Latest news with #Burslem
BBC News
14-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Grandson of Moorcroft founder buys bust Stoke-on-Trent firm
Moorcroft Pottery, which stopped trading at the end of April after more than 100 years in business, has been returned to family company has been bought by Will Moorcroft, whose grandfather William Moorcroft built the factory on Sandbach Road in Cobridge in 1913, with support from London department store firm had remained in the family until 2006 when Mr Moorcroft's father retired."It's nice to have the opportunity to bring it back into the family fold," Mr Moorcroft said. "I'm very proud to have been able to pick up the keys." Mr Moorcroft said he would like to see "as many of the staff as we can bring back" but that he was unable to guarantee all 57 workers would be able to return."We'll do our best to make it work, and get everybody back who wants to come back doing what the do best, which is producing beautiful Moorcroft," he added that they were considering moving production away from the site in Burslem, moving the firm solely to the original factory on Sandbach Road. The brand was popular with US presidents and British prime ministers, and has a following among collectors around the winning a number of prestigious international awards, Moorcroft was appointed as potter to Queen Mary in firm's royal patronage continued when the late Queen Elizabeth II added Moorcroft designs into the Royal March, bosses at the firm warned of redundancies, stating their energy costs had gone up by almost £250,000 over the past two 30 April they issued a statement that the company was to be liquidated. Mr Moorcroft said issues such as energy costs and global markets did weigh heavily on his mind, and that refreshing the brand would take hard work."The faith in the product is there," he said, "we just have to ensure that we can get the collectors – new and old – to keep the faith."He added that he felt it was a family firm, not only in terms of his personal connection, but also through that of the skilled pottery workers who were part of the company. The company's local roots are also an integral part of its heritage, he said."It's made in Stoke-on-Trent, it's got the backstamp to show that, all the staff are local, it stays local and for the city it's fantastic news for it to be continuing."He said his plan was to resume production, ensuring the brand and its products continued to be made along with the potential for new designs and new products."It's all handmade, it's an iconic brand that over time has reached every corner of the world," he said."I think to have such a product, to carry on its existence, is tremendous for everybody." Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
09-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Moorcroft Pottery workers get IT lessons to help job search
Former Moorcroft Pottery workers are being given laptops and IT lessons to help them get back into Burslem-based firm went bust in May, with the loss of 57 women are being helped to improve their digital skills with the help of Stoke-on-Trent City Council and training service Wavemaker."It's all around empowering people with the confidence, kit and skills," said Wavemaker co-founder Ben McManus. Many of the workers had been at the pottery company since leaving school, said Louise Edwards, who was painter for 21 years."So we don't have the skills for the future jobs market," she laptops and lessons are being paid for through government funding, and the course is being run at the GMB Union's offices in Hanley. Just turning the computer on had been a "big thing when you've painted pots for 38 years," said Hayley Moore."When you're in your fifties, you don't really want to start learning something new, but if that's what it takes, that's what it takes," she hunger to learn new skills, and the worker's resilience during stressful circumstances had been "infectious," said Mr McManus. Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Hundreds gather for Stoke-on-Trent's centenary parade
"It really is going to knock everyone's socks off," says the organiser of a parade taking place to mark a city's are gathering on the streets of Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, to watch the People's Parade - the centrepiece of ongoing 100th birthday procession, featuring huge puppets, live music and dancing, will begin at 13:00 BST with about 800 participants marching for 1.5 miles (2.4km) from College Road to finish at Hanley Susan Clarke, from Stoke Creates, said: "We don't tell the world enough how good we are at doing stuff and how creative and imaginative we are. "Take us seriously, stop putting us down because there's no reason to do that now."More than 350 artists worked with 70 groups across the city on the procession - with the puppets including a representation of Burslem-born Lemmy from Motörhead, a giant clock and a 16ft-high (4.4m) figure which can interact with onlookers. Costume maker Holly Johnson has made 100 cupcake costumes that will be worn by pupils from Angela Beardmore School of said: "I've been told I could go to other cities and I could maybe do better, but we love Stoke so much that we want to help build the community here and we just wanted to keep help building the arts here."Dave Lovatt, from Cat & Mouse Theatre Group, said he would be "getting the crowd roused up and excited" by sharing stories of local heroes on a said famed residents represented in the parde would include Sir Stanley Matthews, Robbie Williams and athlete Jazmin from Year 7 at Haywood Academy have worked with artist Emily Andrews to create a replica of the city's incinerator, with an invented creature protruding from it that is part fox, part children will be feeding litter, picked along the route, to the "foxalotl" and recycling it afterwards."I grew up in Stoke, it's a big part of my life and a big part of who I am," Ms Andrews said. The six towns, which were granted city status by King George V on 5 June 1925, marked the first official Stoke-on-Trent Day on Thursday. Celebrations culminate on Saturday with Party in the Park at Hanley Park, with performances from local musicians and street food stalls.A Lancaster Bomber will fly over it just after 15:00 BST, approaching from Stoke-on-Trent College and continuing to the city city's Lord Mayor Steve Watkins said it would be a "spectacular moment", symbolising the city's wartime contribution and "longstanding history of service and resilience".A free street party with eight hours of dance music is also taking place on Piccadilly, Hanley, on Saturday from 14:00 to 23:00. Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on Facebook, X and Instagram.
