Burslem
Encyclopedia
The town of Burslem, known as the Mother Town, is one of the six towns that amalgamated to form
the current city of Stoke-on-Trent
, in the ceremonial county
of Staffordshire
, in the Midlands
of England.
. Burslem embraces the areas of Middleport
, Dalehall, Longport, Westport, Trubshaw Cross, and Brownhills. The Trent & Mersey Canal cuts through, to the west and south of the town centre. A little further west, the West Coast Main Line
railway and the A500 road
run in parallel, forming a distinct boundary between Burslem and the abutting middle-class town of Newcastle-under-Lyme
. To the south is Grange Park and Festival Park, reclaimed by the Stoke-on-Trent Garden Festival
.
shows Burslem as a small farming hamlet; strategically sited above a vital ford (crossing)
at Longport
, part of the major pack horse track out of the Peak District
and Staffordshire Moorlands
to the Liverpool
/London road. As far back as the late 12th century a thriving pottery
industry existed, based on the fine & abundant local clay
s. After the Black Death
, Burslem emerges in the records as a medieval town - the 1536 stone church is still standing and in use. Until the mid-1760s Burslem was relatively cut off from the rest of England; it had no navigable river nearby, and there were no good & reliable roads. By 1777 the Trent and Mersey Canal
was nearing completion, and the roads had markedly improved. The town boomed on the back of fine pottery production & canal
s, and became known as 'The Mother Town' of the six towns that make up the city. In 1910 the town was federated into the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent
, and the borough was granted city status in 1925.
The famous novels of Arnold Bennett
evoke the feel of Victorian
Burslem, with its many potteries, mines, and working canal barges. The Burslem of the 1930s to the 1980s is evoked by the paintings and plays of Arthur Berry
.
Burslem contains Britain's last real working industrial district
(i.e.: where people live within walking distance of the factories of a single heavy industry - in this case, the potteries); and thus much of the nineteenth-century industrial heritage, buildings & character have survived intact.
A recent report suggested the concentration of pottery-based heritage makes the area the richest stretch of canal
for industrial heritage in England.
1828 journal
"In the Doomsday Survey - for even in that early date Burslem was a place of some importance - the town appears, as "Burwardeslyn;" and frequent mention is made of it in ancient documents during the Middle Ages."
1893 journal
In 2007 Burslem saw a social enterprise newspaper, Local Edition, become one of the first newspapers to cover the area regularly. The newspaper covered Burslem, as well as surrounding areas including Tunstall, Middleport and Cobridge, giving a voice to the people in the community. The newspaper ceased publication in 2008 and its archive is online at localedition.org.uk.
count, the population of Burslem was 21,400. A study by consultants Atkins, working from the United Kingdom Census 2001
data, showed that the Burslem population is steady and has not declined despite a manufacturing decline during the 1980s and '90s.
Traditional Victorian architecture
& Edwardian period
terraced houses dominate the town. New housing developments are underway on the Sadlers Factory site and around Woodbank Street.
Heavy industrial employment (mines, steel & pots) has left a legacy of ill-health among many older people, but there is the Haywood Hospital (High Lane, Burslem) and the new £300-million University Hospital of North Staffordshire is just three miles away by road.
Burslem is a multicultural area of Stoke-on-Trent
with a significant Asian population.
, Wade
, Moorcroft
) are thriving. Burslem is emerging as a centre for small, freelance creative businesses working in sectors such as fine art, animation and crafts as well as pottery.
Shopping options in the town centre have markedly declined, hit by the impact of nearby out-of-town retail park
s that offer free parking. However, the evening economy is still active with a wide range of bars and restaurants mainly serving English and Indian food. The Leopard Inn, on Market Place, has become internationally well-known following its appearance on Most Haunted in 2007.
At Spring 2002 unemployment
was running at 4.1 percent or 1,526 people in the Stoke-on-Trent North constituency; almost the same rate as the West Midlands
as a whole. In Burslem at 2001 unemployment was 3.2 percent and declining.
In 2005, £2-million of new business park
units for the creative industries was announced for the town. New business parks are planned for 2006/7 just to the north (Chatterley Valley, £40m+) and the south (Etruria Valley, £100m+) of the town.
each year, supporting around 4,400 direct jobs. Stoke shows its popularity through the number of repeat visits; around 80 percent of visitors have previously been here. Burslem has a variety of strong tourist attractions; Burleigh, Moorcroft, Ceramica, Festival Park, its many authentic English pubs, and the Trent & Mersey Canal.
