This page is about the town of Burslem, part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in England. For other places called Burslem or for other uses of that word please see Burslem (disambiguation).
The town of Burslem is one of those that make up the city of Stoke-on-Trent, in the county of Staffordshire, in the Midlands of England.
Topography of Burslem
Burslem is sited on the eastern ridge of the Fowlea Valley, the Fowlea being one of the main early tributaries of the River Trent. Burslem embraces the areas of Middleport, Dalehall, Longport, Westport, Trubshaw Cross, and Brownhills. The Trent & Mersey canal cuts through, to the west and south of the town centre. A little further west, the West Coast main-line railway and the A500 road run in parallel - to form an distinct boundary between Burslem and the abutting middle-class town of Newcastle-under-Lyme.
History of Burslem
The Domesday Book shows Burslem as a small farming hamlet; strategically sited above a vital ford at Longport , part of the major pack-horse track out of the Peaks and Staffordshire Moorlands to the Liverpool/London road. As far back as the late 1100’s a thriving pottery industry existed, based on the fine & abundant local clays. After the Black Death, Burslem emerges in the records as a medieval town - the 1536 stone church is still standing and in use. Until the mid 1760s Burslem was relatively cut off from the rest of England; it had no navigable river nearby, and there were no good & reliable roads. By 1777 the Trent & Mersey Canal was nearing completion, and the roads had markedly improved. The town boomed on the back of fine pottery production & canals, and became known as 'The Mother Town' of the six towns that make up the city. The famous novels of Arnold Bennett evoke the feel of Victorian Burslem, with its many potteries, mines, and working canal barges. The Burslem of the 1930s to the 1980s is evoked by the paintings and plays of Arthur Berry.
Burslem contains Britain's last real working industrial district (ie: where people live within walking distance of the factories of a single heavy industry - in this case, the potteries); and thus much of the nineteenth century industrial heritage, buildings & character have survived intact. A recent report suggested the sheer concentration of pottery-based heritage makes the area the richest industrial-heritage stretch of canal in England.
Population & housing in Burslem
At the 1991 census count, the population of Burslem was 21,400. A study by consultants Atkins, working from 2001 Census data, showed that the Burslem population is steady and has not declined due to manufacturing decline during the 1980s and 90s.
Traditional Victorian & Edwardian terraced houses dominate the town. Terraced houses in Stoke-on-Trent sell for an average of £60,904 (Source: Land Registry Q3 2004 figures) and at October 2004 they were rising in value at the rate of £400 per week. There are advanced plans to build around 800 new high-quality homes in Burslem by 2006/7, on the sites of cleared Victorian potteries and schools.
Heavy industrial employment (mines, steel & pots) has left a legacy of ill-health among many older people, but there is the Haywood Hospital (High Lane, Burslem) and the new £300-million University Hospital of North Staffordshire is just three miles away by road.
Economy in Burslem
Industrial scale pottery production has drastically declined since the 1970s; but specialist makers (Steelite) and smaller producers of high-value ceramics (Lorna Bailey, Burleigh, Moorcroft) are thriving.
Shopping options in the town centre have markedly declined, hit by the impact of nearby out-of-town retail parks that offer free parking.
At Spring 2002 unemployment was running at 4.1 percent or 1526 people in the Stoke-on-Trent North constituency; almost the same rate as the West Midlands as a whole. In Burslem at 2001 unemployment was 3.2 percent and declining.
In 2005, £2-million of new business units for the creative industries was announced for the town.
New business parks are planned for 2006/7 just to the north (Chatterley Valley, £40m+) and the south (Etruria Valley, £100m+) of the town.
Tourism in Burslem
Around 5 million tourists visit Stoke-on-Trent each year, supporting around 4,400 direct jobs. Stoke shows its popularity through the number of repeat visits; around 80 percent of visitors have previously been here. Burslem has a variety of strong tourist attractions; Burleigh, Moorcroft, Lorna Bailey, Ceramica, Festival Park, its many authentic English pubs, the legacy of novelist Arnold Bennett, and the Trent & Mersey Canal. Burslem's centre benefits from having an almost-intact medieval street-plan and countless fine old buildings, and a townscape which almost-totally escaped re-development during the 1960s & 70s.
Burslem has the historic Burslem School of Art sited in the town centre, and the School has been refurbished at a cost of £2.1m and offers several large free art galleries. The free Public Library, in the historic Wedgwood Institute, offers a strong selection of local history books. Ceramica is a new award-winning ceramics family attraction, based in the imposing old Town Hall and funded by Millenium Lottery money. The Queen's Theatre re-opened in 2004, as a medium-sized indie music venue, refurbished at private expense by a local businessman.
There is a traditional Friday street market, and an annual street carnival in May.
The major football club Port Vale F.C. is based in Burslem. Near to the town is Burslem Golf Club - a 9-hole course which once had singer Robbie Williams as a Junior Captain.
Education in Burslem
Burslem is the site of the main campus of Stoke-on-Trent College, the largest Further Education college in England. The campus specialises in media-production and drama.
Within a six mile radius from Burslem there are three world-class universities; Staffordshire at Shelton, Keele University, and Manchester Metropolitan's large Art & Design campus at Alsager.
The environment in Burslem
Burslem's climate shares England's four distinct seasons. The weather often changes quickly, but extremes are rare; occasional hail and snow, lightning during intense late summer thunderstorms, winter fogs and light snowfall. Rainfall in Burslem is more like that of Birmingham than the persistent drizzle of Manchester. Air-quality is good. The town is elevated and is not prone to flooding.
Burslem has several Victorian parks, and the Westport Lakes country park.
Burslem has many water features; canals, lakes, pools and ponds, and a large amount of reclaimed green space that is a legacy of the highly succesful 1980s National Garden Festival, which imaginatively reclaimed a large part of the Shelton Bar steelworks site.
The Peak District National Park begins just ten miles north-east of Burslem.
Transport
The nearby A500 gives access to the M6 motorway. Longport rail station is a request-stop offering direct connections south into Stoke, east to Derby and Nottingham, and north to Crewe & Manchester.
The town is straddled by two major off-road cycle paths, part of the National Cycle Network.
The Trent & Mersey canal is said to see over 10,000 narrowboats a year using it.
The nearest international airports are Manchester & Birmingham International ; each are about 60 minutes away by train.
Local web links
- http://www.port-vale.co.uk/ Port Vale Football Club
- http://www.schoolofart.co.uk/main/index.html Burslem School of Art
- http://www.middleport.org.uk Middleport
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