# Stoke-on-Trent is shit



## chio (Oct 3, 2006)

Now, I don't usually slag off places - everywhere has its redeeming features. Brixton, for example, for all its faults it's an exciting multicultural place to be. My small town is full of local yokels, but it's close to the centre of Manchester and a relatively quiet, crime-free place to live.

But I'm really, really struggling to find anything, _anything_ nice to say about Stoke-on-Trent. This half-arsed excuse for a "city" lies half-way between Manchester and Birmingham and enjoys none of the prosperity those two places have earned in recent years. It's been swallowing up ever-increasing chunks of my time, what with me being at its equally half-baked university for much of the year. 

A typical morning in Stoke goes like this. You get in your car and cruise along swimmingly until you reach the sign reading _"Staffordshire: A creative county"_. Then you stop. You'll sit, crawling up t'hill and down t'dale in first gear for hour after hour while lazy clayhead workmen smoke fags by the side of the road they've had coned off for well over four years. So you turn on the radio to relieve the mind-numbing, catatonic boredom - none of your fancy pants metropolitan stuff here, no sir - just two equally parochial stations, one of which plays Bon Jovi eighteen times a day while the other features hours of low-rent phone ins, used by no-one apart from Doris from Burslem with her regular Tuesday call moaning about the bins not being emptied properly.

So, eventually, after throwing the head-end of your car radio in the canal out of sheer screeching frustration at hearing "It's My Life" six times in a row, you reach the university car park. It's far too small and is full, with several cars parked on top of other cars. You drive to Kingsway, next to the Civic Centre and pay £3.50 to park. (It's actually £5.50 if you factor in the £2 swallowed by the first machine.) So far, so good. 

But everywhere has bad parking, crap radio, the odd traffic jam and stuff that doesn't work properly. So what's so bad about Stoke? Well, it's something I can't _quite_ put my finger on. It could be the buildings - if you're someone who enjoys photographing derelict old industrial estates, the place is your wet dream. There are vast swathes of grey, unused, derelict land where potteries, steelworks and offices once stood and where you can buy an end terrace for about £20. It could be the people - grey, featureless figures wandering aimlessly around stopping only to whimper "ay up duck" at one another as they shuffle past. It could be the roads - it's relentlessly noisy, there've been roadworks on the same stretch of dual carriageway for four years now and it makes for a tiring, depressing experience travelling round.

But I think the main problem is lack of hope. I'm an optimist when it comes to these things - Stoke should be booming, it's close to the M6 and M1, it's on a main railway line, it's mid-way between prosperous Manchester and Birmingham, property is cheap. But no - while the local paper uses its front page to boast of "employment booms" and "master plans to save our city" on an almost daily basis, the only employment making an entry is big companies building vast, grey, minimum-wage-slave warehouses, distribution depots and call centres. The people seem resigned to it and do sod-all about the situation, preferring to phone up radio stations and whinge about Poles and other immigrant groups I won't use the colloquialisms for here. They'll blame anyone but themselves - the lazy clayheads who sit on the dole doing nothing for years on end, wandering the streets of Fenton and Tunstall drinking in Wetherspoons. The only people making any serious cash here are the corrupt council big-wigs, driving Jags and Bentleys paid for by spurious PFI projects.

Anyway, that's my rant for the day. I don't usually say this, but I'd rather jump in front of a bus (driven by a Pole for £2.50 an hour) than have anything more to do with this place. The people here are dragging me down to their level - I quit.


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## BadlyDrawnGirl (Oct 3, 2006)

Flickers is a quality nightspot, though. 

And Hanley has excellent views across the valley.


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## Nine Bob Note (Oct 3, 2006)

Stoke-on-Trent: The only place in Britain where trains are regularly attacked by highway men*












*May not be true


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## Belushi (Oct 3, 2006)

Went there once, didnt think much of it.

It's actually more a conglomeration of pottery towns more than a city isnt it?


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## Idris2002 (Oct 3, 2006)

I'll have been in Birmingham two weeks on friday.