It also has the legacy of novelist Arnold Bennett
, who refers to the town and many of its streets with thinly-disguised names: e.g. Burslem/"Bursley", Swan(Square and Pub)/"Duck". It is the setting for one of his most famous works, the Clayhanger
trilogy. Burslem's centre benefits from having an almost-intact medieval street-plan and countless fine old buildings, and a townscape which almost-totally escaped re-development during the 1960s and '70s.
After being under-used for years, the Burslem School of Art
has been refurbished at a cost of £2.1m and offers several large free art
galleries. The free Public Library is currently based in the School of Art, after the Venetian Gothic
Wedgwood Institute
closed for safety reasons early in 2009. Ceramica
is a new award-winning ceramics family attraction, based in the imposing old Town Hall and funded by Millennium Lottery
money. The Queen's Theatre has regular concerts and an annual pantomime.
There is a traditional Friday street market, and street carnival
s in May and December.
club Port Vale F.C.
is based in Burslem at Vale Park
. The team currently plays in the nPower League 2, England's fourth division.
Near to the town is Burslem Golf Club - a 9-hole course which once had singer Robbie Williams
as a Junior Captain. It was opened on September 28, 1907 by vaudeville entertainer and golfer Sir Harry Lauder. On September 29, 2007 his great-nephew Gregory Lauder-Frost as guest-of-honour rededicated it for another century in a formal ceremony.
, the largest Further Education
college in England. The campus specialises in media-production and drama. Within a six mile radius from Burslem there are three universities; Staffordshire
at Shelton, Keele University
, and Manchester Metropolitan
's large Art & Design campus at Alsager
.
Burslem has a Victorian park
designed by Thomas Hayton Mawson
, and a large amount of reclaimed green space, such as the Westport Lakes and the later legacy of the 1986 National Garden Festival
, which imaginatively reclaimed part of the Shelton Bar steelworks site. The Peak District National Park begins just ten miles north-east of Burslem.
gives access to the M6 motorway
. Longport railway station
offers direct connections south into Stoke, east to Derby
and Nottingham
, and north to Crewe
& Manchester
. The town is straddled by two major off-road cycle paths, part of the National Cycle Network
. The Trent and Mersey canal is said to see over 10,000 narrowboat
s a year using it.
The nearest international airports are Manchester & Birmingham International
; each is about 60 minutes away by train.
Burslem was served by a railway station which was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway
on November 1, 1873.
, who is a major shareholder in Port Vale
. His family are still resident in the area.
Other notable figures include the watercolour painter James Holland
(1800–1870); the potter Josiah Wedgwood
; the founder, bassist
and lead singer of one of Britain's foremost rock bands - Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister of Motörhead - he was born and spent his early childhood in the town; and Darts
legend and 15-time world champion, Phil Taylor who was born, raised and also worked in the town.
In the 17th century, Molly Leigh
was resident of the town before being accused of being a witch and dying before her trial.
William Frederick Horry owned the George Hotel in the 1860s before murdering his wife Jane at his fathers house in Boston Lincolnshire....despite pleas for clemency he was hanged at Lincoln Castle April 1st 1872 and his body interred with other executed felons in the interior of the Castles Lucy Tower where it can still be seen.
The film adaptation of Arnold Bennett's The Card was partly filmed on location in the town.
Robbie Williams
published a song, Burslem Normals in "Rudebox" (album), released in 2006. A short film, "Goodbye to the Normals" was made.
A song "Waterloo Road" performed by Jason Crest
was written (by Mike Deighan and Mike Wilsh) about the Waterloo Road in Burslem. The song became very popular and even reached #1 in France
when the French
singer, Joe Dassin
, covered
it under the title, "Les Champs Élysées".
The town is the setting for several novels, including: the historical mystery novel set in 1869, The Spyders of Burslem (2011); and the dark fantasy novel Necromantra (2005).
Federation of Stoke-on-Trent
The federation of Stoke-on-Trent refers to the events leading to the 1910 amalgamation of the six Potteries towns of Burslem, Tunstall, Stoke-upon-Trent, Hanley, Fenton and Longton into the single county borough of Stoke-on-Trent. An anomaly in the history of English local government, this was the...
the current city of Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...
