Is there Any Hope for this Once Great City? 

Hello, local here! Thanks for the really sympathetic video to the area. Firstly Etruscan is pronounced Ee-trusk-en 😀. I try to avoid Hanley for reasons obvious, but Piccadilly is usually far more lively on other days with interesting small owned businesses open. The run down factory/bottle kiln by the canal in Longport was the Price and Kensington Tea Pot factory - which unfortunately was left to ruin by previous owners. That bit used to have fly tipping on it but has been cleaned up. The building by where you stood filming that wasn't abandoned though, people use it from what I've heard, including a potter. Just a short walk down the canal would have taken you to a beautiful park with 2 lakes. As for the bottle kiln you went in - it was used as a filming location for Peaky blinders, as was the rest of Middleport pottery. Middleport/Longport suffered a lot due to the pulled "Pathfinder" regeneration project, originally started by Blair's government, but suddenly pulled when Cameron got in - mid project! There is a great community spirit in the area though, locals really trying hard to make things better. Again thank you for the well made video that showed a lot of respect.

Nice to see a young lad interested in his past and culture. Enjoyed it very much and subscribed.

Most of Britain is a dump these days. The decline is heartbreaking.

I'm a 19 year-old New Zealander who is a massive Stoke City fan. Earlier this year I travelled to Stoke-on-Trent to watch two home games (Hull, Huddersfield). Was only in the city for the matchdays (I stayed in Manny), but it was so sad to see the city of which the football team I love. All the Stokies were so welcoming - although couldn't believe there was a Kiwi who had actually heard of Stoke/had the desire to actually go up there. Felt at home, loved the place even with it's flaws. I'll be back one day - hopefully to a more revitalised place. City and the people need it. COME ON YOU POTTERS

Your video brought me to tears 😢 I'm a Stokie born and bred but ive lived in Paris for 5 years. Even in in that short time the city centre has gone really downhill. Its my friend who owns the new book shop and I'm happy to say it's open now and looking beautiful. I'm on the train now to London and then Paris but Stoke will always have a huge place in my heart

As a southerner I lived near and worked with a lot of Stokies, I was surprised how run down some parts were but I have to say Stoke has some of the warmest and funniest people in England. I hope things get better for them.

I was born in Stoke and grew up in Newcastle-Under-Lyme. In the 1990s as a teenager Hanley was the place to go for shopping and it also had some decent clubs. It's so sad to see what it's like now (I have lived abroad for 20+ years). The decay is devastating. Thank you for making this video and shining a light on the destruction and abandonment that Stoke has suffered. Up the Mighty Potters!

I,ve been away from the UK for donkeys years now and ten minutes into this video I started to cry. Thank you for your enthusiastic effort here, Im so glad that there are young people who see the beauty of places behind the ugliness. Well done.

I was a delivery driver late 60s Hanley being my main delivery . Fresh salmon and venison to Lewis’s, full load of clothes to C&A and shop deliveries to Hanley town centre . I’m sitting here in tears seeing on film what I now see in real life . High cost of rates for shops and markets , high car parking no wander Retail Parks are booming . R.I.P potteries you were great once

Just found this channel today. You are so respectful of ppl living there and the history. I think other channels are just a piss take. You are creating historical docs here love. Thank you.

Excellent channel. What Stoke needs is what so many other towns/cities need - a huge drop in business rents and rates, plus a new way of looking to get local people to set up and run businesses from the town. Indoor arenas etc aren't going to get the high st revived.

I was born and raised in stoke, i'm 46 now and lived here all my life, generations of my family worked at the Spode pottery in the heart of Stoke on Trent. I went to Boothen primary (now demolished) and Trent Valley High, i've walked every square inch of it over the course of my life. I've always been super proud of our potting history, and the characterful Stokie's who's skilled hands made tableware for kings. The beginning of the end was when they transferred production to Asia due to cost, online shopping and an utterly shit council destroyed the rest. The last thing to go is hope, but as you now see from the rise of homeless, drug dependant souls shuffling through our town centres, that too is wearing thin.

I did my PhD in Stoke, at Keele uni but mostly among the people of Stoke and the city's museums. The people I met were so warm and hospitable and so ready to talk about their lives and their strange, rare neighbourhood, its left me with a lifelong affection for Stoke and some of my best ever memories

I lived in Stoke in the early 90s, the place was already sliding into decline with the loss of collieries, steelworks and potteries. So sad.

