Mersey Canal in Stoke-on-Trent - geograph.org.uk - 6111858.jpg
A500 Queensway in Stoke-on-Trent - geograph.org.uk - 4569475.jpg
Staffordshire UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Stoke-upon-Trent
Location within Staffordshire
OS grid reference SJ875455
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Districts of the town
(2011 census BUASD)
List
Post town STOKE-ON-TRENT
Postcode district ST4
Dialling code 01782
Police Staffordshire
Fire Staffordshire
Ambulance West Midlands
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Staffordshire
53°00′24″N2°11′16″W / 53.0066°N 2.1877°W / 53.0066; -2.1877

Stoke-upon-Trent, also known as Stoke, is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Burslem, Fenton, Longton and Tunstall form the city of Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire, England.

Contents

The town was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1874. In 1910 the six towns federated to become the County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent and later the City of Stoke-on-Trent. Since federation in 1910 it has been the seat of the city's council, although the city centre is regarded as being in nearby Hanley.

Name

On 1 April 1910, the town was federated into the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent. By 1925 the area was granted city status.

Confusion can arise over the similarity of this town's name to that of the larger city. If the new borough had to be named after one of the original towns, the main reason for using "Stoke" is that this was where the new town's administration was sited, which in turn was because Stoke had the main transport links.[ citation needed ]

The river, canal, mainline railway, and trunk road passed through the centre of Stoke. Stoke also had the main railway station (other towns were connected by the "loop" line) making the name of Stoke perhaps the most familiar outside the area. It made sense to name the city after the oldest and most commonly recognised name, even though it was not then the most significant town from a commercial perspective. (The commercial centre was Hanley, elevated and therefore relatively free, for most of the year, of the city's smog and smoke.)[ citation needed ]

Renaming proposals

Owing to the confusion between the town of Stoke and the larger city, there have been various calls, mainly amongst business leaders and academics, to rename either the town or the larger city. Proposals for the renamed town include Old Stoke and Stoke Town. There are also proposals to rename part of Hanley to Stoke-on-Trent City Centre.

Stoke was located where the upper reaches of the Trent meets the Fowlea Brook. The later Roman road through Stoke remained the basis for local road transport long after the Roman occupation.

The Anglian name given to this ancient place of meeting and worship was the 'stoc' (meeting place) on the Trent. It was the site of the first church in the area, built of wood around the year 670 by missionaries from Lindisfarne, later rebuilt in stone, and now known as Stoke Minster. [1] A significant small town grew up around this church.

In the 18th century, the "Grand Trunk" canal came along the Trent valley to carry china clay from Cornwall cheaply to the Potteries (and pottery safely away). Many of the promoters of the canal were pottery magnates.

In the 19th century, the railways, too, came along the valley. The mainline Stoke-on-Trent railway station was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) on 9 October 1848, replacing the temporary station sited at Whieldon Road which was constructed for the opening of the first NSR line on 17 April 1848. Travellers to the region would change trains at Stoke for local trains to their ticketed destination.

King's Hall

King's Hall, Stoke Kings Hall, Kingsway, Stoke. - geograph.org.uk - 1128082.jpg
King's Hall, Stoke

The assembly hall, ballroom, exhibition hall and theatre built in 1910–11 at the time of the federation to the design of T. Wallis and J. A. Bowater, and with an impressive 19-bay dressed stone frontage on Kingsway behind the town hall. It has proved itself to be a useful adjunct to the town hall of 1834–50. This was built on Glebe Street, opposite the parish church to the design of Henry Ward. [2] The entire Town Hall–King's Hall complex serves the city of Stoke-on-Trent well as its chief administrative offices, including the lord mayor's parlour combined with all the facilities of the King's Hall for the city's formal entertainment.

Stoke Market

Stoke-upon-Trent market: part of the surviving frontage to Church Street. Stoke upon Trent market - geograph.org.uk - 333073.jpg
Stoke-upon-Trent market: part of the surviving frontage to Church Street.

Stoke has held markets in various locations in the town since 1818. A market was set up within the newly built town hall in the 1830s, but this did not prove popular with the market traders of the time and in 1845 the market moved to Hide Street (the building can still be seen today).

In 1883 the market relocated to a larger purpose-built building fronting Church Street 'befitting its town status'. This Victorian market was all but destroyed by a fire that started on FA Cup final day (22 May 1982). [3] Only the clock tower, entrance arch, fish section and shop frontage was saved. The current market in South Wolfe Street was opened in 1984. The former market site with its clock tower was block paved for use as an outdoor trading/event space, and a library and one-stop shop has also been added to the site.

The Potteries

In the 19th century, Stoke had a thriving pottery industry, hence its nickname, "The Potteries". Since the last half of the 20th century, however, almost all of the bottle-shaped kilns have been taken down, due to regulations from the Clean Air Act [4] – an estimated 4,000 bottle kilns in the heyday of the pottery industry, today reduced to a mere 46. Successful Stoke-upon-Trent potters include Spode, Copeland, Minton and Biltons.

Stoke today

Although Stoke is surpassed by its neighbouring town, Hanley in terms of size, population, and shops, it does have:

Outlying townships or districts within the bounds of Stoke-upon-Trent include Boothen, Hartshill, Mount Pleasant, Penkhull and Trent Vale.

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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 success of the English pottery industry in the 19th century: transfer printing on earthenware and bone china.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burslem</span> One of the Six Towns of Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire, England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tunstall, Staffordshire</span> One of the Six Towns of Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire, England

Tunstall is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Hanley and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It was one of the original six towns that federated to form the city. Tunstall is the most northern, and fourth largest town of the Potteries. It is situated in the very northwest of the city borough, with its north and west boundaries being the city limit. It stands on a ridge of land between Fowlea Brook to the west and Scotia Brook to the east, surrounded by old tile-making and brick-making sites, some of which date back to the Middle Ages.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penkhull</span> Human settlement in England

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cliffe Vale, Staffordshire</span> Human settlement in England

Cliff Vale is a district of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and lies to the immediate south of Etruria and just east of Basford and Hartshill. Cliffe Vale is in the valley of the Fowlea Brook, now better known as Etruria Valley. There are industrial and employment uses along the A500, and new residential developments along the Trent and Mersey Canal. The Shelton New Road (B5045) passes through from east to west. The area is sometimes called Cliff Vale by the city council, and is part of the Hartshill electoral ward.

The federation of Stoke-on-Trent was the 1910 amalgamation of the six Staffordshire Potteries towns of Burslem, Tunstall, Stoke-upon-Trent, Hanley, Fenton and Longton into the single county borough of Stoke-on-Trent. The federation was one of the largest mergers of local authorities, involving the greatest number of previously separate urban authorities, to take place in England between the nineteenth century and the 1960s. The 1910 federation was the culmination of a process of urban growth and municipal change that started in the early 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stoke-upon-Trent Town Hall</span> Municipal building in Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, England

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hanley Town Hall</span> Municipal building in Hanley, Staffordshire, England

Hanley Town Hall is a municipal building in Albion Square in Hanley, Staffordshire, England. The building, which is used as the local register office, is a Grade II listed building.

References

  1. 1 2 "Stoke Minster website".
  2. Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). The Buildings of England – Staffordshire. Penguin. p. 262. ISBN   0-14-071046-9.
  3. "Stoke Market". Stoke-on-Trent City Council.
  4. Bailey, David, ed. (2018). Industrial policy beyond the crisis. Routledge. p. 79. ISBN   978-1138377219.

Further reading