A Detectorists fanzine, four issues so far.

A decade on, will the geothermal ‘Stoke Heat Network’ have to be added to the list of ‘mythical beasts of Stoke-on-Trent’? Oh, sure… they’ve built the pipe network and are continuing to do so. But have you ever seen even a tiny bit of steam from below ground, in a practical local demonstration of even a basic closed-loop system? I haven’t. It seems they’re just assuming we have very “hot mine-water” somewhere deep below the old Festival Park greenhouses site and/or the Chatterley Whitfield mine works.

My guess is that, after next year’s drilling, this £52m (and growing) network of empty pipes will eventually have to carry fibre-optics, when the promised heat either fails to materialise or is just not constant enough to do what’s been promised. What is promised is feeble anyway, supposedly reducing energy bills for those on the Network “by up to 10%” according to the city’s official figures supplied to the government.

So 100% free energy it is not, even if the scheme works and the heat can be sustained for years. I’ll be as pleased as anyone if it does. But you have to wonder if it would be more cost-effective to buy two pairs of Damart thermals for everyone concerned in central Stoke.

In the meanwhile, I wonder if someone at the city Museum has spotted the opportunity for a “Hot Rocks!” local geology exhibition in 2024/25? Possibly to be wryly paired with an exhibition of all the white elephants in the Museum’s collections.

Strange things lurk in old Stoke-on-Trent suitcases. In this case, a fine scale-model of the Salt & Sons pot-bank near Chadwick Street, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. Now on eBay (not from me).

The Potteries Post has updated with new local news and opportunities.

Available now, the comic-book “The Lost Bottle-Kilns of Stoke-on-Trent”. Free at Gumroad as a tablet-friendly PDF, though you can ‘pay what you want’ if you want to offer a small donation.

Finally, after many decades… a reason to go to Liverpool. There’s to be a major Ken Dodd exhibition, at the Museum of Liverpool. Opens on 9th September 2023, and runs until 3rd March 2024. Could be a tickle-some treat to liven up one of those grey weeks after Christmas / New Year. Tickets £5, for what sounds like a huge exhibition. Booking now.

An AI knows who Ken Dodd was and what he looked like. What a day to be alive… Thankfully, it can’t yet write the jokes.

Two Stoke canal projects were today announced as being newly funded by ‘Levelling Up’ money…

1)

Trent Rivers Trust – £189,993 to run the “Rediscovering the Trent Valley Way in Stoke” project which will develop and deliver a variety of initiatives through Stoke-on-Trent along existing rights-of-way.

Interesting. ‘The Trent Valley Way’ is a ‘source to sea’ path for the Trent along public footpaths and canal towpaths….

Map One: Biddulph Moor to Hanley (OS map)

Map Two: Hanley to Trentham (OS map)

So the communities there are likely to be Birches Head, Abbey Hulton, Northwood, Shelton, Fenton.

Perhaps also Boothen and Hanford… since it looks to me like the route could now use the river rather than the canal at Stoke-on-Trent, now that the city has the Boothen Ground path giving the new link through to the long riverside path to Trentham. Here’s the part of the map showing the existing Way (red) along the canal, and my suggestion (green) for a new possible ‘beside the river’ route. This would however entail making the footpath from Hanford across to the canal passable and motor-bike proof. It wasn’t, last time I looked. Though that was some years ago now.

Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see what £190k does, and if it gets match-funded to do more.

2.

Canal and Rivers Trust – £109,633 to deliver a community-led placemaking project which will reach out to work across two waterside communities on the Trent & Mersey and Caldon Canals.

Again, interesting. The “two waterside communities” could be anywhere. But if it’s going to overlap with the above Trent Rivers Trust ‘Trent Valley Way’ project, and if the two communities are close together, then that would mean lower and upper Shelton. They take in the Trent & Mersey and the Caldon Canal, and align with local political priorities.

Newly published and free, “Walk Stoke: Stoke Station to Tunstall” (135Mb PDF).

A free 112-page PDF photo-guide, taking you step-by-step along a 4.8 mile walk north through the city of Stoke-on-Trent. Photographed and documented at the end of June 2023. Mainly intended for walkers, but could also be done by cyclists.

The route connects with: my 2012 Ridgeway path (Kidsgrove Station – Stoke town); the 2012 Two Universities Way (Staffs Uni – Keele); the more recent Two Saint’s Way (Lichfield – Chester); and (with a bit of a wiggle) it can also connect from its end-point across to the Burslem Greenway or the Tunstall Greenway north (Tunstall centre – Kidsgrove).