Put it this way, I already miss St. Petersburg. In fact, I already miss Co. Mayo.


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## poster342002 (Oct 3, 2006)

chio said:
			
		

> the lazy clayheads who sit on the dole doing nothing for years on end


Errr - perhaps getting alternative work is difficult? In case you hadn't noticed, the UK establishment is trying to divest itself of it's working classes by making it all redundant with no new work as a replacement.


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## fear-n-loathing (Oct 3, 2006)

I lived in Stoke for about 4 months and I have never lived in a more depressing place in my life.


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## GarfieldLeChat (Oct 3, 2006)

chio makes bland genraliseations about the world from his closeted viewpoint of general hatred shocker... 

you bored love??


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## ViolentPanda (Oct 3, 2006)

One of my Victorian-era ancestors (a potter) hated Stoke so much he upped sticks to Glasgow.


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## astral (Oct 3, 2006)

I lived in Stoke for five years.

I can not think of a single redeeming thing about the place.


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## ViolentPanda (Oct 3, 2006)

GarfieldLeChat said:
			
		

> chio makes bland genraliseations about the world from his closeted viewpoint of general hatred shocker...
> 
> you bored love??



He probably did it *just* to annoy you, garf.

Or not.


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## Andy the Don (Oct 3, 2006)

Stoke-on-Trent was featured in Saturday's Guardian Colour supp "Let's all move to.." so must be going up in the world. Apparently there is now a "cultural quarter" in Stoke. Although that could be like the "Streatham Village" all the estate agents go on about.. ie does not exist apart from on an estate agents particulars..


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## lighterthief (Oct 3, 2006)

Andy the Don said:
			
		

> Stoke-on-Trent was featured in Saturday's Guardian Colour supp "Let's all move to.." so must be going up in the world.


Yes, and what a complimentary article _that_ was!


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## Spion (Oct 3, 2006)

Quit whingeing. Just move if you don't like it.


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## chio (Oct 3, 2006)

I only posted this cause I got up this morning and thought "Hmm, I've not wound up Garf in a while. I'll post something about, erm, Stoke."

You're in my thoughts every day, Mr LeChat.


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## pogofish (Oct 3, 2006)

Two brief visits to the place over the years.  

Depressing shithole IMO.


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## astral (Oct 3, 2006)

Andy the Don said:
			
		

> Apparently there is now a "cultural quarter" in Stoke. ..


The cultural quarter is two cobbled streets with a couple of coffee shops next to the Old Vic.


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## H.Dot (Oct 3, 2006)

<devil's advocate> 

if towns outside London are all so crap, how come most people don't seem to want to leave?


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## zoltan (Oct 3, 2006)

I did Uni in the area a long long time ago.

Stoke is a glittering metropolis compared to Burslem, Burstall & the horror that is Blurton.

 "Blurton" ?


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## Belushi (Oct 3, 2006)

> Although that could be like the "Streatham Village" all the estate agents go on about..



I used to live in Streatham, where the hell is 'Streatham Village'?


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## H.Dot (Oct 3, 2006)

Belushi said:
			
		

> I used to live in Streatham, where the hell is 'Streatham Village'?



a south version of "Brackenbury Village" lol


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## chio (Oct 3, 2006)

H.Dot said:
			
		

> <devil's advocate>
> 
> if towns outside London are all so crap, how come most people don't seem to want to leave?



I didn't say towns outside London were crap, I can generally find something good about most places - I said Stoke was crap


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## Andy the Don (Oct 3, 2006)

Belushi said:
			
		

> I used to live in Streatham, where the hell is 'Streatham Village'?



As did I, apparently on the borders of Streatham Village & I still do not know where it is or if it even exists (outside estate agents fevered immagination)..??


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## nino_savatte (Oct 3, 2006)

I've only ever seen it from the train window and I wasn't impressed. I've also heard that the fash is considerably active there.


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## nino_savatte (Oct 3, 2006)

H.Dot said:
			
		

> a south version of "Brackenbury Village" lol



That's Brackenbury Village, _dahling_.