Stokie here. Thanks for uploading this video of my hometown that I left in 2001. My family history is in Stoke on Trent and I grew up there going school from the late 1960s and eventually to college. I loved the place and Hanley was a great city. You probably won't believe that people came to Hanley for day trips on coaches from the West Midlands and Manchester area. The nightlife was superb in the 1980s and there were so many venues that famous acts came to. Mum and Dad saw The Beatles play in Hanley back in the day. The decline started late 1990s and has continued ever since. I was qualified enough to plan Local Agenda 21 where the city could get billions from the EU for projects - but the city planners were just not dynamic or interested. Therefore I left and have been living in the EU the last 22 years. I still like to go home and visit relatives, but I never go into town because it really makes me sad to see what has happened to the once vibrant city I grew up in.

What a thoughtful and respectful video of the city my family have called home for generations. Such a shame to see its continued demise.

Your posts should be immediate knowledge to all politicians. Thank you x

It's a shame! It's not just Stoke it's happening all over UK, this government have broken the people, our community's, culture's, ways, families & values.

Hanley Town Hall. I honestly feel we are in recession when it comes to architecture. They used to build such lovely buildings that lift your spirit. Now we build brutalism. I would love to go back 100 years.

I worked for a British company of Stafford, based at India and have been to that part of country very often.... first time visited Stoke on Trent in 1997...and later many times..I am deeply shocked and pained to see the condition today.....I always carried that beautiful image of beautiful river, orchards and bustling town.... since I have retired I wanted to visit this area shortly. Deeply pained....may happy days return soon 😢

You start the video at what was our local Sainsbury’s for many years. It survived the opening of the giant Tesco next door. It had a nice cafe and a great community feel with staff who’d been there for up to 25 years. It was particularly popular with elderly and disabled people as both the car park and store were easy to get round. It suddenly closed I heard, not because it was doing badly, but because Sainsbury’s actually owned rather than leased the site and could make a quick buck after a bad year by flogging it. We still miss it 😢

I went to Stoke a few years back to pick up the suits for a mates wedding, place is a dump...it's not all "online shopping" that is to blame...some of the areas of Stoke look like they started going to pot long before online shopping, look at the state of some of the buildings, it takes decades for some of that damage to occur. One of the things that struck me about Stoke is just how hard it is to navigate if you're not from the area. It's a complicated town. I ended up having to walk across a large chunk of it to get where I was going as well because at the time, it was insanely hard to park anywhere. What I think, is the beginning of the end for places like Stoke, was the retail chains moving in and pushing the independent businesses out, in the meantime business rates have been pushed up (because the chains can afford to spread the cost)...then online shopping came around and crushed the chains...when the units became available again, the business rates were so high that it made a lot of business basically impossible...add to this the fact that out of town retail parks have popped up everywhere and "progressive" towns aggressively chasing away motorists and you have a recipe for this sort of thing. That Etruscan Square development is an absolute joke...millions of pounds and a couple of years later and there is nothing to show for it. There aren't even planning notices on the fences...so they haven't even entered the planning phase...Stoke got scammed. What they should have done with the millions from the levelling up fund, is freeze business rates for a period of time, subsidise rents and subside the repair of existing buildings...put the money in the hands of the locals, not developers. If it is put in the hands of locals, they will hire other locals to repair things, build things, work in shops etc...all these people have to shop somewhere and spend their money. If the money doesn't reach the local people, it doesn't enter the local economy and therefore cannot make a difference.

