It seems like many moons ago when the start of the masterplanning process started in late summer and early autumn 2010. The Masterplan is now at the ‘Proposed Option’ stage and they would like to consult you on their plans. Please visit online and offline and take the time to comment. Below are the details.
Stoke Town masterplan proposed option consultation
Plans on display at the Local Service Centre, Stoke Town or online: http://www.urbed.coop/stoketownmasterplan
When: 8 February to 22 March 9 am – 5 pm
In September 2010 Stoke-on-Trent City Council appointed URBED to develop a masterplan for Stoke Town. The aim of the masterplan is to develop a shared vision and strategy to kickstart the regeneration of the town centre and Spode Works.
Creating imaginative and deliverable proposals can unlock the potential of the town, encouraging investment and activity to make Stoke Town successful and sustainable, as part of a successful Stoke-on-Trent.
The consultant team has been working closely with stakeholders and the community to develop a proposed option for the town. Several options were developed following a detailed study of the town and a consultation event held at the Kings Hall on 12th October. These options were put out to public consultation for a period of six weeks in December and January. The feedback on the options and the background work we have been doing on technical viability has led to the development of a proposed option.
To make sure we are creating a plan that matches your hopes for the future of Stoke Town and Spode Works we are inviting you to view and comment on the proposed option, either here in the Local Service Centre in Stoke Town (address below) or online at: www.urbed.coop/stoketownmasterplan
Posted in Development, Events, Supporters, What people say
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Tagged Local Traders, Masterplan, News, regeneration, SHOP, Spode, Stoke Town, Stoke-on-Trent, URBED
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Carrying out this project has been a real learning curve for me. It has provided me with an invaluable opportunity to operate outside my comfort zone, providing an impetus to try something new. Over the years I have been photographing, I’ve noticed an increasing wariness amongst the public when confronted with a camera. Suspicions are aroused by the merest presence of a lens, as you can almost feel the latent hostility to the possibility that you might be prying into someone’s affairs, or seeking to capture the unflattering. So, to set a video camera up outside a busy city train station and attempt to persuade unsuspecting members of the public, invariably in a rush to either catch a train, or to get home after having just disembarked, to agree to be interviewed seemed to be folly. I had confronted the notion that I might fail completely, and had spent time considering various strategies, even monetary bribes, that might garner me my desired footage.
As it happened, I needn’t have worried, as my experience gained on previous public engagement projects stood me in good stead. Friendly eye contact, a smile, a tenacious, persuasive approach, and the ability to identify likely acquiescants meant that I had a fruitful day.
One thing, however, ensured the day’s success. Ask a resident of Stoke-on-Trent about Stoke-on-Trent and you will be ensured an impassioned response. Not necessarily the response you might expect, but a response.
After all the talking, I’m now faced with the task of editing a series of interviews into a cohesive short film, a prospect which is rapidly making me wistful for the shivering cold nervousness of that interview day.
In the meantime, here’s the selection of interviewees.
So, here is what I sent out to participants and wellwishers after the first night at the Glebe. Follow the links and you’ll see what happened
To: those who came to the Glebe hornpipe event, and to those who might be sorry they missed it
Hi
On Tuesday January 4, thirty one musicians came to the Glebe pub in Glebe St, Stoke, to play the Stoke Hornpipe, a grand old fiddle tune. The old tune is about contemporary with the building of the pub, which happened in 1830. (The tune’s probably a little bit older). The old ghosts of the tune are still resonating faintly in the walls, reverberating to the quiet distant echoes of the long-gone 19th century fiddlers; we tickled those echoes back to life and a good time was had by all.
There will be other happenings, resurrecting some hidden memories of old Stoke and making them available for new treatments and processes. There were other artists at the Glebe too, and others wanting to get involved. Not just the musicians who played but theatre people, video people, digital, avant garde, contemporary, indie musicians, makers of images, poets, painters. Many people have expressed interests in “where do we go from here?” That is what we are talking about now, the future, not the past. Pass this on to anyone interested, who knows what is going to happen next with this or other tunes, this or other buried hoards now being opened to the light of day. Watch this space!
Here is Glyn Chapman’s video of us all in action
Pretty clever of Glyn actually, as he was playing mandoline as well.
And here are some of Tony Jones’ lovely black and white pix of the event.
The Stoke Hornpipe START project is supported by SHOP, the base for arts events in a vacant shop in the town of Stoke, for more info click on
The event, organised by the Boat Band in the Glebe, was part of the Over the Bridge music nights, that happen on the first Tuesdays of the month in various Stoke pubs.
To those who came and played, thanks very much indeed, it was great. And if you have video or pictures, please send us links if you have them available anywhere.
Regards
Greg Stephens and the Boat Band
PS Still chasing information on some of the musicians: does anybody know who was the man with glasses playing the fiddle (possibly from Brereton Heath?) And who was the woman playing the aluminium low D whistle?
PPS The next get-together will be at the Greyhound in Penkhull at 9PM on Wed Jan 26, introducing the next subterranean hidden tune, the Hanley Hornpipe. That’ll be videoed, and we’ll all finish off at the Glebe on Tuesday Feb 1. The first phase of SHOP will be over, but we’ll play the hornpipes, record them, dance to them, load them into a boat and push them out into the future, carrying SHOP on fiddling sails or wings or oars…propulsion method to be determined
Before I started this project I hadn’t spent much time in Stoke – because there isn’t much there. That is still true, there are many empty shops and the variety of things to do is limited, but I am definitely going to spend more time in Stoke photographing and talking to the people – Because that is what makes Stoke town, the people. Once you get to talk to them you realise they love this place, for all its faults and failings, its their home town and they rejoice in that fact.
If there is one answer to the question ‘Who are we now?’ it is ‘A community who will go on loving the town regardless of its future, but who will do their utmost to make it a bright future’. They may embrace new ideas or rail against the destruction of their town’s heritage but one thing you can be sure of is they will let you know what they think and they will stand by their town and defend it against detractors.
These residents, workers, traders and passers through all had an opinion about Stoke town, what it has to offer and what its future should or would be. Some good some bad some indifferent.
The project is done apart from the exhibition of the work which I hope to arrange in the near future. A little sample of some of the photographs.
Well it’s a lot harder than you might think striking up a conversation with a complete stranger. I know the camera and light didn’t help! But once you can start to talk to the people of the town – shop keepers, shoppers and passers by, you can’t stop them. Everyone has an opinion on what Stoke town is and how it should move forward. Some harp back to the past and its historical roots while others are looking towards a new modern future. There are many concerns about the future of this place, but as I have come to understand that is born out of love for the place and the people.
I can’t say its been an easy time making this project work but it has been enjoyable and interesting. As Jim said “People are strange, when you’r a stranger”, so my advice is – get to know them, and it will solve a lot of the problems. If you can just scratch a little below the surface you find a community that is rich in history and accommodating in nature. Spend a day in the real City centre and meet some of the folk who wouldn’t live anywhere else.
I am now editing the images and interviews I did along the way, once they are ready I will post them here.
