Each town within the City of Stoke-on-Trent has maintained its own particular identity and characteristics. This has faded as the twentieth century waned to a close but it hasn't disappeared. As modern living dissolves the old social ties and people integrate into the towns from different parts of the country as happened from the 1960's, some weakening of identity is inevitable and yet many of the traditional families wouldn't dream of living in another part of the City and are proud of their home town, expressing it as the best of all.

We look back now, beyond the modern City to a time when people were having their lives changed forever. It is a time of sudden change and lifestyles were being turned on end. Fear and uncertainty must have plagued many a family as the young children just absorbed the adventure (or nightmare) that was just beginning. For a new century had not long started; and the world went crazy. It is the 18th century and bang came the Industrial Revolution.

Even when the page moves on to examine the towns more closely, only a fragment of the story will appear to offer a reflection of the evolutionary changes that swept through a turbulent time. The diversity of trades and occupations that forged the region into a modern City are now fading and becoming lost but we will visit them in old photographs and read the human story. It was a hard and often brutal past. Tears and pain were everyday companions in a cruel time.

Federation of the six towns officially began on March 31st 1910 but city status wasn't achieved until 1925. Of the six towns, four were already officially classed as boroughs, Hanley, Burslem, Stoke-upon-Trent and Longton. The other two towns are Tunstall and Fenton.

The City Centre is Hanley. Hanley enjoyed the status of a major localised trading centre for some time and so it was awarded the City Centre tag. The first records of a settlement here document a place named Hanlih and were dated 1227. Originally, Hanley was a collection of three places linked together by proximity, Hanley village, Upper Green and Lower Green. When Hanley became a borough in 1857 the nearby village of Shelton was a part of the amalgamation.

Perhaps the highest above sea level, Burslem, with its Tudor Church from Henry VIII's time, is also a long settled town that has many Georgian buildings still in use. Indeed it is probably the largest remaining collection of this style of architecture in the whole City.

Later we will examine why Burslem is often called the mother town, a clue lies in the birth here of one man, Josiah Wedgwood. Lovers of Staffordshire Ware worldwide will need no introduction to this name. We check this out in detail in the Burslem section of the six towns report.

Another famous Burslem man was Arnold Bennett and his ashes reside in the town cemetery. Bennett called his mythical version of the town Bursley. Well, I did say that the towns were thinly veiled.

Attraction of the Year is an award given by the Heart of England Tourist Board by category, in 1998 Royal Doulton gained this acclaim for its Visitor Centre at a site in the town that includes parts of the mid-19th Century works.

Stoke-upon-Trent itself grew in the valley below Penkhull and the author is unsure how far back settlement goes in this part of the region. The oldest site must be the remains of an ecclesiastical building in the grounds of the present day Parish Church of England opposite the old and grand Town Hall.

Spode is perhaps the telling place of local prosperity in Stoke and Josiah Spode II did much to give rise to prosperity within the town. Again, Spode is a subject for a closer look in the next section. Stoke itself is indeed upon the Trent. Perhaps the first town on its route as it winds its way to the sea on the east coast of England.

The River Trent begins its life very close to Stoke and passes through it into the nearby countryside and is shallow enough in this general area to be paddled across quite effortlessly, particularly when the waterline is low. Unfortunately, the River has long had its first dose of pollution here too!

One last word about the River Trent. It too wants to be on the unique list. As it winds its way south it does the unthinkable and deviates east and north, entering the sea more northerly than its origin. This is unusual and the author believes this to be the only British River to achieve this feat.

Longton grew last of all. There is a Roman Road leading out of Longton towards the City of Derby some thirty or so miles to the south. This communication link remained long after the Romans moved on and Inns with stables littered the route. Perhaps the last was destroyed in the mid-1990's as a new road scheme went ahead. Ironically, the purpose of this scheme was no grander than the Romans as it forms a major road link to Derby! Stoke still has such an Inn on the continued route as it moves north through the City.