Fantastic video, but it shocks me to the core. I grew up in rural Staffs from early 50's to late 60's, so my memory is of the height of the pottery industry (surprised that the clean air act was as early as 1957). It was where Mum bought eg wool or fabric to make some of our clothes, & ready made undies & dad's clothes etc. 1st reaction "Where are the people & bustling pavements?" "Where is the traffic on once busy roads?" No such thing as shop closures then. I remember walking from Hanley to Longton. Rows of brick terraced houses & in the morning the house wives, scarf over head, cleaning the front door step of smuts (soot from the bottle kilns) then polishing them with a red wax. There were large groups of bottle kilns, fired by coal, billowing smoke everywhere, & as it grew dark in the winter evening, a veritable firework show of sparks from the top of the kilns. There were also many coal mines nearby (cheap fuel also used domestically) There were many different pottery manufacturers. Wedgewood was world famous, & made highly expensive articles which decorated palaces. A special clay, Kaolin, was needed to make porcelain. It is only found in the UK in St Austel Cornwall. Some of the work force travelled 20 miles from the countryside, many women. Our neighbour Mrs. Adams hand painted the designs of pottery ornaments in glaze. It was a labour intensive industry. In those days mugs were rarely used, except some tankards for beer, everyone drank from cups & saucers. The canals were also bustling - bringing in Kaolin, & distributing finished products. I have heard that the gas/ electric kilns were too small to fire the necessary number of products to be viable for mass production, but some survived. The humanitarian disaster from mass unemployment when the only major industry in the area collapsed without any replacement employment, must have been deeply distressing. In those days much of the housing was owned by the employer & rented to employees (tied housing). There was a lot of housing owned by the town council & rented to low income people. Imagine not only losing your job but losing your home at the same time. Yes I can understand the graffiti against capitalism. A very large urban area needed government intervention to encourage investment in providing new employment back in 1957. Instead those who could, moved to other areas of the country for work, breaking up previously close knit communities, only to face complete deindustrialisation within the next 20 years when the coal mines closed. I've lived through the deindustrialisation of the UK & privatisation of our major amenities. I also lived through the tail end of the government measures to restart the economy after WW2. Until I found this site I had no idea of the extent of our ghost cities, caused by deindustrialisation. I hope my few memories help to fill in some gaps for you wandering turnip. I've lived through times you couldn't imagine - some good - some bad, & needed changing.

We are thrd world citizens nowadays in our own country we truly are screwed

I’m a local from Longton. Great video, I tend to avoid most of the areas you visited however there are some really nice places close by mainly trentham gardens which underwent a £120 million redevelopment with shops, restaurants, and a garden centre. You’ll also find some really nice houses in the area too. Gladstone pottery museum is a must visit to learn the history of the pottery industry.

I was sent by my company, about 20 yrs ago, to pick up a ton of plates, cups, bowls etc from a pottery that was closing down. It was quite depressing really. There were other companies there doing the same as me. We looked like vultures picking at the carcass of a dead wildebeest. ☹️

Lovely. See his little face light up when He finds a Chimney. Let alone be inside one Extacy Pure Heaven. and "Magic Paul" A follically challenged "Gandalf" Made us all smile too. thanks Turnip

This is a terrific video, thanks for doing it. Stoke is genuinely packed with amazing people who have only been able to look on as the city underwent an unmanaged decline. There are however little pockets of beauty, heritage and of course we are the gateway to amazing countryside. It's appreciated that you highlighted (and enjoyed) a few of those wonderful quirks and excellent bits of the place that we still have. Well done fella.

So much respect for you for not filming the people doing drugs. Always makes me feel so uncomfortable when people upload footage of people who are completely out of it and clearly have not consented to being filmed. Fair play to you 👏🏻

Stoke was also home to Kerr Stuart & Co, who manufactured railway locomotives from 1888 to 1930. Their exports reached many parts of the UK and overseas. Amazing to think this town used to supply machines around the globe.

I lived in stoke when I went to uni there in the late 2000s, it was a already falling to bits then, crazy to see how much worse it’s gotten since then. The fact the town hall itself is up for sale is mind boggling, I went to some cool concerts there back in the day. It’s a pretty iconic building.

It's so good to see a young person with so much enthusiasm for history. My dad used to be a bargeman taking pottery to places like Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham by Barge for Wedgwood in the 1950's/60's. Keep up the good work. I'm now Subscribed to your channel.

Got to love Paul! They need to capitalise on Stoke’s assets ie its people, like Paul, its history, and the artisan and innovative small businesses. Not build yet another stadium and hotel which will stand empty for most of the time. I’m shocked they’re planning to build more commercial units, there’s hundreds stood empty already??? Madness. Absolutely brilliant video!

I was living in Stoke from 1984 to 87 as a student at North Staffs Poly. It was a great place. The Art Museum is one of the best. There were nightclubs a plenty, including " The Place" famous for its Northern Soul. Its very sad to see it like this. The people were wonderful, funny and warm, it bustled with life. I see some of the names like Spode are back, after realising that people dont want fine English china made in sodding china! There is so much history, Mitchell and the Spitfire to name one. Unfortunately during my time old two Jags started the process of Urban renewal, compulsory purchases of row upon row of old terraces, which to this day are still standing empty. These were humble but pristine houses inhabited by old dears who scrubbed their doorsteps and sold their unwanted items to a rag and bone man. They basically ripped the heart out of the place. The generation that made it a great place have gone, but its encouraging that there are budding, and successful businesses springing up.

