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Stoke-on-Trent Leasing

Did You Know?

Stoke-on-Trent is a city in central England. It’s known for its pottery industry. The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery displays locally made ceramics, decorative arts and a WWII Spitfire. The Gladstone Pottery Museum is in a former Victorian factory.

Stoke-on-Trent is often known as "the city of five towns", the name given to it by local novelist Arnold Bennett, and is the only polycentric city in the UK. In his novels, Bennett used mostly recognisable aliases for five of the six towns (although he called Stoke "Knype").

Stoke-on-Trent has been shaped by the pottery industry for over 300 years and is affectionately known the world over as 'The Potteries'. From small-scale beginnings in the mid seventeenth century, the abundance of coal and clay meant that the pottery industry grew and became rooted in the area.

Why do we call people 'Duck' in Stoke-on-Trent ? We're not actually calling you a Mallard, in fact it's believed that 'duck' comes from the Saxon word 'ducas' which was meant as a term of respect and leadership.

The name "Stoke-on-Trent" was chosen for the united borough. The new Council met for the first time in March 1910. in Stoke, under the chairmanship of Major Cecil Wedgwood DSO; who was elected the first Mayor. A descendent of Josiah Wedgwood, Cecil was a man of great integrity and dignity.

She was never shy about meeting her people during her long reign. Stoke-on-Trent was amongst many places she had travelled to, and we've uncovered some archive pictures of her visits. The photos below show the Queen in Stoke-on-Trent through the ages.

Be sure to look out the window when your train pulls into Stoke-on-Trent station – you’ll see an unmistakable bottle oven, once used to fire pottery, now one of 47 listed kilns that make up the landscape.

The city of Stoke on Trent didn't come into being until March 1910, with the Federation of the Six Towns. The six towns in question were Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall.

History shows, however, that there have been settlements scattered throughout the Stoke on Trent area for thousands of years. The first records of Hanley's existence appeared in 1227. Known then as Hanlih, it was nothing more than a small village. Evidence of coal mining and iron working in Tunstall also date back to the 13th century. Throughout the Middle Ages, these settlements remained little more than villages.

Stoke on Trent's pottery industry dates back to the mid-17th century, when a small community of farmer-potters was established. They made pots for butter made in Burslem. Hence, Burslem is regarded by many as the 'mother of the potteries'. Potters started to set up small factories in nearby Hanley, Stoke and Tunstall, as well as Fenton and Longton, and by 1740, a quite substantial industry had grown up here.