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## tommers (Oct 3, 2006)

I went to Keele university for four years in the early nineties.  still, that was in newcastle, which was relatively up market.

stoke is a shit hole.  I lived in silverdale for a year.  Once, our landlord came back from the football at about midnight, covered in blood.  Apparently he'd met a baggies fan in a pub.  His parting words were "so I told him, guns, knives, whatever, come back next week and I'll fucking kill yer" as he staggered up to his room.  happy days.


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## ViolentPanda (Oct 3, 2006)

chio said:
			
		

> I only posted this cause I got up this morning and thought "Hmm, I've not wound up Garf in a while. I'll post something about, erm, Stoke."
> 
> You're in my thoughts every day, Mr LeChat.



Hmmmm, just as I suspected!


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## zoltan (Oct 3, 2006)

tommers said:
			
		

> I went to Keele university for four years in the early nineties.  still, that was in newcastle, which was relatively up market.
> 
> stoke is a shit hole.  I lived in silverdale for a year.  Once, our landlord came back from the football at about midnight, covered in blood.  Apparently he'd met a baggies fan in a pub.  His parting words were "so I told him, guns, knives, whatever, come back next week and I'll fucking kill yer" as he staggered up to his room.  happy days.



pah  I was in Silverdale during the miners strike - now that was grim


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## nino_savatte (Oct 3, 2006)

So does Stoke qualify for the title of "Worst Town/City in Britain"?

Fuck me, even Thurso pisses all over Stoke.


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## tommers (Oct 3, 2006)

nino_savatte said:
			
		

> So does Stoke qualify for the title of "Worst Town/City in Britain"?
> 
> Fuck me, even Thurso pisses all over Stoke.



I think it did win that competition a couple of years ago.


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## AverageJoe (Oct 3, 2006)

Theres a church that has been turned into a lapdance joint in Stoke.

And when I went into the Wetherspoons there, I was the only person not in a motorised wheelchair. They had taken all the chairs out so people could get around.

I had to stand.  

Only been once. The longest three days of my life.


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## meurig (Oct 3, 2006)

I know fuck all about Stoke apart from Gordon Banks and Peter Shilton played for them, and Radio Stoke has Britain's finest radio show http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/blues.shtml?stoke/northernsoul.

So I think I can forgive them.


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## Andy the Don (Oct 3, 2006)

nino_savatte said:
			
		

> So does Stoke qualify for the title of "Worst Town/City in Britain"?



I thought that Hull won Britain's crappiest city competition..

(Although before I get lynched by Longdog, Roadkill & the rest of the Hull urbanites, I hear that Stoke is not as nice as Hull & that the competition was biased against the City of Hull.)


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## Roadkill (Oct 3, 2006)

Andy the Don said:
			
		

> I thought that Hull won Britain's crappiest city competition..
> 
> (Although before I get lynched by Longdog, Roadkill & the rest of the Hull urbanites, I hear that Stoke is not as nice as Hull & that the competition was biased against the City of Hull.)



Nah, Hull got it in 2003 and Stoke the following year.

Needless to say Hull never deserved it whereas Stoke does.


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## gnoriac (Oct 3, 2006)

chio said:
			
		

> Stoke should be booming, it's close to the M6 and M1, it's on a main railway line, it's mid-way between prosperous Manchester and Birmingham, property is cheap. But no - while the local paper uses its front page to boast of "employment booms" and "master plans to save our city" on an almost daily basis, the only employment making an entry is big companies building vast, grey, minimum-wage-slave warehouses, distribution depots and call centres.



Same's true of Cov, it's the fate of post-industrial cities in the UK, except for a handful of big / trendy ones.


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## poster342002 (Oct 3, 2006)

gnoriac said:
			
		

> Same's true of Cov, it's the fate of post-industrial cities in the UK, except for a handful of big / trendy ones.


And even in those you'll find shocking levels of permanent poverty alongside hordes of decadent, braying trustafarian britbrats.


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## KeyboardJockey (Oct 3, 2006)

fear-n-loathing said:
			
		

> I lived in Stoke for about 4 months and I have never lived in a more depressing place in my life.



