Urban murals

Posted on April 2, 2019April 2, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Life, Market, Murals, New Market, Old Market, Politics, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Stoke-upon-TrentLeave a comment

Here are two murals in Stoke Town centre (or Stoke-upon-Trent) one of the six towns that make up Stoke-on-Trent.

The market is mostly held inside this building with food stalls including fish and meat. Clothes stalls and all sorts of other merchandise.

Several years ago (almost 40) the old market burnt down. I remember sitting in a friends garden and seeing the plume of black smoke flowing high up into the sky. The cause? An electrical fault. The site was cleared but the local Labour Party fought for it to be rebuilt and a few years later the new market rose on a part of the site near the old market hall. There followed a library and council buildings. Nowadays the market is less busy. More shops are closing in the town. Cuts to local government are affecting the jobs in the town and city. Services have been slashed because of austerity measures bought in after the 2010 general election. The cuts really bit when the local administration went over to a Conservative and independent coalition.

Maybe one day things will improve. In the meantime it’s good to see the vibrant murals on the market building.

Ducks

Posted on March 31, 2019March 31, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Birds, Ducks, Hello, Life, Staffordshire, Stoke, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

it’s not often that you walk down the road in your local town and see a duck and a drake walking down the road in front of us. Crossing by a taxi rank. There is a river called the Trent that runs through the town, but it is in a culvert until it comes out near our local football ground.

When people say hello to each other in Stoke they say “hello duck” where in other places it might be “hello chick, or hello dearie”.

So we hope the ducks found the river or flew off to a park. I didn’t know who to contact and neither of them were injured. Just taking a walk….

Berryhill fields

Posted on March 27, 2019March 27, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Berryhill fields, Blossom, Building, Environment, Green lung, Houses, Life, Pollution, Potteries, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, TreesLeave a comment

I’ve just visited Berryhill fields in the centre of Stoke-on-Trent. It’s one of the green lungs of our City, a country park between Fenton, Longton, Bentilee, Sandford Hill and Bucknall.

I took some lovely photos of the view, including the TV mast that dominates the skyline. The white blossom along the pathway up from Arbourfield drive is floating like a pure white cloud alongside the path.

I’m worried that this green lung of the city could disappear. The local Conservative and Independant council wants to build 1300 houses on the site, this despite there being a covenant on the land to prevent this. In fact there have been protests over its use in the past. I know we need new housing but why destroy the environment. Yes there are industrial patches around the site. Why not build on brownfield sites in the city instead?

In a world where pollution and environmental degradation are on the increase we should preserve what we have left of our green spaces.

I was up there with Labour councellors and candidates. We were filming and taking photos of the parkland to raise the issue with the voters in the upcoming local elections

Minton Tiles

Posted on March 26, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged archives, Art, Art deco, art nouveau, Life, Minton, Pot banks, Potteries, Pottery, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent4 Comments

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I had the pleasure of being invited to a behind the scenes visit to our city archive today. I had been asked if I wanted to go along by a friend who is doing an art project about the pottery manufacturer.

We went up to the third floor of the city library and were shown round the back of the reception desk into the staff only section. There the city archivist showed us some of the fading pages in the ledgers. They were images of pots that various pot banks made in the history of Stoke-on-Trent.

There were pattern books for tableware and tiles ledgers with the cost of making the ware and details of workers. The old pottery firms did not collect a lot of details and a lot was thrown out when they closed down. But once we had been in the air conditioned archives we were allowed to sit and (very carefully) look at selected pattern books including prints of tiles to surround hearths, doorways and floors. Some were mundane but others were breathtaking. Art nouveau and art deco masterpieces.

I’m very pleased I was invited.

Balcony

Posted on March 25, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Architecture, Balcony, Blogging, Brampton museum and art gallery, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Photo, StaffordshireLeave a comment

Wherefore art thou?

High up on the wall of the Brampton museum and art gallery is a lovely balcony. I want to visit the room and look out over the parkland in front of the museum but I think its probably a store room.

