Stoke-upon-Trent

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Stoke, or to give it its full name, Stoke-upon-Trent is a town in the City of Stoke-on-Trent, in the ceremonial county of Staffordshire in the United Kingdom. The town, which was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1874, is one of six that federated to form the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910, along with Hanley, Tunstall, Burslem, Longton and Fenton. It is the seat of the city's council. Stoke-on-Trent's city centre is, however, usually regarded as being the nearby town of Hanley which is, and has been since federation, the most commercially important of the Six Towns.

[edit] Name

Confusion can arise over the similarity of this town's name to that of its parent city. The reasons for naming the city after Stoke, rather than one of the other constituent towns, are primarily historical and practical. A Roman road ran through the place during & after the Roman occupation. It was located where the River Trent meets Fowlea Brook. The name given to this ancient place of meeting and worship was "Stoke-upon-Trent" or meeting place ('stoc') on the Trent. It was the site of the first church in the area, built of wood around the year 670, later rebuilt in stone, and now known as Stoke Minster. A significant small town grew up around this church. In more recent years, the canals and then the railways came to the area. Stoke-on-Trent railway station was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway on October 9, 1848, replacing the temporary station sited at Whieldon road which was constructed for the opening of the first NSR line on April 17, 1848. Travellers to the region would therefore travel first to Stoke where they would change trains before continuing to their ticketed destination. It therefore 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. There was also an advantage in that the elevated Hanley was relatively free, for most of the year, of the city's smog and smoke.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] The King's Hall

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 nineteen bay dressed stone frontage on Kingsway behind the Town Hall. It has proved itself to be a very 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.^[1] 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.

[edit] 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 — 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.

[edit] Stoke today

Stoke itself, despite being the nominal central administrative town, is now far outclassed by its neighbouring town, Hanley; in terms of size, population, shops and business opportunities. Stoke does, however, have:

• the mainline railway station
• the main campus of Staffordshire University, its library and halls of residence (these are actually located on land that was originally part of Hanley) and was the original site of the Stafordshire Cricket Clubs ground.
• The University Hospital of North Staffordshire and the City General Hospital, as well as the Central Outpatients Department, which is one, if not the, largest in the UK.
• a long-established purpose-built art house cinema
• a purpose-built repertory theatre[1]
• the Irish centre
• the Trent & Mersey canal & National Cycle Network paths
• the main complex of Council offices & chamber - clustered in and around the Town Hall
• the Minster church and Stoke Approach area and the outdoor artworks
• The King's Hall music & events venue
• a free public lending library
• The Spode Copeland pottery factory
• a new Sainsbury's supermarket, and a large new shopping centre planned and now operational, for the land adjacent to the Council offices. Plus a large Tesco Extra in the centre of Longton on what was the site of the old Co-op site, along with Argos and Matalan

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

[edit] References

1. ^ Nikolaus Pevsner; The Buildings of England - Staffordshire, Penguin Books Ltd, 1974. ISBN 0-14-071046-9 (page 262)

[edit] External links

• Use interactive maps to find historic photographs and artefacts of old Stoke