Tuesday, 15 September 2009

Burslem - A Town That Time Forgot

I've just spent my weekend in Stoke-on-Trent. I was staying on my girlfriends barge, the Sea Mistress, which is currently being pimped up and resides in dry docks 1 mile outside of Tunstal (birthplace of Robbie Williams) and 1/2 mile away from Burslem. These are strange places. There's little or no up-keep happening here. Most of the pub's are boarded up, the street signs are either missing or falling off and a lonely Woolworth's sits empty, appearing not to have been touched since it's closure 9 months ago. I met twins Mick and Morris at the Middleport Environment Centre Recycling Shop, who were happy to have their photograph taken. They gave me a giant rainbow pencil. They told me most of the shop windows have been replaced with perspex because 'youths keep kicking them in'. A fairly typical small midland town.
These photo's are the first installment from a new project called 'Towns Time Forgot'









2 comments:

Unknown said...

I do see your point, there are some terrible run down areas of Stoke, and you just happened to have parked your barge in the middle of one (Middle Port).

A bit further down the road, towards harecastle tunnel, there is some development going on, but sadly, quite a lot of shut pubs too.

http://www.bankeyfields.co.uk/image

i cant see straight said...

thanks Matt B - I was born and raised in Stafford (actually I was born in Tittensor!) so the Midlands is home to me really.