I think it’s a sweet little touch to the architecture of the place. I’ve visited before but never noticed it until today. Probably because the strong sunlight and shadows picked it out against the brickwork.

Modern architecture can be startling and revelatory, but details like this should be cherished.

Unitarian meeting house

Posted on March 24, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bethesda, Chapel, Friends, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Tapestries, Unitarian Meeting House2 Comments

In 2018 I sang with three choirs at the Unitarian meeting house at Newcastle-under-Lyme. The original meeting house was built in 1717 but the building was burnt down. I don’t remember everything they told us but I think Josiah Wedgewood whose portrait is carved in wood above the door was a supporter of them.

I was impressed by the tapestries of their history that were on display in the hall. It’s fascinating what history there is in this area. Some of the Methodists first met near Stoke-on-Trent at Mow Cop and also built Bethesda Chapel in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent..

International Women’s Day 2018

Posted on March 19, 2019March 19, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Burslem, Burslem School of Art, Clay, Coal, Faults, Geology, Mining, Pottery, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

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I just found this sketch of International Women’s Day from about a year ago. I had a stall with art for sale at Burslem school of Art. I think this was the first time I ever drew the main gallery and I also tried to draw the banner that was on display there.

The school of art is very crooked. Burslem is old and suffers from subsidence or is undermined by coal mines. The whole of the city is built on clay and coal and the coal field under the city has caused a lot of damage over the years. Parts of the city also have geologic faults running underneath them so it’s not surprising that the buildings are affected.

There is also a volcanic plug where I live, the very base of an ancient volcano that was worn away by erosion over thousands or millions of years. The hill that is left dominates the valley of the river Trent, but the ground rises in other places too. There are coal tips (slag heaps) where the spoil from the collieries was dumped as the coal was hewn from the ground.

The wonder of Pottery and artistic design was the result of the geology in Staffordshire.

Copper horse

Posted on March 17, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Copper, Copper beech, Horse, Sculpture, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Trentham GardensLeave a comment

I took this photo a few months ago with the intention of doing a painting. It struck me that the copper beech behind it shows off the verdigris of the horse really well and the wooden plinth it is on mimics the tree trunk behind it. Trentham lake is in the distance. I’m not sure if it’s significance but I do like it. I’m guessing it could be based on a Greco-Roman or Celtic design? I could try and find out, but I just like it as it is.

Finding panorama mode.

Posted on March 16, 2019March 16, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Colour photo, Geese, Lake, Panoramic view, Photos, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Sunset, Westport lake2 Comments

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It took me a few months to realise that there is a panorama mode on this phone. This was westport lake last month. I like that my partner is at the far right and the path continues at the far left. The geese are at different heights which seems to work with the step where the landing stage cuts into the waters surface. Mine and my friends shadow are a bit annoying but the sun was setting behind us and all the shadows fan in towards the lake. I like how the path on the left is straight and not curved like the rest of the photo.

I’m picking random photos to look at because often they just get a glance and then I move on……

Singing New Light

Posted on March 13, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Anthem, Learning, Music, New light, School, Sing up, Singing, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, TeachingLeave a comment

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Today one of the choirs I am in sang at a local school for “sing up day”. We sang some a capella songs from Loud Mouth Women’s reportoir and also “New light ” a new anthem based on “this little light of mine” composed and written by Greg Stephens and Steven Seabridge (the potteries poet laureate).

It was a pleasure to sing infront of a full school assembly. The children joined in and even did some of the gestures for the song. I hope they enjoyed it, although some of the little ones seemed a bit perplexed by what we were doing at first.

One of the teachers is a member of the choir and enthusiastically explained what we were doing, and Penny Vincent (who helped organised Stoke Sings choir festival in February) and Kate Bardfield, our choir leader, helped teach the children some of the song including sections of”this little light of mine” and adapted versions of this and a section about the six towns, Burslem, Tunstall, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton.

The anthem talks about coal mining and hard clay. It talks about regeneration and a feeling that the city of Stoke-on-Trent is worth fighting for. It was a very enjoyable occasion.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Staffordshire