BBC News
05-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Stoke-on-Trent community stalwarts honoured with freedom of city
Port Vale Football Club and the club's chair and co-owner, Carol Shanahan, are set to be awarded the freedom of announcement comes as the club prepares to celebrate its 150th anniversary and the city celebrates 100 years since it was federated.A number of other significant figures will also be recognised, including billionaire Bet365 co-founders Denise and Peter Coates, and former Stoke-on-Trent North MP Joan Walley.A ceremony is set to take place on Thursday to confer the honours. Freedom of the city is the top honour the council can bestow on people in recognition of their recipients on Thursday include the lord-lieutenant of Staffordshire Sir Ian Dudson, businessman John Goodwin, historian Fred Hughes, businessman Mo Iqbal and music promoter Mike Lloyd.A spokesperson for Port Vale Football Club said the honour was testament to Ms Shanahan's impact on Burslem and wider city in the six years since taking over the award for the club itself recognised its history and commitment to community engagement through the Port Vale Foundation, they added. 'Genuinely touched' Port Vale chief executive, Matt Hancock said: "This is a truly special moment for everyone connected to Port Vale and I am extremely proud to be accepting this honour on behalf of the club."Stoke-on-Trent was granted city status on 5 June 1925 by King George Shanahan said the city meant "the world" to her."I'm genuinely touched and a little bit overwhelmed to be receiving this honour, both for myself and on behalf of everyone at the football club," she added that to receive the individual honour while the club was also recognised made it even more special."Everything we do at Port Vale is rooted in our commitment to this community. I'm so proud of what we've achieved together so far and even more excited for what's still to come." Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
The Guardian
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Whatever Happened to Phoebe Salt review – bittersweet 1950s tale of the Potteries
The first word ever spoken on the New Vic stage was 'Yes'. The affirmation came at the start of a poem by Arthur Berry, written in 1986 to toast the new theatre and welcome audiences to a place of 'necessary illusions'. In his native Potteries, Berry is a celebrated polymath, known for his drawings, prints and watercolours, as well as poetry, broadcasting and half a dozen plays, including St George of Scotia Road, the theatre's opening production. Appropriately, in this centenary year of Berry's birth and three decades after his death, the theatre has dug out the first draft of his final play, spruced it up and given it a belated debut. It is unlikely anyone would consider Whatever Happened to Phoebe Salt a neglected classic. Drawn with the same broad strokes and warm human eye as the sketches that line the upper foyer walls, it is a kitchen-sink drama, evoking the long-lost life of working-class Card Street, Burslem, where the pulse of a pugmill sets a relentless rhythm and the wafer-thin walls permit no secrets. Berry writes with a sense of bittersweet nostalgia: think Terence Davies's Distant Voices, Still Lives with the intensity, violence and poetry dialled down. His characters are trapped by circumstance, their lives made smaller by the need to survive. There is Nellie Salt (Laura Costello), washed out and broken, her hopes of betterment dashed by teenage pregnancy. There is her husband, Sammy (Alasdair Baker), gruff and taciturn, his emotions reserved for the care of his pregnant sow he keeps. And above all, there is Phoebe Salt (Isabella Rossi), the 'daughter of the sun' and the only colour in Lis Evans's perfectly drab 1950s set, a young woman bursting with an energy that cannot be contained. Making a debut as assured as it is bolshie, Rossi has the measure of this ever-restless teenager, bored by her faithful fiance (Elliot Goodhill), enticed by the illicit thrill of her married boss (Perry Moore), entertained by the showbiz ambitions of her stage partner (Andrew Pollard), and worth more than all of them put together. In Abbey Wright's well acted production, she rides above the perfunctory plot and heavily signalled denouement and makes it her own. At New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme, until 21 June