, in the ceremonial county
Ceremonial counties of England
The ceremonial counties are areas of England to which are appointed a Lord Lieutenant, and are defined by the government as counties and areas for the purposes of the Lieutenancies Act 1997 with reference to the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England and Lieutenancies Act 1997...
of Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, in the Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
of England.
Topography
Burslem is sited on the eastern ridge of the Fowlea Valley, the Fowlea being one of the main early tributaries of the River TrentRiver Trent
The River Trent is one of the major rivers of England. Its source is in Staffordshire on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through the Midlands until it joins the River Ouse at Trent Falls to form the Humber Estuary, which empties into the North Sea below Hull and Immingham.The Trent...
. Burslem embraces the areas of Middleport
Middleport, Staffordshire
Middleport is a residential and industrial district of the town of Burslem in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, England. Middleport lies to the west of Burslem, between Burslem town centre and the Newcastle-under-Lyme district of Porthill. To the north is Tunstall and to the south Cobridge and Etruria...
, Dalehall, Longport, Westport, Trubshaw Cross, and Brownhills. The Trent & Mersey Canal cuts through, to the west and south of the town centre. A little further west, the West Coast Main Line
West Coast Main Line
The West Coast Main Line is the busiest mixed-traffic railway route in Britain, being the country's most important rail backbone in terms of population served. Fast, long-distance inter-city passenger services are provided between London, the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and the...
railway and the A500 road
A500 road
The A500 is a major primary A road in Staffordshire and Cheshire, England. It is dual carriageway for most of its length and connects Nantwich, junctions 16 and 15 of the M6 motorway with the city of Stoke-on-Trent...
run in parallel, forming a distinct boundary between Burslem and the abutting middle-class town of Newcastle-under-Lyme
Newcastle-under-Lyme
Newcastle-under-Lyme is a market town in Staffordshire, England, and is the principal town of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme. It is part of The Potteries Urban Area and North Staffordshire. In the 2001 census the town had a population of 73,944...
. To the south is Grange Park and Festival Park, reclaimed by the Stoke-on-Trent Garden Festival
Stoke-on-Trent Garden Festival
The Stoke-on-Trent National Garden Festival was the second of Britain's National Garden Festivals. It was held in the city from 1 May to 26 October 1986, and was opened by the Queen. Preparation of the site involved the reclamation of land formerly occupied by the Shelton Bar steelworks , about...
.
History
The Domesday BookDomesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
shows Burslem as a small farming hamlet; strategically sited above a vital ford (crossing)
Ford (crossing)
A ford is a shallow place with good footing where a river or stream may be crossed by wading or in a vehicle. A ford is mostly a natural phenomenon, in contrast to a low water crossing, which is an artificial bridge that allows crossing a river or stream when water is low.The names of many towns...
at Longport
Longport, Staffordshire
Longport is an area of Stoke-on-Trent, England. It is the location for Longbridge Hayes industrial estate.Longport railway station, opened by the North Staffordshire Railway on October 9, 1848, is on the Crewe to Derby and Stafford to Manchester Lines....
, part of the major pack horse track out of the Peak District
Peak District
The Peak District is an upland area in central and northern England, lying mainly in northern Derbyshire, but also covering parts of Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, and South and West Yorkshire....
and Staffordshire Moorlands
Staffordshire Moorlands
Staffordshire Moorlands is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. Its council, Staffordshire Moorlands District Council, is based in Leek and is located between the city of Stoke-on-Trent and the Peak District National Park. The 2001 census recorded the population as...
to the Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
/London road. As far back as the late 12th century a thriving pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...
industry existed, based on the fine & abundant local clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
s. After the Black Death
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
, Burslem emerges in the records as a medieval town - the 1536 stone church is still standing and in use. Until the mid-1760s Burslem was relatively cut off from the rest of England; it had no navigable river nearby, and there were no good & reliable roads. By 1777 the Trent and Mersey Canal
Trent and Mersey Canal
The Trent and Mersey Canal is a in the East Midlands, West Midlands, and North West of England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities—east of Burton upon Trent and west of Middlewich—it is a wide canal....
was nearing completion, and the roads had markedly improved. The town boomed on the back of fine pottery production & canal
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
s, and became known as 'The Mother Town' of the six towns that make up the city. In 1910 the town was federated into the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent
Federation of Stoke-on-Trent
The federation of Stoke-on-Trent refers to the events leading to the 1910 amalgamation of the six Potteries towns of Burslem, Tunstall, Stoke-upon-Trent, Hanley, Fenton and Longton into the single county borough of Stoke-on-Trent. An anomaly in the history of English local government, this was the...