In remembrance of Sheila and Barry. Barry made the molds for pottery in Stoke and went abroad to do so. He finished unemployed with a skill no one wanted anymore. My friends lived in Stoke. Barry a true craftsman whos art died. Sheila was a teacher and watched the opportunities die year by year for the children she taught. I could cry.

I wouldn't normally share this but seeing as we're based in stoke and you took such an interest in the city - we've looked at taking on high street units in Hanley many times to open a new shop or two there, the issue is rents in the area - the vast majority of that closed stuff in the city centre is owned by 2 or 3 large multinational companies rather than the council, so they set the rents, and anything left empty is a big old tax write off. Some of those smaller high street units are up for let £3k-5k per month with HUGE rateably values attached, so the owners have no incentive at all to let them out for a reasonable price, the council has no interest in buying them to let them out for reasonable money and no small business in their right mind will take one on for that kinda money in the 12th most deprived area of the uk.

I had a night out in Stoke On Trent on 27-8-23. I went to The Sugar Mill and it was a great event. Stoke has a couple of good clubs and some pubs serving proper English beer. I found people here very friendly and pretty damned cool to be honest. I know this city has more than its fair share of problems, but I like this place a lot and the people I met here were great.

Hi great video. Not only has Stoke lost most of its pottery industry, it was also a!big coal mining area with many mines, we had a steel works long gone, Michelin factory employing 10,000 at its peak. stoke had a tram system and also its own railway system, both long gone.

Im from stoke and this is hearthbreaking to see, amazing genuine peolle from here, sad to see the city in ruin

When I was a young man some thirty years ago the entire area, all the towns making up Stoke thrived ... it was the place to go to shop, good clubs, good pubs and good people. As you say pottery was at the heart of it all. There were numerous famous pottery companies scattered around Stoke in the five towns ... and here's the clue to finding them. Seeing as the clay was mostly brought in via barge, follow the canal(s). Nearly everybody worked in the pottery industry or in the shops and hotel trades. The big deal nowadays is that politically speaking Stoke-on-Trent is run by 44 council members in various districts, both Labour and Conservative mainly .... and I'm guessing the "Levelling Up" project will drag its feet because of beurocracy and indecision, and yes ... falling out and disagreement over funding allocation no doubt. There was never a drugs problem in those days, merely a few drunken brawls after Stoke lost a football match, and crime was no different than anywhere else in UK. I have to admit your well made video shocked me a little seeing it, as now I live in East of England and have not been over to Staffs. for quite a few years. But pottery used to be exported all over the world in those days, and clearly that trend has died now apart from the odd small concern. I have actually walked round inside the Wedgewood factory in its prime and seen the artists painting fine China by hand, and they were individually renowned world-wide for their talents. Such a shame it's all gone. Great but sad video ... well done.

56 million is ridiculously low to 'level up' a place. To put it in context, in the last 12 months, it was reported today, that the govt has spent 3.97 BILLION £s on the asylum system, paying hotel bills etc. Also, 56 million is equivalent to just 112 London apartments. 56 million to improve a British city.🙄

I spent three of the best years of my life in Stoke as a student. I'm only sorry I didn't appreciate the town(s) as much as I could have. For anybody from Stoke your town has a special place in my heart and I wish all of you the very best! As for you mate, you have completely sold me with this video. You've really got your priorities and interests in the right place and you do a great job presenting this video. Your enthusiasm really rubs off. Keep at it. Please continue to highlight local culture and to promote the people who deserve credit for the worthwhile things they do in life.

I lived in stoke for 2 years when I was younger in the 90s. I remember it was busy and vibrant in the high streets.

I lived in Bolton for 20 years and it was bustling!....your video has shocked me at the amount of boarded up shops !...I now live in the bustling Cheshire town of Warrington. Glad I left Bolton when I did !.... there's NOWT left !

It may be a tad ‘middle class’ but the Emma Bridgewater factory in Stoke is well worth a visit. Just outside the city, is the Wedgwood factory with the fantastic museum (now an outpost of London’s V&A Museum).

