I took a walk from Stoke to Newcastle-under-Lyme today. I went the back way via the Stoke Old Road. The route is documented in my The Two Universities Way walk guide.
Not having been to the Staffordshire town of Newcastle for a while, I’d expected the route to be rancid with litter (as per previous visits), and the town centre horrid with yobs and druggies (as per The Sentinel). I was very pleasantly surprised on both counts. Admittedly I went on what was perhaps the nicest day of the year, and there was some litter on the way. Especially between the Citizens Advice Bureau – Garden Street – and the bus-station crossing on the immediate approach to the town centre. But both the (done) litter picking and the presentation of the town-centre was impressive.
On the route, the Stoke Old Road looks good. The top end-point of Hartshill Park, where the old road starts, is fairly good in terms of litter.
A little further on the huge willow is still there, incongruously on the top o’ the hill rather than by some sylvan mere. I guess it’s tapped into a local spring or two. There’s no view at the top of the rise in summer, but there is in winter.
The old brickyard workshop at the top of the slope was regrettably demolished before it could be listed. But it has been replaced by a very sympathetically-done new house on the corner, replacing what was for a long time an eyesore demolition site. A little further along…
All looking much better than it used to.
Further on, the vital through-way section of the path from Stoke to Newcastle was open, alongside the grammar school playing fields. This is a vital pedestrian / cycling connector between Stoke and Newcastle / Keele, and there’s been some argy-bargy in the past about keeping the gates open. But they’re fine at 10am.
Then down to the town itself, and into the town-centre past what I take to be the new library. This has cycle locking. The surrounding revamped Queens Gardens has been very sympathetically and pleasingly done. The statue of Queen Victoria still has pride of place, looking imperiously across at the local MP’s surgery as if to remind him of his duties.
I see there are still loads of banks in the town, though the one I use has annoying done away with all its counter-staff.
Nice to hear “11am” ringing from not one but two bell-towers in the town.
Plenty of places to sit including proper benches, and no dossers apart from one beggar outside Rymans.
Boots had not one but two real till-staff, at a proper payments counter.
Round the back, I was pleased to see that the formerly decrepit and weed-grown Conservative & Unionist Offices have been refurbished and have found a new use.
The cheap charity shops on that same stretch are gone, turned into several ‘giftee shoppes’ of no use to me. No more cheap £1 t-shirts and belts, oh well. The old Council offices and police station are gone and the site is being redeveloped and has men-at-work hoardings up.
The Millennium cycle-locking bars and post-box are both still there though, by the traditional butchers. “Wild Boar sausages”… mmmm.
The big second-hand bookshop just along from the butchers has gone, sadly. But next door, the little coffee shop is still there and now under new management…
I could have gone back home on the price-capped 101 bus. But feeling the need to support local business as well as mega-corps, I spent the money on a coffee in the town instead and walked back. The place is Two Forks Coffee and also has lunchtime food…
Two Forks was a touch too noisy for me, with a bit too much plate-clatter and radio. Both might have been turned down a notch. But it’s very friendly. The lady who runs it spent many years running a British cafe-bar in the Alps, but now she’s back home in the UK. Thus the place has a certain ‘ski-lodge feel’ in places, as she’s re-used the old Alpine tables and chairs…
But there are a variety of seating options including a comfy cushioned bench. Two Forks is definitely a ‘round-the-back place’ to try out. A coffee is currently £2.80. You get there from the lower Ironmarket by going down the alley on the right just before the Cancer Research shop, thus…
Or if you’re already down by the church, then it’s a short walk up.
The hot-desking site on the corner near the church is still open, but has no list of businesses displayed outside. They’re missing a trick there I’d suggest — advertise your users to passers by, as an added free service.
At the opposite and rougher end of the town, I noticed that both the mobility shop and ‘olde pipes and tobacco’ pipe shop are still there. Poundland’s still there on the corner. And Rymans, if you brave the beggar out front (UK police say that beggars on such prime sites are nearly all pros — they scare away any real beggars from prime begging sites). I saw there was also a Wednesday market stall, which had a small but reasonable selection of self-published and small-publisher local history books.
I didn’t go near the bus station but I was otherwise very impressed with the town, after all the ‘crime and grime’ talk-down of the town centre that I’d glanced at in The Sentinel over the last couple of years. It’s definitely better than it was before the lockdowns, and by several notches upwards. All it needs now is to get rid of the beggar(s) and add a big second-hand bookshop. And maybe strim the weeds on the easterly pedestrian approach (grammar schools – citizen’s advice bureau – the aptly named and rather weedy Garden Street – Hassall Street – bus-station crossing) before they get all depressingly wet and soggy in the autumn rains.
