The Potteries

"The Potteries forms one of the most remarkable and yet little known conurbations in the United Kingdom. A product of the Industrial Revolution and comprising the six pottery towns of Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton, together with the adjacent market centre of Newcastle-under-Lyme, it is the only conurbation in the country to be named after its dominant manufacturing activity; indeed, the pottery industry not only bequeathed a name but also a unique urban-industrial landscape. Moreover, the emergence of the conurbation, by the formal fusing of these independent towns at the beginning of the twentieth century, represents a distinctive and singular process in recent British urban history.". "Today the Potteries' population is over 500,000, establishing it as a leading regional centre in the West Midlands. Although many studies of the Potteries, both past and present, have been undertaken, there has been no major recent over-view of the region. To mark the visit of the British Association for the Advancement of Science to the region in 1993, to be held at Keele University, this new and comprehensive survey of the conurbation was initiated. Calling on the experience of a wide range of authorities, the present volume seeks to demonstrate the character and originality of the Potteries through an examination of its regional setting in terms of both physical resources and early settlement; an analysis of the making of the industrial-urban complex and the creation of a clear regional identity."--BOOK JACKET.