Can't believe you went straight past a record shop without even a mention!

Thanks for including my photography exhibition, FORTYSEVEN: The Last Bottle Ovens & Kilns of The Potteries. Every Stokie whether they still live in The Potteries or not, is proud to be a Stokie. It’s such a shame how run down it’s all become. During the time photographing the bottle ovens i did notice a glimmer of hope in the industry which will bring reform to the towns. No real thanks to any levelling-up schemes or politicians but to the enthusiasm of the people. The heritage certainly needs looking after and local business needs nurturing for the area to survive. Will you revisit and look for the improvements? I know I will. And if you didn’t try any oatcakes,you totally missed out!!

Hello, I'm American, I just spent a couple of hours power watching some of your videos, I really enjoyed them and although I'm American I could relate to many of the stories you were on about. My Mum was born in London at the start of WW11, my wife is Scottish and my kids with British passports. When I was living in South Ruislip in the mid 80's we were paying less than a pound a pint at my local, the Black Bull, almost double that in London. I've notice the death of several things you've talked about, the High Street, The Pubs. In my Wife's hometown in Scotland the woolen mill shut down but the town is managing well, a little further North where we have family an American Airforce Base shut down and the jobs on the oil rigs slowed, the High Street is dead and the real estate is suffering.

Very interesting tour of Stoke. The Etruscans were and ancient civilization from Italy with wonderful arts and crafts. If you know the famous Wedgewood pottery (the blue pots with white relief decoration), it copied the Etruscan designs. Stoke City was a founding club of the first football league and is the 2nd oldest club in the world. Sir Stanley Matthews was England's greatest footballer who played for Stoke in the old 1st Division until he was in his 50s.

Hanley used to be a place I was genuinely excited to visit as both a kid and young adult. It had good shops, cinema, bars and nightclubs. Now, it is somewhere to avoid which is a real shame. The sad part is that I am not that old, I am 39. The rise of internet shopping really crippled this town as a place to visit. I hear before my time the nightlife in particular was even better

Loads of good places in Stoke on Trent :)

I left Stoke in January 2023 (born ‘up ‘Anley duck’). When people ask me, “what’s Stoke like?” I often reply “it’s a shithole, it’s a place of crumbling infrastructure and fractured dreams.” Thank you for doing this, it took me back to a happy childhood and good times, my Dad playing football for Chatterley Whitfield and Florence Colliery, Mum working for Steelite, English Ironstone and Royal Doulton. Sadly, those industries have gone now, and Stoke on Trent has been left to rot. It never recovered after the demise of the mines and pottery industry. The frustrating thing is, Stoke is smack bang in the middle of the country practically. We should have been an ongoing hive of industry, with great transport links to Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham, I could go on, but instead it has the bloody awful A500 and A50 where if you’re lucky, it will only take you an hour to get from one side of the City to the other. I hate what has happened to Stoke and I blame a succession of Governments for ignoring and wilfully forgetting about it. Thank you again for changing my crappy attitude. Yes Stoke is depressing, but the majority of Stokies are lovely. I hope you tried an oatcake by the way, if not, why not? 😊

I'm from Newcastle-under-Lyme, right next door to Stoke. The area had mines and steel works as well but has been in steady decline my whole life. I'm always a bit taken aback when I visit my old hometown and see more and more stuff boarded up.

Bet the councillors are still doing well😂🎉

I worked in Crewe teaching at the college for a few years almost 30 years, just up the road from Stoke and it was a dying place even then. Not that Crewe was exactly thriving either. Just found your channel and I am very impressed with your content, presentation and insight. You deserve many more subscribers for work of this quality.

Well I just found this and I'd like to thank you for your enthusiasm. A marvelous presentation of my home town that showed the bad bits but also gave us reasons to be hopeful!

First of all a big thank you to coming to the town where I was born in 1960, it’s really good to see someone so young taking an interest in the lost past. During the early 1970s Hanley was a once a month treat for me and my sisters and it was amazing with so many diverse and individual shops and absolutely packed with shoppers. Unfortunately we’re living in a rapidly changing world and certainly the last few years have played a big part in accelerating that change, I don’t have an answer and don’t think the politicians do either. Would love to know where the levelling up money is being squandered, probably lining pockets. Thanks again for filming this and really enjoyed watching especially listening to the people you met, wonderful.

I was in Stoke yet again last week, visiting from London. I love the area.