If you think Stokes bad you should live in Dagenham for a while.

The loudest sound in my local pub is peoples knuckles dragging on the ground.   

Sample conversation:

'The asylum seekers are eating the faaking swans aint they dirty theiving bastards.  It must be true I read it in the Daily Star'


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## ada (Oct 3, 2006)

I spent a weekend in Stoke once, and found it exactly as others describe it, the most downtrodden place I've ever been.

Isn't the problem that it was gutted by the bulk of the potteries industry shutting down their operations there? It's a town/conglomeration built for a far larger population than it has now - the number of boarded up churches, and even a boarded-up new-looking hospital near the shopping area... it's really sad.


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## moose (Oct 3, 2006)

Actually, I think the Potteries generally have a lot going for them. They're making an effort to emerge from the ruins of their industrial heritage and investing in culture and tourism.


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## Kenny Vermouth (Oct 3, 2006)

Someone once told me Castleford was a vile shithole - anyone know if there's any truth in this.


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## Roadkill (Oct 3, 2006)

ada said:
			
		

> Isn't the problem that it was gutted by the bulk of the potteries industry shutting down their operations there?



Much the same could be said of many northern towns.  Bradford has never fully recovered from the loss of the textile trade, Sheffield from the contraction of the steel industry, Barnsley from the pit closures, Hull from the contraction of the docks and fishing industry etc etc...


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## Fuzzy (Oct 3, 2006)

gnoriac said:
			
		

> Same's true of Cov, it's the fate of post-industrial cities in the UK, except for a handful of big / trendy ones.



i think coventry is a great city to live in. different people and different expectations and all that. who cares?


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## longdog (Oct 3, 2006)

moose said:
			
		

> Actually, I think the Potteries generally have a lot going for them. They're making an effort to emerge from the ruins of their industrial heritage and investing in culture and tourism.



Culture, tourism and Stoke in the same thread?

Am I missing something?


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## nino_savatte (Oct 3, 2006)

KeyboardJockey said:
			
		

> If you think Stokes bad you should live in Dagenham for a while.
> 
> The loudest sound in my local pub is peoples knuckles dragging on the ground.
> 
> ...



I agree, I've never lived in Dagenham but I've visited it and it isn't a pretty sight. I can't say that I think much of Barking either...though I have seen a nice bit, near the abbey.


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## KeyboardJockey (Oct 3, 2006)

nino_savatte said:
			
		

> I agree, I've never lived in Dagenham but I've visited it and it isn't a pretty sight. I can't say that I think much of Barking either...though I have seen a nice bit, near the abbey.



Thats the bit you see when you leave


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## pogofish (Oct 3, 2006)

I've got vague memories of some guy there running-up & repeatedly headbutting a bus.  Is that normal for Stoke?


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## gnoriac (Oct 3, 2006)

Fuzzy said:
			
		

> who cares?



Those of us that have had to work in the vast warehouses and call centres.


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## jiggajagga (Oct 3, 2006)

Stoke? Gods country!


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## astral (Oct 3, 2006)

pogofish said:
			
		

> I've got vague memories of some guy there running-up & repeatedly headbutting a bus.  Is that normal for Stoke?




yes.  His name is Mike.


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## learydeary (Oct 4, 2006)

lived in stoke for a year twenty years ago 

Guess by the discussion it's not changed much


but imagine a time when

a pint in the union bar was 48p

you could buy a house in stoke (£4000) and your GRANT would pay your morgage

Bands
housemartins, cult, mission, cramps,..........er a bit stuck  

Lived in a cardborad box as well
bottom of a well as well


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## Vintage Paw (Oct 4, 2006)

I moved to Stoke to go to uni in 1996.

I'm still here.

No, it's not Birmingham. It's not Manchester. But now it's home. Yes, there are people who sit outside the Social with a can of special brew all day every day. Yes, there is a noticeable BNP presence. Yes, it doesn't look very pretty. But it's home. 