Update: Now I know why Westport Lake / Tunstall was so relatively litter-free on the walk. A lady called Tracey Banks does it all regularly. Thanks, Tracey.

Some of the new items on Archive.org, of likely interest to those in Stoke and Staffordshire.

Erdeswicke’s A Survey of Staffordshire (1717) and his A Survey of Staffordshire (1723).

The History and Antiquities of Staffordshire, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (1798).

Robert Plot’s The Natural History of Stafford-shire (1686) as a .ZIP file with a scan and also a hand-keyed clean text copy.

English Earthenware Figures, 1740-1840.

Royal Doulton figures : produced at Burslem Staffordshire.

A Pottery Panorama: Dudson Bicentenery.

Josiah Wedgwood: The Arts And Sciences United (Science Museum, 1978 exhibition catalogue).

The Story of Wedgwood (1975).

Burleigh Ware manufactured by Burgess & Leigh (catalogue).

The Early Charters of the West Midlands.

Defended England 1940: The South-West, Midlands and North (non-coastal ground defence structures).

Writer By Trade: a View of Arnold Bennett.

Writers and their Work, No. 9: Arnold Bennett.

The Poetry and Aesthetics of Erasmus Darwin.

Erasmus Darwin: philosopher, scientist, physician and poet.

Four Counties Ring : Trent & Mersey Canal and Caldon Canal and Weaver navigation.

Footpath Walks in and around the Peak District National Park.

Circular Walks along the Sandstone Trail (Cheshire, trail runs just west of Nantwich).

Short Circular Walks around the towns and villages of the Peak District.

Long Circular Walks in the Peak District (Merrill).

O.S. Pathfinder Guide: Peak District. White Peak walks.

Classic Caves of the Peak District (pot-holing).

The Moorlands of England and Wales: an environmental history, 8000 BC to AD 2000.

Paintings by David Inshaw. Who knew he was a Staffordshire lad? Apparently this Ruralist painter was from Wednesbury in the Black Country, a place not usually associated with bucolic rural scenery.

The Potteries Post has updated.

What to do about three key empty listed-buildings in Burslem? The Indoor Market, the Queens Theatre, and the Wedgwood Institute. There’s now a consultant’s Burslem Feasibility Final Report on the options.

* Indoor Market – “leisure based multi-functional”. £5+ million.

* Queens Theatre – “theatre”. £12 million.

* Wedgwood Institute – “educational, training and skills, office space”. £9+ million.

None of this will surprise anyone, though note that at the back of the report is a proposal for apartments in Princes Hall, the part of the Queens Theatre with rooms…

“The Princes Hall area offers a very different proposal, featuring one and two bed apartments which feature a living area, bathroom and bedroom. A key reason why the Princes Hall can effectively be used for such a purpose is due to its existing corridors which lead off into rooms; the plan depth of the spaces also allows these spaces to be easily converted into areas sufficient for residential use.”

Also a couple of interesting images of the Indoor Market Hall. Some of the existing fabric, and how it might look if repaired…

On transport, the consultant appears to overlook cycling on the canal towpath (access to the city’s biggest employer Bet365, the Etruria Valley mega-sheds, and the mainline train station), and the local train station at Longport. Though admittedly neither offer pleasant access up the hill to the centre of Burslem, unless you know the back-ways which avoid the main road.

Thinking of going for a Sunday walk or to a Sunday job in North Staffordshire? Think again. Just announced, an abrupt and major removal of vital local Sunday bus services by First (the biggest bus provider in the area). Likely to be a very significant blow to ramblers, church-goers, volunteers, Sunday-lunchers, and weekend workers, among others. The new timetables will operate from Sunday 2nd July 2023.

Service 7, 7A from Hanley – Kidsgrove / Biddulph: The Sunday service is withdrawn.

Service 18 from Hanley – Leek: The Sunday service is withdrawn.

Service 101 from Hanley – Stafford: The Sunday service is withdrawn.

And the 101 is supposed to be the area’s flagship / showcase ‘untouchable’ service. It was servicing (among others) the gigantic but remote new Pets At Home warehouse between Stone and Stafford. They must be livid at the likely loss of many of their weekend workers, having spent vast amounts on the new mega-site and being all set to move their Stoke workers there.