Thank you for being so sympathetic towards the city. The drug problem here is horrendous and I am surprised you weren’t photo bombed to be fair. I have been here 14 years and have seen it decline rapidly. I doubt Etruscan Square will ever get finished as the city council are on the verge of bankruptcy. There is however, some amazingly beautiful architecture, a lot of it left to decay, but some truly is phenomenal. There are definitely better places to live, but, there are by far worse places!

Fantastic video, bittersweet for me as stoke was my childhood home. I left in the late 90s age 19, then at 26 left England for Ireland. I'm totally shocked by the state of Hanley town I remember my school friends dad working in weston signs, now like many other places boarded up. As a child a trip to Hanley would of been a big day out and if I was lucky I would see a bride and groom stepping down the steps at Hanley town hall getting showered in confetti, followed by an afternoon in webberleys book shop, so big you could get lost in it, deciding which artist's paint you were going to buy. The people of stoke are it's biggest asset, so warm, hardworking and always trying to get the community back together. They deserve so much better. 56 million for that joke of a square, where's the money gone!!! Let down again no one in government cares about the people of stoke. A protest at the so called square, building site, is needed, demand to know what the hell is going on, it's tax payers money after all! Stoke on trent has so much potential, but they need help.

A rather marvelous insight into Stoke-on-Trent now, it has been a city terribly let down. I've always said that it's not easy to find gems like bottle ovens and other hidden historic sites and with a much better signposting and a decent transport system that would be made easier. Levelling up has been a con perpetrated by the Tories, the £56m is shouted by the likes of Gullis et al. and the £30m on transport has vanished into the pockets of who knows who. As you said the money should go to the people you spoke to opening or running local businesses and not purely into the pockets of big developers to level land and build car parks. Stoke deserves better, thank you for visiting.

It’s refreshing to see a RU-vidr with some integrity regarding filming addicts (unlike Charlie V)

I used to work for bet365 some twenty years ago, and at that time Hanley wasn’t that bad now obviously becomes even worse! Thank you for filming that Sainsbury’s supermarket opposite the Genting Casino where I shopped very often now closing down and abandoned so hearth breaking!! Actually, you don’t to go that far to find the Pottery chimney just go the other side of the abandoned Sainsbury’s supermarket the Tesco Extra down all the way at the end of the car park then go uphill to the Central bus station in the mid-way you should see one. Thank you again for making this film so that I know what Stoke-on-Trent looks like today after I left the city ten years ago!!😊

Tear filled eyes on reading all of the comments of current residents and ex pats of Stoke on Trent, of which l am now one of since moving from Tunstall to Cheshire in 2010. It will always have a place engraved in my heart but equally saddens me due to all the deprivation that now exists in a once thriving massive city. I entered the ceramic industry on leaving school in 1976 when there were 13 tile manufacturing sites under the name of H&R Johnsons within all the ‘six towns’ Now there is only one that employs around 200 people due to automation, when there used to be thousands of workers. People l know worked in the ceramic industry for 40 plus years. It’s all so very sad. I’ve lost all my immediate family who were born & bred in tunstall except my dear mum who was from Ireland. I’ve also lost my town and City which breaks my heart 💔

Found this fascinating. I am a Stokie who hasn't lived there since 1993. Do call over when possible but it's clear that tragically the city centre (Hanley) is dying. Out of town you should check out the 'Festival Park' retail park built on site of National Garden Festival from 1986, formerly Shelton Bar steelworks, back when Stoke had an industry!! Festival Park taking most of the trade now it seems. Also get to Trentham Gardens a few miles out, another big - more artisan - retail site with great history around the Trentham estate. There's also the Gladstone Pottery Museum (where you'll still find the bottle kiln ovens), the Wedgewood Museum in Barlaston (few miles out) and the Hanley (Potteries) Museum with great local history. There is great local history - but it's not in the city centre. Peak District also a short 30 min drive out. Lots more besides. The Council ought to be promoting Stoke's fantastic cultural heritage far more! Anyways thanks for posting. Liked an subbed! P.s. On a separate note - in an 'online' retail world, what you see in Stoke will be replicated everywhere. High street shops simply cannot earn enough to cover the enormous rent/rates/energy bills/insurance etc... To quote the late, great Freddie Mercury: "Is this the world we created?"

