Safeguarding Public Spaces: Stoke-on-Trent City Council Acquires Land For Nominal Fee
Plus new bookshop for Amerton Farm, Stoke-born bobsleigher at the Winter Olympics, and £5 million revamp now underway at Potteries Museum & Art Gallery…
Good News 🎉
🏞️ Saving our Public Spaces. The city council has acquired six pieces of land from St Modwen Properties, which has agreed to transfer a number of sites it owns across the city to the authority for a minimal fee. The agreement will help the council carry out a series of improvement projects, including supporting a key public transport link road, enhancing children’s play facilities, and ensuring popular green spaces are safeguarded for future generations. The sites are the headlease for Festival Park, which runs to 165 acres; land at Newport Lane, Burslem; land known as South Stoke Play Park at Trentham Lakes; land at Berryhill Fields; Mossfield Road, Longton; land to the east of Woodpark Lane; and Lightwood Lane, Longton.
📚 THE KNOT’S PERSON OF THE WEEK - Charley Hughes 📚
It’s a good month for book lovers, as, in addition to Drop City Books’ reopening, a new book store, The Bookery at Amerton Farm, will have its open day on 28/02 from
10-3pm. Owner Charley Hughes, who was diagnosed with blood cancer last year, says this made her reflect on what she’d always wanted to do. So what can we expect? “With free gifts, goodie bags for the first 20 customers, we have some of our indie authors coming along and cake available,” she says. So what’s on the shelves? A bit of everything, with children’s books, romance, crime, thriller, non- fiction, general fiction, and fantasy. The bookstore will be open seven days a week from 10-4pm: once you’ve chosen a book, say hi to the farm animals, or hop on the mini railway.
🥨 Stoke is Culture A new study has ranked the wider Stoke-on-Trent area among the best places in the country for families to explore history, heritage and the arts. It highlighted the city’s museums, listed buildings and its internationally significant educational resources, including the V&A Wedgwood Collection. The ranking reflects the scale of our cultural offerings and the depth of our historic collections, with opportunities for learning across the city.
🛷 Stokie Makes Olympic Bobsleigh Debut! Ashleigh Nelson made her Winter Olympics debut at Milano Cortina 2026 last Friday (20/02) on her 35th birthday in the two-woman bobsleigh, and finished finished 15th overall with her partner Adele Nicoll. Having competed as a sprinter in Beijing 2008 and Tokyo 2020, Ashleigh switched to bobsleigh in the 2024/25 off season following an Instagram message from Adele Nicoll, a three-time national shot put champion. The pair teamed up at the 2025 World Championships, which was only her third competitive bobsleigh event. Ashleigh comes from a sporting family: her brother Alexander was also an international sprinter and part of the Beijing 2008 squad, while her cousin Curtis is a professional footballer, currently with Derby County.
🖼️ £5m Contract Signed to Revamp PMAG. Major construction work is now underway after a £5 million contract has been signed to transform The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery. Stoke-on-Trent City Council has appointed Seddon to deliver the design and build programme, which will create a new entrance, a new foyer cafe, and increased open storage – meaning artefacts can be seen by the public when not on display. It will also create an artist in residence room, meaning artists can create pieces inspired by the museum’s renowned collections. The museum will reopen in stages from 28/03/2026, when visitors can access the Spitfire, the Forum Theatre and Violet’s cafe, which will feature a new display.
🎖️ Dameship for Emma Bridgewater. When she first heard the news that she was to be made a dame last summer, the businesswoman said she felt a huge wave of pride for the city, and maintained that her business wouldn’t exist without Stoke-on-Trent. She received the honour from King Charles at an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle on 17/02 and wants to use the honour to work at building better communities for people living in care based on her mother’s and sister’s experiences. The brands’ designs are still as fab as ever: we love the mugs for Mother’s Day and the new windblown daffodills range.
🥨 A word from Helen, editor/writer at The Knot
Chinese New Year is a big occasion in our family, given that my husband is Chinese and we lived in Hong Kong for 12 years. Last Tuesday, on the first day of the year of the Fire Horse, our sons greeted us with gung hei fat choi — wishing us prosperity for the year ahead — which meant we were obliged to hand over laisee, traditional red envelopes filled with lucky money. The red symbolises joy and protection from evil spirits, while the money represents good fortune for the coming year.
As you can imagine, the CNY celebrations in Hong Kong are pretty spectacular, with amazing firework displays, parades, and lion and dragon dances filling the streets. I have to admit I was a bit sceptical about the events organised by the Potteries Museum to celebrate the Year of the Horse but my kids loved playing with Chinese dragon puppets and taking part in a ribbon dance workshop in the library, twirling long strands of silk to usher in happiness and good luck. Later on, we headed over to the Mitchell Arts Centre for a free show put on by Ling Chinese Entertainments, with some fabulous kung fu and tai chi displays, along with a mask changing performance, a signature technique of Sichuan opera where performers switch vividly coloured masks to portray emotion.
As we left, compere Andrew Van Buren reminded the audience how important it is to support small venues by attending events like these. Judging by the packed auditorium, there is clearly a strong appetite for celebrating Chinese New Year here in Stoke. Even my husband — not easily impressed — admitted he had never seen celebrations of this scale when he was growing up in Manchester. There are plenty of more free events coming up at the MAC, from the MAC Matinee Club to make and bake sessions in the Spitfire Cafe. Check out the full listings here.
Really Good News 🎉 Your favourite news from the last week
☕️ Good Coffee Guide 2026: James has the low-down on seven very special places
🥨 Minton Tile Reveal in Liverpool: view it at St George’s Hall from 17/07 to 02/09
📚 Drop City Books is Reopening: get along to the official reveal on 28/02
Weekly Weather (Stoke-on-Trent) Sunny periods on Thursday 🌦️
Mon 🌧️ 11° (9°) Tue 🌧️ 13° (9°) Wed 🌧️ 13° (9°) Thu 🌦️ 11° (7°) Fri 🌧️ 10° (4°)
Sat 🌧️ 9° (4°) Sun 🌧️ 10° (5°).
Sunrise 23/02 07.10 ☀️ Sunset 23/02 🌅 17.35
I love to hear the positivity the Knot promotes about the area.