Be Proud of Stoke!

There are loads of reasons to be proud of our Stoke. Here's a list of things that i feel make Stoke great....

- Burslem Cemetery - the final resting place for Potteries names like Arnold Bennett and Arthur Berry.
- John Lockwood Kipling, father of Rudyard.
- The Leopard Inn, Burslem, where James Brindley met Josiah Wedgwood to discuss the building of the trent and Mersey Canal in 1765.
- Jack Baskeyfield's statue on Festival Park a tribute to a brave Potteries man.
- Arnold Machin, Minton apprentice designer who created the Queen's head logo for the Royal Mail stamp.
- Tunstall Baths - from the changing rooms around the pool to the splendid building which houses it.
- Hanley Park - a tribute to design and beauty.(now left to rot)
- May un mar Lady - the cartoon life of characters from the Potteries.(find them in the Sentinel)
- Chatterley Whitfield - an area being developed so the Potteries' mining history will be preserved for future generations.
- The Flushed with Pride exhibition currently being staged at the Gladstone Pottery Museum - a tribute to the toilets of the Potteries.
- Brown Owl, the Potteries museum's most famous bird, and star of the Antiques Roadshow.
- Phil Taylor, darts player who maintains the Potteries profile in the world of sport
- The Meir Tunnel - an urban motorway which has dramatically improved travel across the Midlands.
- Tunstall Park's gates, providing an ornate and grand entrance into the park.
- The George Hotel, Burslem, meetings place for the Arnold Bennett Society.
- Tripe drowned in vinegar, a regular Friday night treat for any Potteries dweller. (I don't like it)
- Oatcakes another Friday tea-time treat for pottery folk.
- Up Hanley, Duck - a phrase used throughout the Potteries and an instant reminder of where you are.
- The "spikey man" - the Man of Fire - the metallic sculpture which adorns the front of the Debenham's store in Hanley (formerly Lewis's).
- Burslem School of Art, home to some of the Potteries greatest design talents. (Clarice Cliff, Lorna Bailey)
- Longton Town Hall, saved from demolition - a tribute to people power.
- Waterworld, the UK's number one indoor aqua park.
- Port Vale and Stoke City - teams which put the Potteries on the sporting map. (Stoke City are trying to take Port Vale over, NEVER)
- The Potteries sense of humour - dry and wicked, but always raising a smile.
- The Green Star pub in Smallthorne, which as the unofficial headquarters of the North Staffordshire - Esperanto club has helped promote the global language.
- The city's £153 million private finance initiative aimed at transforming the state of school buildings - the largest scheme of its kind nationwide.
- Staffordshire University and its work in producing the Potteries' next generation of designers, business brains and other bright sparks.
- Stoke-on-Trent Ladsandads Club, Doug Brown's eminently practical method of bringing fathers and sons closer together through football.
- The Michelin factory, a symbol of Anglo-French co-operation for more than 75 years, though its days in Stoke seem to be numbered as production winds down.
- Nick Hancock, a Stoke City supporter who has given fresh significance to the famous quote They Think It's All Over through his satirical TV show.
- Clarice Cliff, the pottery designer whose art deco Bizarre creations have won an enduring and worldwide reputation in the catalogues of collectable pottery.
- Ford Green Hall, the city's oldest house and the only example of preserved black and white architecture, now getting close to its 400th birthday.
- The statue of Perseus and Medusa on the edge of Trentham Lake, magnificent figures in a magnificent setting.
- Captain Edward Smith, the Hanley man who went down with the doomed Titanic and created a heroic legend.
- Eric Busker Newton, a street entertainer who has won the hearts of all.
- Westport Lake, opened by Prime Minister Ted Heath in 1972, a prime example of turning an industrial wasteland into a pleasant centre for open-air recreation.
- The unique collection of cow cream jugs at the Potteries Museum, all too rarely on display.
- Pop star Robbie Williams, still a Potter in spite of his fame, he started his stardom at 14-year-old, with the North Staffs Operatic Society. (Vale fan)
- The Trent and Mersey Canal, Stoke-on-Trent's true river and one of its best-known highways from the outside world. The canal, a wonder of the Industrial Revolution, was the M6 of its day.
- The Douglas Macmillan Hospice at Blurton, where patients and visitors alike are treated with care and compassion.
- Jackie Trent, a miner's daughter who rose to the top in the world of pop music, and includes in her formidable CV composing the theme tune for Neighbours.
- Wrights pies, you haven't had a pie until you have had a wrights pie.
- Brown's sausages, a delicacy which can certainly stand alongside Wright's pies in the Potteries cuisine hall of fame.
- The Meals on Wheels service for the elderly, founded by Len Godwin in Stoke in 1946 and now copied in many countries.
- Burslem old town hall and the golden angel, symbols of Victorian self-belief and civic pride.
- Twyford's sanitary ware, providing thrones of quiet contemplation around the world.
- Trent Vale earth tremors, which create an atmosphere of unpredictability and excitement.
- Staffordshire lobby, a working-class dish of many tastes which, according to my mother, it sticks to your ribs.
- Hanley Market, which epitomises the spirit of friendliness in the Potteries and where you can get genuine bargains.
- Stoke-on-Trent's greenways and land reclamation schemes, in particular Hanley Forest Park, the best public amenity to be added to the city in the last 50 years.
- Stoke Station and Winton Square, the most attractive examples of railway architecture you are likely to find outside London.
- Jack Baskeyfield VC, Ernest Egerton VC, and John Rhodes VC, Stoke-on-Trent's supreme war heroes of the 20th century.
- The 4 surviving bottle ovens, reminders of an industry which has made the Potteries world-famous.
- Reginald Mitchell, an engineering genius whose Spitfire fighter played a major role in saving Britain from invasion in 1940.
- Arnold Bennett, whose Five Towns novels have introduced the Potteries to millions of readers all round the world.
- Vale Park, a football ground which is a credit to Stoke's 'poor relations' at Burslem.
- Denise Morse, of Penkhull, a leukaemia victim who died in 1989, aged 33, after raising £million for a bone marrow register and winning the heart of the nation.
- Tunstall Sacred Heart RC Church, built in the 1920s by unemployed men led by the indomitable parish priest Father Ryan.
- Lord Ashley of Stoke, an inspirational figure for all who fight for a better life for disabled people.
- Gladstone Pottery Museum, Longton, an outstanding example of a working museum which brings the past back to life.
- Sir Oliver Lodge, born at Penkhull in 1851, a scientific genius who was a pioneer in the discovery and development of radio.
- Victoria Hall, Hanley, a concert hall acknowledged to have acoustics which cannot be bettered anywhere in Britain.
- Josiah Wedgwood, the greatest potter of all and the man who did more than anyone to make Stoke-on-Trent's worldwide reputation for fine ceramics.
- The mining memorial in the Potteries Museum, the only visible reminder of a vanished local industry which cost thousands of lives.
- The small monument at Boothen to Timothy Trow, a brave tram conductor who died trying to save a small child from drowning in the canal.
- Wizard of Dribble Sir Stanley Matthews, Stoke's footballing legend who played for England whose name is familiar to sports fans in almost every country in the world.