You get eejits anywhere you go, but there are also a lot of very nice, kind and sweet people in Stoke-on-Trent (I'm one of them  ). 

There _are_ plans to regenerate the city/series of towns over the next 15-25 years. I don't think anyone can expect to wake up one day and find it is suddenly a busy metropolis. It takes time. Although I have no doubt it isn't being done in the best way, but it's being done by a bunch of New Labour-ites, so what do you expect? Stoke has hit the bottom - it seriously cannot get any lower, so now it can only go up *fingers crossed*

Saying that, I can't wait until I can move out of shitty Shelton and move out in the 'burbs of Newcastle


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## poster342002 (Oct 4, 2006)

Vintage Paw said:
			
		

> There _are_ plans to regenerate the city/series of towns over the next 15-25 years. I don't think anyone can expect to wake up one day and find it is suddenly a busy metropolis. It takes time. Although I have no doubt it isn't being done in the best way, but it's being done by a bunch of New Labour-ites, so what do you expect?


Will these plans provide work for the local working class people currently out of work - or will it just be yet another bonanzer for middleclass britbrats?


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## Roadkill (Oct 4, 2006)

learydeary said:
			
		

> lived in stoke for a year twenty years ago
> 
> ...
> 
> ...



The Housemartins were from Hull!


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## tarannau (Oct 4, 2006)

You're sounding vaguely obsessional with this class-based mullarkey Poster. What do you expect them to do - re-open the potteries, textile factories and other stereotypical 'working class' industries.

I'd expect them to try and create some jobs that local people would be suitable for - hence the regeneration aspect. I suspect they're not ticking a 'class quota' box and thinking 'oh, we simply must employ more interior designers and a couple of fops from London, and for those new construction projects we'll only use builders who like lattes and hold BSc qualifications in Middle Classology'

I strongly suspect that the most of the people who'll be seeking employment over the next 15-25 years of these regeneration projects won't be considering whether the job's for the right class or not - they'll just want to work. A friend's been on the dole for umpteen years in Stoke, but recently worked as a rep for a wine importer. Does that make him a middle class ponce now, or is he simply seeking a job?


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## Mrs Magpie (Oct 4, 2006)

Stoke has some wonderful industrial architecture.....


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## poster342002 (Oct 4, 2006)

tarannau said:
			
		

> You're sounding vaguely obsessional with this class-based mullarkey Poster.
> 
> A friend's been on the dole for umpteen years in Stoke, but recently worked as a rep for a wine importer. Does that make him a middle class ponce now, or is he simply seeking a job?


1. Class _does_ impact on every aspect of a person's life, unfortunately. Class is obsessed with _me_, you could say. I could _try_ to ignore the impact of high prices, high rents, low wages etc that being working class brings me - but these things would insist on making their impact felt.

2. The guy you mention would still be working class. However, a great deal of people will not even have the opportunity to take such a job. Most of the "new" jobs being created in areas of hihg unemployment are ones that those made redundant from previous industries will most liely be ineligble for. The ratio of jobs to those still unemployed will also be inadeqaute.


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## BEARBOT (Oct 5, 2006)

i recently heard some thing VERY positive about hull, never heard a good word about stoke EVER. 
AFAIK in hull there is an alternative/non-mainstream scene of sorts  
for a example a close friend in leeds makes experimental films.she recently showed films at a pub called the lamp in hull.she loved the venue and freindliness of the people running this regular event...she feels it would be easier to connect with the people doing creative stuff in hull cos they are so welcoming compared with leeds...

 my basic point is..do ANY nights like this exist in stoke?
any alternatives to mainstream culture at all beyond say a rock pub


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## editor (Oct 14, 2019)

Ugh. 
Faces of 19 paedos & perverts brought to justice this year in Stoke-on-Trent


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## killer b (Oct 14, 2019)

I've visited stoke twice this month, and had a great time both occasions: once to see a play at their very pleasant rep theatre, and once to visit the ceramics biennial, which was amazing: so nonces aside - and I'm sure a similar news piece could be put together for any town in the UK - stoke has a thumbs up from me.