, and the borough was granted city status in 1925.
The famous novels of Arnold Bennett
Arnold Bennett
- Early life :Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which joined together at the beginning of the twentieth century as Stoke-on-Trent. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, and the...
evoke the feel of Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
Burslem, with its many potteries, mines, and working canal barges. The Burslem of the 1930s to the 1980s is evoked by the paintings and plays of Arthur Berry
Arthur Berry
Arthur Berry was an English playwright, poet, teacher and artist, born in Smallthorne, Stoke-on-Trent.Berry was the son of a publican and grew up during the Depression. At the age of 14 he enrolled at Burslem School of Art...
.
Burslem contains Britain's last real working industrial district
Industrial district
Industrial district was initially introduced as a term to describe an area where workers of a monolithic heavy industry live within walking-distance of their places of work...
(i.e.: where people live within walking distance of the factories of a single heavy industry - in this case, the potteries); and thus much of the nineteenth-century industrial heritage, buildings & character have survived intact.
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
for industrial heritage in England.
Trade journals
"BURSLEM, an ancient town, with a market held for a long period by custom, and subsequently sanctioned by an act of parliament, is about three miles from Newcastle and two from Hanley, entitled to the precedence of other towns in this district, as claiming to be the mother, as it is the metropolis, of the Staffordshire Potteries."1828 journal
"In the Doomsday Survey - for even in that early date Burslem was a place of some importance - the town appears, as "Burwardeslyn;" and frequent mention is made of it in ancient documents during the Middle Ages."
1893 journal
In 2007 Burslem saw a social enterprise newspaper, Local Edition, become one of the first newspapers to cover the area regularly. The newspaper covered Burslem, as well as surrounding areas including Tunstall, Middleport and Cobridge, giving a voice to the people in the community. The newspaper ceased publication in 2008 and its archive is online at localedition.org.uk.
Population and housing
At the 1991 censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
count, the population of Burslem was 21,400. A study by consultants Atkins, working from the United Kingdom Census 2001
United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
data, showed that the Burslem population is steady and has not declined despite a manufacturing decline during the 1980s and '90s.
Traditional Victorian architecture
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
& Edwardian period
Edwardian period
The Edwardian era or Edwardian period in the United Kingdom is the period covering the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910.The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 and the succession of her son Edward marked the end of the Victorian era...
terraced houses dominate the town. New housing developments are underway on the Sadlers Factory site and around Woodbank Street.
Heavy industrial employment (mines, steel & pots) has left a legacy of ill-health among many older people, but there is the Haywood Hospital (High Lane, Burslem) and the new £300-million University Hospital of North Staffordshire is just three miles away by road.
Burslem is a multicultural area of Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...
with a significant Asian population.
Economy
Industrial scale pottery production has drastically declined since the 1970s; but specialist makers (Steelite) and smaller producers of high-value ceramics (BurleighBurleigh (pottery)
Burleigh Pottery is the name of a pottery in Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent. The pottery occupies a nineteenth-century listed building next to the Trent and Mersey Canal. .- History :The factory was established in 1851 at the Central Pottery in Burslem as Hulme and Booth...
, Wade
Wade Ceramics
Wade Ceramics Ltd. are manufacturers of porcelain and earthenware, including animal figures for their Collectors Club, whisky flagons, and a variety of industrial ceramics....
, Moorcroft
Moorcroft
Moorcroft is a British pottery manufacturer based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, which was founded by William Moorcroft.-History:...
) are thriving. Burslem is emerging as a centre for small, freelance creative businesses working in sectors such as fine art, animation and crafts as well as pottery.
