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Burslem
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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.
lem is sited on the eastern ridge of the Fowlea Valley, the Fowlea being one of the main early tributaries of the River Trent. Burslem embraces the areas of Middleport, Dalehall, Longport, Westport, Trubshaw Cross, and Brownhills.
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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.
Topography
Burslem is sited on the eastern ridge of the Fowlea Valley, the Fowlea being one of the main early tributaries of the River Trent. 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.
History
The Domesday Book 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 1100s a thriving pottery industry existed, based on the fine & abundant local clays. 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 & canals, and became known as 'The Mother Town' of the six towns that make up the city. 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 (ie: 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.
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 new social enterprise newspaper the Local Edition become one of the first, if not the first, newspaper to cover the area regularly. The newspaper, edited by Clare-Marie White covers Burslem, as well as surrounding areas including Tunstall, Middleport and Cobridge, giving a voice to the people in the community. The newspaper is currently publishing online at localedition.org.uk.
Population & housing
At the 1991 census 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. There are advanced plans to build around 800 new high-quality homes in Burslem by 2006/7, on the sites of cleared Victorian potteries and schools.
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 South Asian population, concentrated mainly to the south of the town. The Muslim community is served by a mosque and several Islamic centres.
Economy
Industrial scale pottery production has drastically declined since the 1970s; but specialist makers (Steelite) and smaller producers of high-value ceramics (Lorna Bailey, Burleigh, Wade, Moorcroft) are thriving.
Shopping options in the town centre have markedly declined, hit by the impact of nearby out-of-town retail parks that offer free parking.
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.
Tourism
Around 5 million tourists visit Stoke-on-Trent 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, Lorna Bailey, 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: eg 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 & 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, in the Venetian Gothic Wedgwood Institute, offers a strong selection of local history books. 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 is currently closed.
There is a traditional Friday street market, and an annual street carnival in May.
Sports
The major football club Port Vale F.C. is based in Burslem at Vale Park.
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.
Education
Burslem is the site of the main campus of Stoke-on-Trent College, 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.
The environment
Rainfall in Burslem is more like that of Birmingham than the (reputed) persistent drizzle of Manchester. Air quality is good. The town is elevated and is not prone to flooding.
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.
Transport
The nearby A500 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 narrowboats 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.
Notable people
Possibly Burslems most famous son is Robbie Williams, who is a major shareholder in Port Vale. His family are still resident in the area.
Other well known figures from the town include 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. Darts legend and 14-time world champion, Phil Taylor, was born, raised and also worked in the town.
In the 18th century, Molly Leigh was resident of the town before being accused of being a witch and dying before her trial.
In popular culture
George Fomby's first sound film, Boots! Boots!, got its world premiere in Burslem in 1934.
Robbie Williams published a song, Burslem Normals in "Rudebox" (album), released in 2006. A short film, "" was made, featuring the song. The film depicts a boy leaving his parents 'forever' to go to America. Youtube link for "".
See also
External links
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