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## farmerbarleymow (Oct 14, 2019)

editor said:


> Ugh.
> Faces of 19 paedos & perverts brought to justice this year in Stoke-on-Trent


To be fair you see the same sort of article in almost every local paper these days - it used to be people done for shoplifting and stuff, now it is this awful stuff.  

Wonder what happened to chio though - he came to a Manchester meet about fifteen years ago I think.  

Not a fan of Stoke and pass through it often - the station is a nice building, but never ventured into the town itself.  It looks a bit depressing like many towns.


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## danny la rouge (Oct 14, 2019)

farmerbarleymow said:


> but never ventured into the town itself.


It’s actually six towns.


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## editor (Oct 14, 2019)

farmerbarleymow said:


> To be fair you see the same sort of article in almost every local paper these days - it used to be people done for shoplifting and stuff, now it is this awful stuff.
> 
> Wonder what happened to chio though - he came to a Manchester meet about fifteen years ago I think.
> 
> Not a fan of Stoke and pass through it often - the station is a nice building, but never ventured into the town itself.  It looks a bit depressing like many towns.


Oh I'm not saying that Stoke is any different, but it was a bloody depressing rollcall.


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## killer b (Oct 14, 2019)

Seriously, look at these fucking pots.


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## killer b (Oct 14, 2019)

editor said:


> Oh I'm not saying that Stoke is any different, but it was a bloody depressing rollcall.


It's just a slow news day easy clickbait story. Set the work experience kid to pull all the nonce stories from the last two years and bingo: a front page without having to leave your seat.


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## danny la rouge (Oct 14, 2019)

Staffordshire Oatcakes

Oat cakes.


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## killer b (Oct 14, 2019)

I did mean to eat an oat cake when I was there, but didn't have time in the end. So next time - Hopefully it doesn't suffer from the same issue as eccles which has no local eccles cake makers left at all.


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## farmerbarleymow (Oct 14, 2019)

editor said:


> Oh I'm not saying that Stoke is any different, but it was a bloody depressing rollcall.


Those stories are always grim - I avoid reading them.


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## farmerbarleymow (Oct 14, 2019)

danny la rouge said:


> It’s actually six towns.


If it is now a city presumably the town thing is in the past?


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## danny la rouge (Oct 14, 2019)

farmerbarleymow said:


> If it is now a city presumably the town thing is in the past?


“I’m going up Hanley”.  Nah. Still a thing.

I like the Potts. Regular visitor. Warm people.


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## farmerbarleymow (Oct 14, 2019)

danny la rouge said:


> “I’m going up Hanley”. Nah. Still a thing.


Yeah, but it is legally still a thing?  Cities were towns once, so it makes sense that they are no longer classified as such once they get a city charter - although locals will no doubt still stick to the old terminology.


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## killer b (Oct 14, 2019)

The earlier posts on this thread make interesting reading. Dont think much of that stuff would pass unchallenged now.


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## editor (Oct 14, 2019)

If any Stoke fans want to lobby for a better title, I'd be happy to oblige. I've never been to the place but their football fans were never particularly nice to Cardiff back in the day, not that that really means much.


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## danny la rouge (Oct 14, 2019)

editor said:


> If any Stoke fans want to lobby for a better title, I'd be happy to oblige. I've never been to the place but their football fans were never particularly nice to Cardiff back in the day, not that that really means much.


Nah. Let the title stand. Anyone who visits knows it isn’t a balanced view. Stoke on Trent’s place in the history of Northern Soul alone gives it cultural significance.


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## hash tag (Oct 14, 2019)

editor said:


> If any Stoke fans want to lobby for a better title, I'd be happy to oblige. I've never been to the place but their football fans were never particularly nice to Cardiff back in the day, not that that really means much.



I went as an away supporter many years ago, a respectable group. Was driven up by the clubs dentist in fact. Our mini bus got bricked.