Shopping options in the town centre have markedly declined, hit by the impact of nearby out-of-town retail park
Retail park
In the United Kingdom, a retail park is a grouping of many retail warehouses and superstores with associated car parking. Its North American equivalent is a power centre. Retail parks are found on the fringes of most large towns and cities in highly accessible locations and are aimed at households...
s that offer free parking. However, the evening economy is still active with a wide range of bars and restaurants mainly serving English and Indian food. The Leopard Inn, on Market Place, has become internationally well-known following its appearance on Most Haunted in 2007.
At Spring 2002 unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
was running at 4.1 percent or 1,526 people in the Stoke-on-Trent North constituency; almost the same rate as the West Midlands
West Midlands (region)
The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,...
as a whole. In Burslem at 2001 unemployment was 3.2 percent and declining.
In 2005, £2-million of new business park
Business park
A business park or office park is an area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. All of the work that goes on is commercial, not industrial or residential....
units for the creative industries was announced for the town. New business parks are planned for 2006/7 just to the north (Chatterley Valley, £40m+) and the south (Etruria Valley, £100m+) of the town.
Tourism
Around 5 million tourists visit Stoke-on-TrentStoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...
each year, supporting around 4,400 direct jobs. Stoke shows its popularity through the number of repeat visits; around 80 percent of visitors have previously been here. Burslem has a variety of strong tourist attractions; Burleigh, Moorcroft, Ceramica, Festival Park, its many authentic English pubs, and the Trent & Mersey Canal.
Arnold Bennett
- Early life :Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which joined together at the beginning of the twentieth century as Stoke-on-Trent. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, and the...
, who refers to the town and many of its streets with thinly-disguised names: e.g. Burslem/"Bursley", Swan(Square and Pub)/"Duck". It is the setting for one of his most famous works, the Clayhanger
The Clayhanger Family
The Clayhanger Family is a series of novels by Arnold Bennett, published between 1910 and 1918. Though the series is commonly referred to as a "trilogy", it consists of four books; the first three novels were released in one single volume as The Clayhanger Family in 1925.-Clayhanger :The novels are...
trilogy. Burslem's centre benefits from having an almost-intact medieval street-plan and countless fine old buildings, and a townscape which almost-totally escaped re-development during the 1960s and '70s.
After being under-used for years, the Burslem School of Art
Burslem School of Art
Burslem School of Art was an art school in Burslem in the Potteries district of England. Students from the school played an important role in the local pottery industry....
has been refurbished at a cost of £2.1m and offers several large free art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
galleries. The free Public Library is currently based in the School of Art, after the Venetian Gothic
Venetian Gothic architecture
Venetian Gothic is a term given to an architectural style combining use of the Gothic lancet arch with Byzantine and Moorish architecture influences. The style originated in 14th century Venice with the confluence of Byzantine styles from Constantinople, Arab influences from Moorish Spain and early...
Wedgwood Institute
Wedgwood Institute
The Wedgwood Institute is a large red-brick building that stands in Queen Street, in the town of Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England...
closed for safety reasons early in 2009. Ceramica
Ceramica
Ceramica was a museum in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, which explored the history of the area's pottery industry. It was located in the former Burslem Town Hall....
is a new award-winning ceramics family attraction, based in the imposing old Town Hall and funded by Millennium Lottery
Millennium Commission
The Millennium Commission in the United Kingdom was set up to aid communities at the end of the 2nd millennium and the start of the 3rd millennium. It used funding raised through the UK National Lottery....
money. The Queen's Theatre has regular concerts and an annual pantomime.
There is a traditional Friday street market, and street carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
s in May and December.
Sports
The major footballFootball (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
club Port Vale F.C.
Port Vale F.C.
Port Vale Football Club is an English football club currently playing in Football League Two. They are based in Burslem, Staffordshire — one of six towns that make up the city of Stoke-on-Trent. The club's traditional rivals in the city are Stoke City, and games between the two clubs are known as...
is based in Burslem at Vale Park
Vale Park
Vale Park is a football stadium in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England. It is the home ground of Port Vale F.C., who have played at the ground since 1950....
. The team currently plays in the nPower League 2, England's fourth division.
Near to the town is Burslem Golf Club - a 9-hole course which once had singer Robbie Williams
Robbie Williams
Robert Peter "Robbie" Williams is an English singer-songwriter, vocal coach and occasional actor. He is a member of the pop group Take That. Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early- to mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and certain group members, Williams...
as a Junior Captain. It was opened on September 28, 1907 by vaudeville entertainer and golfer Sir Harry Lauder. On September 29, 2007 his great-nephew Gregory Lauder-Frost as guest-of-honour rededicated it for another century in a formal ceremony.
