Stoke-on-Trent

[ANUSHIKA]

Has anyone heard of a place called Stoke-On-trent and if so what do you think of it?????????

[strozzi]

I would imagine that most people in the UK have heard of this Staffordshire University town famous the world over for it's pottery. Personally I think that it is a depressing place a view which is apparently shared by many of it's inhabitants.

[Nelli]

Apparently the standard of male inhabitants is very poor (i don't mean financially). ;-)

[andy hughes]

Yes I've heard of it - I live here! The Five Towns are Hanley, Burslem, Stoke, Fenton and Tunstall, and for the record, Wedgwood has no 'e' in it. The notion of racism and stupidity being rife in the city is as valid as Liverpudlians being shellsuit-wearing scallies, and all Londoners being pompous and Cockney. Come on now, ewvery city has its bad bits, and less than desirable people, but Stoke is known for the warmth of its population - inclduing its very large Asian community, so I do take some exception to my home being branded in this way. OK, rant over - it's not the worst place in the world, you just have to look beneath the surface a little - somewhere beyond the superficial image that has been concocted elsewhere in this strand!

[sddsddean]

Robbie Williams comes from there. This probably accounts for the local inhabitants appearing to carry the woes of the world on their shoulders. The shame of it!!

[ANUSHIKA]

I do actually come from S-O-T, I am thinking of leaving the area and wondered what people thought of the place. I have to agree with Einstein i'm afraid.In the last few years Stoke has rapidly gone downhill and as for the warmth of the population Andy?? u obv live in a diff S-O-T the only warmth round here is off the burned out cars.I have watched a lot of people including some friends turn into mindless racist thugs who have nothing better to do than cause trouble cause they can't be bothered to work.Even jobs round here are rubbish they have little pay and no prospects.There is nothing that makes me think great I have the weekend off Ill go here cause all of it is a toilet.Callcentres are fast taking over everywhere in Stoke and the only places that will be kept in business are the pubs and the bookies on giro day!!! sorry andy no offence :)

[ANUSHIKA]

I come from central Stoke (lucky old me)

[anthomson]

Strange - having lived in quite a few places in the UK, I have to say the people in and around Stoke on Trent are by far the friendliest I have ever met. I suspect the area is slightly isolated and hasn't seen the 'modernisation' that most cities have seen but personally I think this adds to its charm. As for being racist - yes I know it has a reputation - but I certainly didn't notice this amongst the normal folks during my stay in the area. Read 'Anna of the Five Towns' I suspect the five towns haven't really changed much since this was written.

[ANUSHIKA]

Ok prob true.First of all it depends where you stayed I have lived in stoke my whole life and live in the middle of stoke and see just about everything there is to see with my own eyes as the saying may go for you NICE PLACE TO VISIT BUT YOU WOULDN'T WANT TO LIVE THERE :) no offence meant!

[anthomson]

ANUSHIKA - your critsims of Stoke-on-trent could be applied to any inner city area in the UK - burnt out cars and rubbish jobs are not a distinguishing featue of Stoke.

[ANUSHIKA]

The burnt out cars was supposed to be a joke.....ok maybe you found it offensive and as for the rubbish jobs that is my opinion you obv like stoke that is your opinion, i don't and maybe it could be applied ot many places but at the end of the day there is much better places to live

[ANUSHIKA]

You may be also be lucky enough not to see and hear the things I do but some of the things i read in the paper and see going on it makes me ashamed to say i come from stoke-on-trent.We recently had a contenential market people had come from France to visit our town which was really nice and something different theyhad to leave 2 days after setting up here because of how much abuse they got.Also a play was on called East is East at the new vic theatre which as some might know is about an asian family.After the play one night the cast decided to go for a quite drink and were hounded out of two pubs with a snooker cue by racist thugs,is anyone proud of Stoke-On-trent now??

[anthomson]

You can try other places - but I suspect that unless you can significantly better you quality of living ( e.g. by winning the lottery ) you will find most cities are at best similar or most likely worse. The noticable difference that I found was that it has been very slow to change - it still looks and feels like a town from the 1920's - which I guess may explain the racism.

[anthomson]

Racism always seems worse in places where there is little or no racial 'mixture' - I think it is essentially based on fear of the unknown. I suspect this is why it may be prominent in the Stoke area where people do not tend to move into or out of the area. I think another contributing factor is that Stoke has not changed very little this century - I remember being told that this is partly due to the fact that Stoke was not bombed during the 2nd world war and so unlike most cities, it did not require 'rebuilding'

[ANUSHIKA]

I'm sorry but I don't buy the "think it is essentially based on fear of the unknown", you don't live here when u have lived her as long as me and actually seen people's way of dealing with "the unknown" then you too would agree , some of my not so close friends are involved in some activities and there general behaviour is disgusting towards both white people & people from different cultures.