Month: Oct 2024

Stoke-on-Trent’s Proud Heritage

A city that forgets its past is a city without a future.
Reginald Mitchell’s Spitfire

Stoke-on-Trent is a city with a proud heritage.

Its history is a testament to people from the Potteries who have played significant roles on the world stage. 

Stoke-on-Trent’s city council was one of the pioneers of comprehensive education. It defied Conservative and Labour governments to reform secondary education by creating comprehensive schools and a sixth-form college. 

Local art schools, technical schools and colleges of further education were progressive centres of excellence. Reginald Mitchell, who designed the Spitfire, turned down a place at Birmingham University. He wanted to serve an apprenticeship with a firm in Fenton and study engineering at city technical schools. 

By the early 1930s, the North Staffordshire Technical College was a university in everything but name. The college’s worldwide reputation in ceramic research and mining engineering attracted students from Europe, North America and the Commonwealth.

Some argue that the past is dead. They are mistaken. It lives in our collective memory and shapes our destiny. Our city’s proud heritage tells us who we are and why we are unique. A city that forgets its past is a city without a future.

Can You Help Trace These Film Strips?

North Staffordshire Heritage needs your help to find a series of historic 35 mm film strips. These films were made by local schools in 1960. They were produced to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent’s creation.

We have the scripts for all these film strips. But we have only found one film strip, the Township of Tunstall that was made by Highgate Secondary School.

The film strips about Burslem, Hanley, Stoke-upon-Trent, Fenton and Longton are missing. If you can help us to trace them, please email northstaffordshireheritage@outlook.com

North Staffordshire’s Industrial Landscape Merits World Heritage Site Status

The Harecastle Tunnels on the Trent & Mersey Canal at Kidsgrove

There are no historical reasons preventing North Staffordshire’s Industrial Landscape from becoming a World Heritage Site.

In the 18th century, North Staffordshire helped to make England “the workshop of the world.” Local entrepreneurs, like Wedgwood and Adams, transformed a group of small towns into an industrial area of international importance.

James Brindley’s Trent & Mersey Canal “kick-started” the Industrial Revolution, which made Britain “the Workshop of the World. The canal and railway tunnels between Kidsgrove and Chatterley are significant feats of civil engineering. They merit World Heritage Site status in their own right.

The Primitive Methodist Church was founded in North Staffordshire by Hugh Bourne and William Clowes. It gave the Potteries its unique culture and a way of life that Arnold Bennett vividly portrayed in his novels.

Burslem’s “old town hall” is one of the finest examples of Victorian civic architecture. The Wedgwood Institute’s terracotta facade is an inspiring tribute to the men, women and children who worked in local industries.

The former colliery at Chatterley Whitfield should have been made a World Heritage Site many years ago.

Making North Staffordshire’s Industrial Landscape a World Heritage Site would encourage economic regeneration and create new employment opportunities.