005: Good News for Stoke & Staffordshire
Piccadilly Party, Lymelight Festival, Mike and Jake - Castle Artisan Markets, Potteries Centre Takeover, 300k for Burslem Wedgwood Institute and Ramen at STOCK.
This week in The Knot 👇🏼
What’s On/Things To Do ✅
Piccadilly Party & Lymelight FestivalSpotlight 🔦
Mike and Jake. The Father and Son Artisan Market Duo.Good News 🎉
Keep it Local Potteries Centre takeover, Burslem Wedgwood Institute gets £300k, PCC ElectionsFood Highlight 🇬🇷
STOCKJobs 💸
Product Management and Beaver Re-introduction.Property 🏡
Spacious countryside detached home with swimming pool.Knot Having It ❌
The negativity in this comments section gives an idea of what we’re battling against
📰 READ NOW: HOW CREATIVITY AND CULTURE SAVED A CONDEMNED HANLEY COMMUNITY
By Martha Bird. Originally published in The Lead.
When 500 terraced houses in Hanley were earmarked for demolition it was the community that saved them. Now neighbours, including some who bought the once condemned houses for £1, are regenerating the deprived area from its grassroots. Starting with the local pub.… (Read full article)
WHAT’S ON/THINGS TO DO ✅
Piccadilly Party. 4th May. 4 Venues. 16 gigs. FREE. The night before local indie band Camens are headlining at the Sugarmill too. Get yourself down there.
Lymelight Festival. 25th and 26th May. More great FREE music, this time in Newcastle-under-Lyme. 20+ local artists across three stages. Winner.
Spotlight 🔦 Mike and Jake 👋🏼
Mike Davies started making puddings and selling them on the markets as a hobby after a career in IT. Not long after he’s organising entire markets in multiple locations across Staffordshire and Cheshire with his son Jake. Castle Artisan Markets now hold markets in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Middleport, Hanley and other pop-up locations.
With all traders from Staffordshire or nearby, they’re passionate about quality and curation, from vegan bakers to ceramicists - the difference between the Artisan Markets and the General Markets - only the highest quality and you won’t have 6 bakers competing for your pounds. This level of trust between them and the traders means they’ve got an engaged group of creators that create vibrant markets wherever they go.
This local success story just shows that there’s opportunity in every corner of the county, to some the decline of the high street is a constant source of complaint, to others - whilst not ideal - it’s an opportunity to build something new.
Next market: Castle Artisan, Newcastle-under-Lyme, 21st April.
Good News 🎉
A large retail unit in the Potteries Shopping Centre will be transformed from October to December with 200+ independent creative businesses moving in. (Keep It Local)
Burslem Wedgwood Institute wins £300,000 grant to further repair work (BBC)
The next Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections will take place across Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire on 2 May 2024. What you need to know.
Food Highlight - STOCK by FEASTED
Eateries need something to make them stand out. Great food, great hospitality, and well-thought-out opening hours are only the tip of the iceberg; a lot more is needed to cultivate a “following” and get people coming back again and again.
When I walked into STOCK on “Castle’s high street on a very drizzly Wednesday morning, I immediately knew that this was the kind of place that had just that. I was greeted like I was a regular with the promise of a delicious matcha pastry that I had seen floating about on Instagram a couple of days before. (The pastry was perfect by the way, warm, flaky, and oh so comforting).
Chris Cohen, STOCK’s zealous owner and idea-driver, even found the time to make conversation whilst the gorgeous smells of umami rose from the broths and noodles were cooking away. I was already admiring the coffee (a great partnership with Steelite) when he directed my attention to the words above the door “Bar - Kitchen - Community”.
Putting emphasis on the community aspect is what STOCK is all about, and you can see it in the details – all the way from the personal hospitality, to the pop-ups they hosted before their main launch, to the way they approach their food. This is what will create a successful eatery, and we’ve seen success with this model from other local restaurants like Little Dumpling King and The Rabbit Hole Tea Room. The power lies in the people, and putting them first will always yield good results.
For me, the fried squid starter and the cauliflower curry broth were the perfect blend of satisfying and warming.
Warning: You’ll start coming for just the conversation alone!
JOBS 💰
Product Manager - Sports at Live Nation Entertainment (LinkedIn)
Beaver Re-Introduction Manager at The Wildlife Trusts. £38,000 pa (LinkedIn)
Senior Events and Training Manager at Office for Place. £52,000 pa (LinkedIn)
PROPERTY 🏡
Spacious country property with a swimming pool in Hanchurch with easy access to M6 and Stoke station.
KNOT HAVING IT ❌
The negativity in this comments section on the new Goods Yard development in Stoke is not helping anyone.
Reading those comments in The Sentinel is a sobering reminder of the state of the challenge here and brings me back down to earth, in a good way. It’s easy to point a finger at the negativity and criticism, blame those people too - yet you have to ask what they’ve experienced and suffered to become hateful, sceptical and abusive in a comments section online? Some, can do better. Others, we need to be compassionate towards. This tightrope is The Knot’s challenge - how to champion the region and not shy away from the glaring issues that we have to work through. It is exhausting seeing that level of negativity though, it’s a weight holding us down, a massive Stoke-sized chip on our shoulders. I’m relativity free from that level of criticism now, wait until The Knot joins Facebook though, it’ll come.
Cheers,
James Routledge, Editor of The Knot.
FRIENDS OF THE KNOT 👋🏼
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