Education
Burslem is the site of the main campus of Stoke-on-Trent CollegeStoke-on-Trent College
Stoke-on-Trent College is a provider of further and higher education based in Stoke-on-Trent. According to www.stoke.net the college has more than 30,000 students and over 1000 staff. The college's main campus, known as Cauldon Campus, is in Shelton and it has a second campus in Burslem.Stoke on...
, the largest Further Education
Further education
Further education is a term mainly used in connection with education in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is post-compulsory education , that is distinct from the education offered in universities...
college in England. The campus specialises in media-production and drama. Within a six mile radius from Burslem there are three universities; Staffordshire
Staffordshire University
Staffordshire University is a university with its main campus based in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and with other campuses in Stafford, Lichfield and Shrewsbury.- History :...
at Shelton, Keele University
Keele University
Keele University is a campus university near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as an experimental college dedicated to a broad curriculum and interdisciplinary study, Keele is most notable for pioneering the dual honours degree in Britain...
, and Manchester Metropolitan
Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University is a university in North West England. Its headquarters and central campus is in the city of Manchester, but there are outlying facilities in the county of Cheshire. It is the third largest university in the United Kingdom in terms of student numbers, behind the...
's large Art & Design campus at Alsager
Alsager
Alsager is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, to the north-west of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and east of the railway town of Crewe...
.
The environment
The town is elevated and is not prone to flooding.Burslem has a Victorian park
Park
A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...
designed by Thomas Hayton Mawson
Thomas Hayton Mawson
Thomas Hayton Mawson , better known as T. H. Mawson, was a British garden designer, landscape architect, and town planner....
, and a large amount of reclaimed green space, such as the Westport Lakes and the later legacy of the 1986 National Garden Festival
National Garden Festival
The National Garden Festivals were part of the cultural regeneration of large areas of derelict land in Britain's industrial districts during the 1980s and early 1990s. Five were held in total - one every two years, each in a different town or city - after the idea was pushed by environment...
, which imaginatively reclaimed part of the Shelton Bar steelworks site. The Peak District National Park begins just ten miles north-east of Burslem.
Transport
The nearby A500A500 road
The A500 is a major primary A road in Staffordshire and Cheshire, England. It is dual carriageway for most of its length and connects Nantwich, junctions 16 and 15 of the M6 motorway with the city of Stoke-on-Trent...
gives access to the M6 motorway
M6 motorway
The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby via Birmingham then heads north, passing Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester, Preston, Carlisle and terminating at the Gretna junction . Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74 which continues to...
. Longport railway station
Longport railway station
Longport railway station is a station serving the areas of Longport, Middleport and Burslem, all districts in the northern part of Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom. The station is served by trains on the Crewe to Derby Line which is also a Community rail line known as the North Staffordshire line...
offers direct connections south into Stoke, east to Derby
Derby
Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...
and Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, and north to Crewe
Crewe
Crewe is a railway town within the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census the urban area had a population of 67,683...
& Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
. The town is straddled by two major off-road cycle paths, part of the National Cycle Network
National Cycle Network
The National Cycle Network is a network of cycle routes in the United Kingdom.The National Cycle Network was created by the charity Sustrans , and aided by a £42.5 million National Lottery grant. In 2005 it was used for over 230 million trips.Many routes hope to minimise contact with motor...
. The Trent and Mersey canal is said to see over 10,000 narrowboat
Narrowboat
A narrowboat or narrow boat is a boat of a distinctive design, made to fit the narrow canals of Great Britain.In the context of British Inland Waterways, "narrow boat" refers to the original working boats built in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries for carrying goods on the narrow canals...
s a year using it.
The nearest international airports are Manchester & Birmingham International
Birmingham International Airport (UK)
Birmingham Airport , formerly Birmingham International Airport is an airport located east southeast of Birmingham city centre, at Bickenhill in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull within the West Midlands, England...
; each is about 60 minutes away by train.
