Step Up for Stoke: Celebrate the City's Legacy and Volunteer with Team 100
Plus amazing new murals, run 100k for the centenary, pay what you can theatre shows with Bolton Gate Arts and National Lottery funding for Brampton Museum
Good News 🎉
🥳 Seeking Centenary Volunteers. The council and Stoke Creates have launched Team 100, a group of volunteers who will help deliver the programme of events marking 100 years of city status. With locals and community groups invited to get involved, members of Team 100 will also act as ambassadors for the city. You can choose whether to support a single event, or multiple events across the centenary programme. More info and sign up here.
👩🎨 🖌️ THE KNOT’S PERSON OF THE WEEK – Reiko Kaneko 👩🎨 🖌️
A lecturer on the MA Ceramics course at the University of Staffordshire, Reiko Kaneko has created her first piece of public art on the canal side off Vernon Road for a project titled The Brilliant Botanicals murals with creative organisation Brilliant Bamboo. Featuring a large-scale bamboo design in gold and blue, it pays tribute to our gold-edged china and those who’ve worked in the pottery industry. Reiko even created her own bamboo brushes for the project. “My idea was a gold-infused design, inspired by Japanese room dividers like the one I grew up with,” she said. Local artist Rob Fenton created another mural inspired by kintsugi, where broken ceramics are repaired with precious metals. He also took inspiration from Spode’s 1780s Chinoiserie patterns: find it on the Tiger Bite’s building on the corner of Liverpool Road and Elenora Street.
🏃♂️ Running 100k for The Centenary. Founder of Staffs tech company TMT First, Adam Whitehouse, is running 100km to mark the city’s centenary and asking offices, gyms, colleges, schools, universities, running clubs and friends to join him. He’ll be running the 100km distance around the city on 05/06, when city status was granted, to raise money for Dougie Mac. Want to run, jog or walk the distance or help organise? Get in touch or check out the website for more info.
Could you run 100K in June for the centenary
🛣️ JCB’s Hydrogen Diggers Set For Public Highways. The transition to net zero has received a boost as hydrogen fuelled construction and agricultural machinery got the green light to use public highways last week. The move, which was hailed by JCB Chairman Anthony Bamford as “historic”, means hydrogen powered machines can drive on the road between sites and between farms. JCB has invested more than £100 million in zero-emission hydrogen engines.
🎭 Pay What You Can Theatre Shows at Bolton Gate. Bolton Gate Arts is on a mission to bring more people into the theatre, with a trio of fab shows set for the summer at the Bolton Gate Farm near Weston Coyney. Subsidised tickets will be available from just £10 (standard is £15, supporter is £20). Nip into Bolton Gate Cafe for breakfast or lunch and take a stroll at Park Hall Country Park pre/post theatre. There’s more info on the upcoming shows (Wizard of Oz on 16/08!) here.
🕰️ £99,000 for Brampton Museum. Newcastle’s Brampton Museum has received a two-year grant of just under £100,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which will enable it to extend its popular talks and film shows to weekends and partner with local community groups to host family-friendly events. The cash will also be used to set up a new supporters group and pay for environmental improvements. The museum has just launched a fundraising campaign to get its clocks ticking again, too. Donate here if you can.
Really Good News 🎉 Your favourite news from the last week
🥨 Spode Museum Set for Bold New Chapter: You Knotters are keen to check out The Little Vintage Tea Room and the museum collection. We’ll see you there…
🥾 Arnold Bennett in Spotlight for Centenary: You wanted to know about the world premiere of the stage adaptation of novel The Grand Babylon Hotel at the New Vic
👩🎨 Art Showcase: Lots of you also clicked on our story about the upcoming local artists’ showcase on 23/05 at HD.1.0 from Centre Space Arts.
The Knot Pod 🎤 ⬇️ Catch James chatting with some of our amazing innovators
🥨 The Red Haired Stokie: Our ace local blogger, photographer & Knot contributor
🗣️ Kirsty Hulse: Get inspired, it’s the founder of leading event Confidence Live
🏃♂️ George Bettany: Jog to this chat with the founder of MARA Run Club
📽️ Daniel Moore: So much creativity going on in Stone at top agency Dissident
🎶: Ash and Ryan: Listen to two of Stoke’s biggest names in music and fashion
🕯️Beth Warren: Founder of sustainable candle brand The Wandering Bee
🥨 Good Vibes Only: A word from Helen, writer at The Knot
Hey Knotters, how are you doing? Hope you’re enjoying this amazing weather as much as we are! I caught up with James last week at one of our favourite hangouts, BEAR in Stone. To be honest, the last time we properly spoke we were both feeling a bit down, as James was considering shutting The Knot down, something neither of us wanted. This week, though, the vibes couldn’t have been more different. We sat outside, shades on, happily reflecting on how the paid subscribers are steadily ticking up (90 now - cheers guys!) and chatting about our plans for The Knot, which include the addition of a social media editor to help capture more subscribers. You can also expect to see more content from us on the web page (we don’t want to bombard you with emails) and a more diverse range of voices as we bring in more writers.
On another note, there was some big news on the political front last week as Reform took control of Staffordshire County Council, winning 49 out of 62 seats, or 41% of the overall vote. At an event at the County Showground last Wednesday, party leader Nigel Farage talked about his plans to “slim down the size of local government” and put a stop to proposed wind and solar farms in the area. How are you feeling about it all? Let us know by dropping us an email.
Politics aside, we have a feeling it’s gonna be a great summer and can’t wait to keep writing about all the good stuff that’s happening in Stoke and Staffs. On that note, we’d love to know what you’d like to read about in The Knot. Help us shape our future by taking part in the poll below!
Thanks so much, you’re the best! Love, Helen x
Weekly Weather (Stoke-on-Trent):
Mon ☀️ 14° (4°) Tue ☀️ 17° (6°) Wed ☀️ 17° (7°) Thu ☀️ 18° (7°) Fri ⛅️ 19° (7°)
Sat ⛅️ 18° (8°) Sun 🌧️ 19° (7°).
Sunrise 05/05 ☀️05:29 Sunset 05/05 🌅 20:43
I’ll have some news soon on a commemoration of 1970’s (and onwards) nightlife in Hanley when our city centre was a hub of entertainment for regular visitors from Cheshire, Shropshire, Derbyshire & South Staffs. Since The Torch northern soul nightclub opened in Tunstall the city became known as ‘Soul On Trent’ - soon there will be plaques celebrating five key nightspots as well as significant D.J.s most of whom are still spinning discs!