“They make bogs in Hanley,” states Albert Steptoe flatly. (Steptoe and Son)
“I'm going to serve tea to the vicar in my Royal Doulton with hand-painted periwinkles,” announces Hyacinth Bucket in her Sunday-best voice.(Keeping Up Appearances)
It is an interesting and little-known fact that every home in the UK has a small piece of Stoke-on-Trent inside it. Whether it's a teapot or a toilet, the chances are it was manufactured in Stoke-on-Trent. It is also interesting to note that the area surrounding the city of Stoke is known as "The Potteries", thus making it the only city in the UK to be known by its industry. Northampton isn't known as "The Shoes" and Sheffield isn't known as "The Knives", although it very well could be.
The Potteries area in Stoke-On-Trent is best known for its manufacture of world-class pottery and porcelain. This fact has been referred to in other media apart from the two examples cited at the beginning of this article. Sadly, a good many pot banks ( local term for pottery factories) have been forced to close down in the face of competition from cheaper imported goods. If not shut down they have allowed themselves to be taken over by the omniscient Wedgwood Group. However, there's a lot more to The Potteries than toilets and hand-painted periwinkles.
A bit of trivia for Coronation Street fans - George Formby's first film “Boots! Boots!” (1934), premiered in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. Betty Turpin of Rover's Return fame auditioned for and was given a part in the film. However, Formby's wife, Beryl, stepped in and insisted Driver didn't take part. The only female part in the film was played by Beryl Formby, but the film-makers forgot to remove Driver's name from the film credits.
Football fans of more mature years will remember a save from a Pele header by Gordon Banks in England's game against Brazil in the Mexico World Cup Finals of 1970. Banks' career as a goalkeeper for Stoke City and England ended tragically when he lost the sight in one eye in a car crash in 1972. He did however, play for Fort Lauderdale Strikers from 1977-78. Stoke City was one of the founder clubs of the Football League along with eleven other clubs back in 1888, when the shorts were long and the pay was short. Stoke's most remarkable player was Sir Stanley Matthews. He played his last professional game for Stoke at the age of fifty in 1965, he was knighted in the same year. In his thirty-three years long career, Matthews was never booked and is the first footballer to be knighted.
Another unique feature of the area is the Potteries oatcake. Their origin has never been conclusively established but there is an explanation that seems plausible. In the latter half of the 19th century, soldiers of the Staffordshire Regiment returned from a tour of duty in colonial India. Some of them, while in India, had been enjoying an Indian side-dish known as a japati, a kind of pancake.
Back in the Potteries, some members of the regiment tried to repeat the recipe. However, some of the ingredients freely available in India could not be found in Britain at the time. This did not stop these resourceful men for long, they replaced the unobtainable elements with ingredients easily found in the local area and the oatcake was born.
Two major events in history, however, are both linked to men born in The Potteries and the city of Southampton. Reginald Joseph Mitchell, born 20 May 1895 in Talke, Stoke-on-Trent could be considered among the people who were instrumental in saving Britain from the Nazis. In 1911, Mitchell was apprenticed to a firm of railway locomotive makers in Stoke-on-Trent.
As part of his apprenticeship, Mitchell attended night-school and while there his flair for mathematics became evident. In 1917, he moved to Supermarine, a firm founded in 1913 with the aim of building more efficient seaplanes. By 1920, RJ Mitchell became the firm's chief designer. In 1928, Supermarine was taken over by Vickers Ltd. and such was Mitchell's reputation that it was written in the contract that he remained with the company for at least five years. It was a deserved reputation since Mitchell designed twenty-four different types of aircraft between 1920 and 1936.
From what is now Southampton airport in March 1936, a fighter aircraft prototype, designed by Mitchell was test-piloted for the first time. The Supermarine Type 300 Spitfire Mark I, was reported to have "handled beautifully" and its maneuverability made it superior to the Luftwaffe's Messerschmitt 101 fighter planes. The Spitfire's wing design actually out-performed those of early jet-fighters ten years later. Mitchell died of cancer on 11 July 1937 and never witnessed one of his creation's finest achievements. His Spitfire fighter planes giving the RAF a much needed edge over the Luftwaffe in the Battle Of Britain in World War II meant that the planned Nazi invasion from France could not take place.