Burslem was served by a railway station which was opened by the North Staffordshire Railway
North Staffordshire Railway
The North Staffordshire Railway was a British railway company formed in 1845 to promote a number of lines in the Staffordshire Potteries and surrounding areas in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shropshire....
on November 1, 1873.
Notable people
Possibly Burslem's most famous son is Robbie WilliamsRobbie Williams
Robert Peter "Robbie" Williams is an English singer-songwriter, vocal coach and occasional actor. He is a member of the pop group Take That. Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early- to mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and certain group members, Williams...
, who is a major shareholder in Port Vale
Port Vale F.C.
Port Vale Football Club is an English football club currently playing in Football League Two. They are based in Burslem, Staffordshire — one of six towns that make up the city of Stoke-on-Trent. The club's traditional rivals in the city are Stoke City, and games between the two clubs are known as...
. His family are still resident in the area.
Other notable figures include the watercolour painter James Holland
James Holland (artist)
James Holland was an English painter of flowers, landscapes, architecture and marine subjects, and book illustrator...
(1800–1870); the potter Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood was an English potter, founder of the Wedgwood company, credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery. A prominent abolitionist, Wedgwood is remembered for his "Am I Not A Man And A Brother?" anti-slavery medallion. He was a member of the Darwin–Wedgwood family...
; the founder, bassist
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and lead singer of one of Britain's foremost rock bands - Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister of Motörhead - he was born and spent his early childhood in the town; and Darts
Darts
Darts is a form of throwing game where darts are thrown at a circular target fixed to a wall. Though various boards and games have been used in the past, the term "darts" usually now refers to a standardised game involving a specific board design and set of rules...
legend and 15-time world champion, Phil Taylor who was born, raised and also worked in the town.
In the 17th century, Molly Leigh
Molly Leigh
Molly Leigh was an English woman who was accused of witchcraft, died before being tried, and had her grave disturbed following claims that she still haunted the town....
was resident of the town before being accused of being a witch and dying before her trial.
William Frederick Horry owned the George Hotel in the 1860s before murdering his wife Jane at his fathers house in Boston Lincolnshire....despite pleas for clemency he was hanged at Lincoln Castle April 1st 1872 and his body interred with other executed felons in the interior of the Castles Lucy Tower where it can still be seen.
In popular culture
George Fomby's first sound film, Boots! Boots!, got its world premiere in Burslem in 1934.The film adaptation of Arnold Bennett's The Card was partly filmed on location in the town.
Robbie Williams
Robbie Williams
Robert Peter "Robbie" Williams is an English singer-songwriter, vocal coach and occasional actor. He is a member of the pop group Take That. Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early- to mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and certain group members, Williams...
published a song, Burslem Normals in "Rudebox" (album), released in 2006. A short film, "Goodbye to the Normals" was made.
A song "Waterloo Road" performed by Jason Crest
Jason Crest
Jason Crest were a Tonbridge, Kent based psychedelic pop group, active from around 1967 to 1969. Despite releasing five singles on Philips from 1967 to 1968, , the band were never commercially successful and disbanded towards the end of 1960s when their contract with Philips...
was written (by Mike Deighan and Mike Wilsh) about the Waterloo Road in Burslem. The song became very popular and even reached #1 in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
when the French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
singer, Joe Dassin
Joe Dassin
Joseph Ira Dassin , more commonly known as Joe Dassin, was an American singer-songwriter best known for his French songs of the 1960s and 1970s.-Biography:...
, covered
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
it under the title, "Les Champs Élysées".
The town is the setting for several novels, including: the historical mystery novel set in 1869, The Spyders of Burslem (2011); and the dark fantasy novel Necromantra (2005).
See also
- Burslem (UK Parliament constituency)Burslem (UK Parliament constituency)Burslem was a borough constituency in Stoke-on-Trent which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Elections were held using the first past the post voting system.- History :...
, abolished Parliamentary constituency - SmallthorneSmallthorneSmallthorne is an area in the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is in the north-east of the city, near Burslem...
, nearby area
External links
- Burslem - one of the Six Towns
- More on Burslem - in trade journals
- Port Vale Football Club
- Burslem School of Art
- Middleport
- Placeopedia streetmap of Burslem
- Use interactive maps to search for historic artefacts and photographs from old Burslem
- Local Edition the local newspaper for Burslem
- Burslem Regeneration Company check for up to date regeneration news and announcements