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## Teaboy (Oct 14, 2019)

Lived there back in the late 90's.  I had a huge amount of fun but it wasn't hard to see it was a City struggling in the face of the all the pottery closures.  Went back a year or so ago and was depressed to see what state she's in now.  So many boarded up shops in Hanley and visible homelessness which was never that bad when I lived there.  Tough times.

Talking of Stoke City FC when I live there it was the time of the old Victoria Ground and I didn't live far from it.  In those days Stoke and Port Vale were in the same league, that Derby was one you made sure you never left the house during.


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## 8ball (Oct 14, 2019)

This is probably a dumb question, but has the system designated the OP as a "New Member" when they posted in 2006?
I know we're all knocking on a bit age wise but that seems a little extreme.


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## Artaxerxes (Oct 14, 2019)

killer b said:


> I've visited stoke twice this month, and had a great time both occasions: once to see a play at their very pleasant rep theatre, and once to visit the ceramics biennial, which was amazing: so nonces aside - and I'm sure a similar news piece could be put together for any town in the UK - stoke has a thumbs up from me.



The opening of the crowdfunded clay college up there and generally a few other potteries has been nice to see the last few years.

I do keep meaning to take a tour but can't be arsed. Might try studying up there if I ever get round to it.


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## AverageJoe (Oct 14, 2019)

killer b said:


> It's just a slow news day easy clickbait story. Set the work experience kid to pull all the nonce stories from the last two years and bingo: a front page without having to leave your seat.



Yep. From today's local. I imagine they are all owned by the same group so have a generic "Monday is this, Tuesday find this, Wednesday post this" kind of thing.

The 29 men all Kent women should avoid


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## cybershot (Oct 14, 2019)

I visit there often as it’s where the OH is from. It has its special people and special places but where doesn’t? 

I’d say it fits in with the mentality that the further north you keep going the nicer people actually are to each other. But let’s not talk about brexit.


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## Puddy_Tat (Oct 14, 2019)

farmerbarleymow said:


> If it is now a city presumably the town thing is in the past?


no

the town of stoke upon trent is one of the six towns that formed the city of stoke on trent


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## blossie33 (Oct 14, 2019)

BBC have been running a series showing a more positive side to SOT very recently

We Are Stoke-on-Trent - BBC News


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## friedaweed (Oct 14, 2019)

killer b said:


> The earlier posts on this thread make interesting reading. Dont think much of that stuff would pass unchallenged now.




Yup I can't believe that only one person spoke up about someone claiming the Housemartin's were from Stoke.

We call in to Stokey when we're travelling to and from Derby to see Narnia's big nipper, mostly to the Portmerrion outlet shop but we often find a few 2nd hand shops and the likes to make an hour or so of it. The oatcakes are good scan and the folk I work with from Stoke are good eggs.

It's grim for sure but it is up North.


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## xenon (Oct 14, 2019)

It’s midlands, not north.


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## xenon (Oct 14, 2019)

I stayed in newcastle underline once, went to the wheat chief. Was alright.


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## Puddy_Tat (Oct 14, 2019)

xenon said:


> It’s midlands, not north.



i'm not entirely convinced - Tunstall feels more north than midlands.  Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton are definitely midlands, as is Newcastle.  and I never quite got the hang of Burslem.

and sainsbury's in Reading have recently stopped stocking staffordshire oatcakes.


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## fishfinger (Oct 14, 2019)

Puddy_Tat said:


> ...and sainsbury's in Reading have recently stopped stocking staffordshire oatcakes.


Noooooooo!


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## binka (Oct 14, 2019)

When you grow up in Stafford then Stoke is a rare exciting family Saturday out - the potteries museum, shopping in Hanley*, and of course water fucking world! 



*Actually really shit being dragged around the shopping centre by mum and two older sisters but ymmv


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## Proper Tidy (Oct 14, 2019)

I've got a soft spot for stoke on trent. Always quite like the hard bitten places. Port vale fans are cunts though


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## farmerbarleymow (Oct 14, 2019)

We should arrange a piss-up in Stoke!