Longton grew up first as a linear village and its name today relates the truth of this long town's origins. Almost a clutter of settlements, it took the heart of the Industrial purges in the 18th century to see a real shift in establishing a thriving and active community. These origins took a terrible toll as we see in the closer examination of my hometown.

One major step forward had been the turnpike on the Roman Road. The road had been repaired and maintained as a major transport route and the turnpike funded the move. Lane End was an old and famous name for the area but now it was developing its own individual place in local history and Longton was being forged.

If Burslem and Stoke had a benefactor, Longton too can look back on a famous name. One James Wright Beswick took a lease on Baltimore Works and a new pottery legend was born. The company now belongs to the Royal Doulton Group but still manufactures classic high quality figurines and statues not 350 feet from where the author grew up.

Doulton permanently close Beswick Ware at Christmas 2002. Most Doulton factories now closed.

Sandwiched between Stoke and Longton, Fenton is perhaps the least industrialised of the towns. Industry is found in Fenton but dense factory communities did not occur here. Fenton was, and perhaps still is, more of a housing area. This status grew with the twentieth century and although it grew to be possibly the largest town, in Bennett's day it was much less developed, though it did exist and was growing in prominence. Bennett thought that 'The Five Towns' was more vibrant than 'The Six Towns' and justified his stance vociferously. Hmm…

True, Fenton was smaller then than now and it grew more as a residential town with much less industry but dismissing it so cruelly was always going to invite wrath. Still, that was a long time ago now but the legacy has lingered.

When car registrations were issued they were allocated as codes to each district so that a cars hometown was easily recognisable. The latter part of the last century saw this usefulness diminish as previously used car auctions saw cars shipped in from all parts of Britain and most cars don't stay within their registration area. The legacy is still there though.

Stoke-on-Trent was issued two registration identifications. One was EH in the number (I forget why) and the other was VT, which is easy to remember. The 'V' being a Roman numeral; and the 'T' standing for 'towns'. You're ahead of me now… The five towns! Users of amateur radio in the area use a VHF repeating station with the call sign GB3 VT.

Tunstall is the most northerly of the Six Towns and its name has changed more than once in its long history. Historically listed as Turnhill, the public park in the town has the name 'Tunestal' over its gateways. Industrial activity has been linked to this site since 1280 and mining coal and iron ore was prolific along with processing the ore into product locally.

It never really grew in size as a town though and was still a one street village a long time into the Industrial Revolution and it had not grown to meet Burslem by 1795. This made it a linear village.

Major players are not associated with Tunstall but the Beswick family had made pottery in Tunstall in the identity of Robert Beswick, the aforementioned James Wright Beswick's father. Robert leased the works to local potters so long as they used coal produced from his own mine. It wasn't unusual to see pottery owners with coal and clay mining interests.

Another lesser-known pottery manufacturer was Adams who, as a family, has run kilns in the area from the 15th century and still produces pottery there to this day. H & R Johnson (Richards Tiles) also produced tiles for the international market place from Tunstall (now closed and demolished).

So far it has been difficult to feel how the Industrial Revolution changed the landscape and forged a City. The next part expands on these factors and reveals a growth and expansion of six isolated towns, some little more than villages, into a thriving Internationally famous community that teeters on the brink of collapse as the 21st century launches itself into the history books.

We will walk through the joys and the tears of a community lost in its own success and paying heavy penalties for it. We will share the pleasures and the pain of a growing community that strives to mature and grow strong only to discover that maturity eventually brings decline and death. Maybe only death as an ending to what is, but death none the less.

All the suffering, all the grief, all the effort that went into establishing International recognition has come to mean little now. As the local industries collapse one by one only the reader can decide was it worth the pain and the agony for a brief flicker of time or was the cost too high. A price of course not yet settled as the ecology reminds us. You can end your path here or you can click the 'NEXT' button and walk on with me. Walk the past; understand how it was and what it became.

Walk with me from the beginning of the Potteries and stroll your way back to the future and ask yourself has anything been learnt or are we too greedy and too stupid?