Ideas flowing in the Old Post Office

With a new exhibition being put up around us, around 15 people gathered for this first experimental meeting. 10 ideas were presented with discussion inbetween. While some were ideas that fit the category of “would be great if enough people got behind it”, many more were already active pieces of work that can inspire other people.

All the ideas will be developed into individual posts and in the meantime here’s a brief summary of the discussion. We think we’ll get together again in a month to continue the discussions.

Many thanks to Rob and the Old Post Office for hosting. This space will be open all weekend for a sales exhibition of pottery and also hosts a Social Media Surgery on September 1st – this is a chance for anybody in the community to come and get free advice about helpful ways you can use the internet. More information here.

North Staffordshire Coalfield « Proposed World Hertage Site.. Bringing North Staffordshire Together

North Staffordshire Coalfield « Proposed World Heritage Site.. Bringing North Staffordshire Together.

Support the Middleport Fun Day

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Community fun day in Stoke-on-Trent
Location: Middleport Park.

Date: Saturday August 14, 2010.

Time: 12pm – 4:30pm

Clowns, balloon modelling, face painting and a mini Olympics will all be helping to keep residents entertained at a community fun day this weekend.

The Middleport annual fun day is to be held at Middleport Park on Saturday August 14, between 12pm and 4.30pm.

The event, which is organised by Middleport, Longport and Dalehall Community Association, will see the park full of activities including Punch and Judy shows, a steele band, birds of prey show, bowling lessons, dog chipping, lantern making, bouncy castle, stalls and raffle, climbing wall, dodge ball and BBQ.

There will also be information on regeneration in the area, health checks, housing and employment advice and the opportunity to find out more about the Grow Your Own Project – giving people the chance to grow their own fruit and vegetables.

Green jobs for Stoke: discuss

Burslem and Middleport are included in this case for green jobs in Stoke-on-Trent by Bill Cawley, on pitsnpots.

Updates from the Local Forum

The Burslem and Middleport Local Forum meets monthly in the Burslem School of Art. Here are a few updates from last night’s meeting:

• Middleport Residents Association, Midland Heart, John Baskeyfield, RENEW, British Waterways and CAB (more? I lost track) have all been involved in some excellent work over the last few weeks to create community gardens and develop a shared allotment for older people.
• You can see all of this at the Middleport Fun Day on 14th August.
• The Forum discussed its future direction and suggested future meetings themed around the Port Project, land, future funding and Burslem town centre.
• Debbie Hope from RENEW shared latest developments from the Middleport programme. This includes refurbishments, greening projects, further clearance and street works. Email debbie.hope @ stoke.gov.uk for more detail.
• The Burslem Port Project is making good progress with further landscaping and investigation work.
• There is currently a display in the School of Art on progress and plans for Burslem Town Centre and the community are invited to give their views.

For more information about the Local Forum or to get involved email karen.dulson @ stoke.gov.uk. The next meeting will be on July 29th.

Then and Now

“If we walk through Burslem today we still have this magical, reachable history which very, very few towns have”

Fred Hughes takes a look back at how Burslem has changed since the 1960s. By peoplesarchive

Burslem’s heritage trail

by John Webbe

Have you seen the information boards around Burslem town centre? Maybe you have seen the bright-green leaflets which proudly shout “Welcome to Burslem, Mother Town of the Potteries”? They form Burslem’s heritage trail.

I decided to follow this route with my retired parents and my then nearly-two-year old daughter as we enjoyed the sun shining bright overhead. There are nine heritage trail boards in total – seven around Burslem town centre and one each at Moorcroft & Middleport Pottery. I am not going to repeat any of the information on the heritage trail boards or in the leaflet, I’ll leave that to you to find out, but believe me, it’s worth it – there’s some fascinating information for even the most hardened Boslemite to learn!