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## Puddy_Tat (Oct 14, 2019)




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## farmerbarleymow (Oct 15, 2019)

Puddy_Tat said:


>


Only joking - I don't know Stoke at all.  There is a bar at the station mind, so a very localised piss-up could be arranged.


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## Puddy_Tat (Oct 15, 2019)

farmerbarleymow said:


> Only joking - I don't know Stoke at all.  There is a bar at the station mind, so a very localised piss-up could be arranged.



I'm some distance away these days.  Lived in Newcastle 1990-91 ish, worked in Stoke and got mildly pissed in Hanley fairly often.  Would probably have stayed put if certain work circumstances had been different.

gratuitous picture of PMT buses (for people who don't know the area to snigger at and remind others of what buses looked like there before worst group buggered it up)


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## farmerbarleymow (Oct 15, 2019)

Puddy_Tat said:


> gratuitous picture of PMT buses


I try to avoid buses - they're even worse than trains.

Did they run out of red or yellow paint, hence the weird one in the picture?


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## Puddy_Tat (Oct 15, 2019)

farmerbarleymow said:


> Did they run out of red or yellow paint, hence the weird one in the picture?



the one on the left is in national bus company livery - this was introduced in the mid 70s and buses were either drab 'poppy red' or drab 'leaf green' and the crews' uniforms were a drab pale blue (sort of faded air force blue)

the red / yellow was introduced in the mid 80s when bus companies were privatised.

before the 70s they were like this


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## Ming (Oct 15, 2019)

Slash was born in Stoke on Trent. He did leave it pretty quickly though.


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## cybershot (Oct 15, 2019)

farmerbarleymow said:


> We should arrange a piss-up in Stoke!



That would be erm, interesting, to say the least. You can't do the train station as you're not getting the proper 'local vibe' there.


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## farmerbarleymow (Oct 15, 2019)

cybershot said:


> That would be erm, interesting, to say the least. You can't do the train station as you're not getting the proper 'local vibe' there.


Are local people not allowed in the station bar then?


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## killer b (Oct 15, 2019)

There did seem to be barriers when I was there last week


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## farmerbarleymow (Oct 15, 2019)

killer b said:


> There did seem to be barriers when I was there last week


I think there is a barrier splitting the bar in two, presumably to stop people getting on to the platform without a ticket.


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## Patteran (Oct 15, 2019)

danny la rouge said:


> Nah. Let the title stand. Anyone who visits knows it isn’t a balanced view. Stoke on Trent’s place in the history of Northern Soul alone gives it cultural significance.



Rave scene, too - Shelley's & Entropy were significant venues, launch pads for techno & italo house scenes, & welcome respites for dancers from Mcr when the Hacienda was first closed. Working class club crowd, relentlessly positive, & drug mad - even before acid house, it was a place you could always find lsd. The loved-up, 'E brings people together' aspect of the scene felt more important there, more real - there was never any real mither at the Hac before E - but the kids in Stoke with their tops off, smiling at strangers, were rejecting the small town violence they'd grown up with. Good people.


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## Saul Goodman (Oct 15, 2019)

farmerbarleymow said:


> I try to avoid buses - they're even worse than trains.
> 
> Did they run out of red or yellow paint, hence the weird one in the picture?


It looks like they hadn't run out of either


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## Saul Goodman (Oct 15, 2019)

Patteran said:


> Rave scene, too - Shelley's & Entropy were significant venues, launch pads for techno & italo house scenes, & welcome respites for dancers from Mcr when the Hacienda was first closed. Working class club crowd, relentlessly positive, & drug mad - even before acid house, it was a place you could always find lsd. The loved-up, 'E brings people together' aspect of the scene felt more important there, more real - there was never any real mither at the Hac before E - but the kids in Stoke with their tops off, smiling at strangers, were rejecting the small town violence they'd grown up with. Good people.


Shelley's was ace. A load of used to travel from Manchester most weeks. It was as good or better than anything in Manchester.


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## Puddy_Tat (Oct 15, 2019)

I could always consider retiring to the south east corner of Stoke, and setting up a kitty sanctuary - meir cat manor


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