My pal tells me Franky's Bar closed about 6 years ago. It was a small place, full of bookshelves and huge pics of Charlie Chaplin on the walls.. a very popular pub at one time apparently.. How times change.. Thanks for another truly fascinating video, David.. 👏👍

That was a fantastic film THANK YOU

am really getting nostalgic after watching the video. Memories of Stanley's Ice Cream shop in Honeywall, Savoy cinema in Newcastle, the SPACE scheme in August, walking through Harpfields cemetary, avoiding Trent Vale, that weird piece of rock on the small grass verge opposite Vale Street, Orme Park, the dairy with cartons of OJ for 10p which was on Loomer Road as well as the park opposite Romney Avenue in Chesterton (that is going back to the 70's), the old Palace Picture Cinema in Tunstall, 7 videos for 7 nights for £5 from Hanley Blockbusters, going to the record fairs at the YMCA on Harding Road. So many good memories

Found you by accident but I really enjoyed this video. It was very interesting. It's such a shame to see some of the old industrial towns being left to just rot.

Both of my parents were born in Stoke but moved away after both being the first in the family to go to university, moved down to London where I was born. Both sides of my family lived there for generations going back into the 16th century at least. I visited my grandparennts every year in the school holidays. I have such mixed feelings about the place. The best thing my parents did was move away after university but I loved the close knit family atmosphere back then however it isn't a place with much hope anymore. The countryside around it is so beautiful but inner city decay after the decline of the industry there has gutted the towns and the big shopping centres and later online shopping destroyed the city centre shopping. I haven't visited it since the last of my grandparents died but I wish something could be done to bring it back to at least what my parents and grandparents remembered in the 50s to 70s. So sad.

I remember going into an old, empty pottery kiln when working with my grandad and uncle on a worksite. I was about 15 at the time and it had a weird mix of wonder and eeriness, largely because of the physical dimensions and the long history it exudes. With all these sights now being inaccessible as shown in the video, I can appreciate that experience a lot more.

Wow...what a great tribute to those majestic "creatures" ! love the chimney stories, they deserve all the attention cause that's the real stuff. People can shop anywhere, but these are the real diamonds. ❤❤❤

We retired to Bath 18 months ago after 45 years in London. It's hard to believe we're in the same country. I get preachy with Americans, saying we don't do abandonment like they do, but this is terrible. My hometown of Northampton's centre is extremely grim, but not quite as bad as this. We need to either get radical with the many massively degraded town/city centres or watch them decay to Baltimore standards. £20M is a drop in the ocean.

One of your best videos. Your enthusiasm for history and your love of chimneys is contagious. We lived in Staffordshire from 2004-2006 and visited Stoke often. It had great shopping then. Sad to see so much boarded up. I was particularly upset seeing Hanley Town Hall for sale. Who is going to buy a big old building there? (You need to go and visit Ironbridge - lots of industrial history in that valley.)

you know you're a local when you recognise the photos from the first 3 seconds haha good to see you giving stoke a view

I love the UK 🇬🇧 even though I don’t live there. I’m from the USA 🇺🇸 and, we definitely have this happening in so many areas of my country. I don’t know 🤷🏼‍♀️ the complete answer to the problem but, seeing this especially in my favorite country-England - makes me so sad 😢

I moved out of stoke around 6-7 years ago and it's heart breaking what has happened. Amid all the run down shops you will find a lovely new multi-story car park that the council have built costing several millions... and this is at the heart of the problem - an out of touch and mismanaged city council.

Pronounced Eh-trus-can. A civilization based on mainland Italy. 900BC to 27BC. It lasted longer than it looks like Stoke will. This film makes me very depressed for the country and all of us trying to live in it.

Watching again ❤it's so so sad it was not just the potteries, we were known for steel ,brick works many. Makes me sad the people are the best. Warm and welcoming. We had the best clubs and the famous jollies cabaret club all top acts. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Mate, that was really interesting, really cool. Love your channel, thanks for making. Legend!

Our local High St is exactly the same; as they are country wide. It all started in the 80s when the Thatcher government relaxed the laws regarding out of town outlets. Tesco in particular wanted to take the High St down for their benefit - and they did. Bribing councils by paying for roadworks/roundabouts etc to get their way. My High St business was effected by the mid 90s after Tesco arrived. My loyal customers said that despite the fact we offered a superior quality service and excellent customer care, Tesco was cheaper and more convenient.

I love the novels of Arnold Bennett, who came from the Potteries, reading some of his stories you learn quite a lot about the pottery industry, and the way people lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sadly he is not popular today, but I would recommend his books to anyone.

Good vid. Honest take on one of our city’s. Good vibe.

I'm in Canada now but did some work in Stoke pre Covid. Was always pleasant.

You missed the Potteries museum and art gallery in Hanley, really good museum, and my dad is on the front of the building😁 enjoyed your video.

Im from Stoke and iv always been so proud of my potteries roots. But seeing this is absolutely heartbreaking. Some of the areas you walked along used to be bustling in the 90s. Hanley was full of families happily shopping safely, at Christmas time the late night shopping was such a nice atmosphere. Middleport pottery or Gladstone are always good ports of call to revisit the history of Stoke and to see how thriving it once was. Even though its sad to see Stoke like this I am and will always be proud of being from Stoke, the people are good, decent people- salt of the earth and always welcoming. Thanks so much for this video and treating this city with respect.

I so enjoy learning about the history around the towns. Plus how good or bad the town has become. It’s sad to see a loss of a good market. Thank you Wandering Turnip. I enjoy your segment very much.

If you had come to Longton, we have the Gladstone pottery museum. Its a 15 minute walk for us. There is also historical short street just up from the museum in the back streets of Normacot and there are some nice little hidden gems like a bottle oven that we only found a couple of yrs back. It would have been surrounded by a factory in our youth. I worked in a pottery factory there when i left school in the office's but i got to go all around the depts of the factory. Then a few yrs later i learned to do lythogaphing, guilding and flower making. So interesting it was.😊

I was raised in Stoke on Trent before my folks emigrated to the USA . To find a true history of Stoke On Trent you should have gone to Longton and visited "the Gladstone Pottery Museum " an excellent place to visit !!!

Excellent video; love your enthusiasm and respect for people and places. Obviously (re)development takes time, but I feel pouring money into new flats and unneeded retail space is only going to level up the property developers. Building on the pride and knowledge of people like Paul would have been a surer way to develop an authentic heritage destination that people would visit for its history rather than a generic shopping plaza. All of those brown brick buildings and kilns along the canals are beautiful locations for appropriate development (museums, small shops, cafes, accommodation, narrow boat tours, etc)

Excellent video 👍

Burton Resident here, Never visited Stoke but from what I've heard it isn't the best place to be in and this video shed some more light on it, thanks!

Thanks for the video. My gggg grandfather Samuel Ellis was born in Flintshire, Wales in 1788. He was a collier (probably a miner) and moved to Hanley, along with his son and their family, sometime between 1851 and 1861, and remained there until he died. A family of colliers. It's kinda cool the connections between these mining regions/towns. I wonder how many miners from Wales ended up settling there. Can't imagine how tough the working conditions must have been back then but I'll bet the place had a real community spirit with the coal mining playing such an important part in the development of the pottery industry.

Your content is fantastic and so interesting, even though the subject matter is sad at times. I stay in Perth, Scotland and tbe town centre is also being affected badly. Its okay if you want a mobile phone, your nails done, a haircut or a coffee but thats about it. Perth had a thriving town centre but now so many places boarded up. Everything else had been pushed out to the retail parks on the outskirts of town.

I went to university in Stoke back in 2012-2015. Even back then it was a run down with plenty of closed shops, but I'm really shocked just how much worse it is now. The main "strip" for a night out used to be down Trinity Street, any while nothing amazing, was quite nice to have a single street to go down as student to visit all the bars and clubs. Looking at it now around 80% of it is now boarded up. I can't help but feel it's economic decline makes it feel almost like a post soviet city in the late 90's.

Lived in crewe for a bit in the 90s Stoke was somewhere you went for better facilities shopping etc. Sad to see now . Great perspective btw, so much of the current urban and social landscape in the Norfh and Midlands has evolved due to one big industrial endevour. Keep up the good work !

I found you from your Barrow video, but I'm sticking around as a happy subscriber. I think your real plus is you engage with strangers and find out what is going on. Keep it going!

Stoke was a mining town too, and we had a huge British Steel works as well

A great tour of Stoke on Trent. So interesting and informative. We'll done.

Fantastic video. Those chimneys should be celebrated and protected. Great words in the last ten minutes of the video regarding the guy Paul and the woman with the book store.