LOCALS say their once-thriving market village is now a ghost town – with rich newcomers forcing people out.
Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, was once known at the ‘Mother Town’ of the Potteries due to its wealth and historic significance.
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Nowadays, there is little left of its once thriving past.
The Leopard Inn on Market Place, a grade II listed building where, in 1765, the giants of Britain’s industrial revolution – Josiah Wedgwood, James Brindley and Erasmus Darwin, met over a pint to discuss how to build the Trent-Mersey Canal.
It shut in 2021 and it became a cannabis farm before being destroyed by a fire in January 2022.
Now it stands next to a slot machine emporium, its roof gone and its structures so unsteady that no one dared venture in to investigate how it was started.
It’s just one of several stunning listed buildings in Burslem which are now abandoned, on English Heritage’s “At Risk” register and in desperate need of renovation.
Older residents who have seen Burslem go from a thriving community to ghost town despair at what has happened.
Jane Mountford, 59, landlady of the Bursley Ale House, said: “As a little girl, I used to come up to Burslem with my mum because it was the place to go.
“It had markets, shoe shops, clothes shops and it would take us two hours to get around the place.
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“Now unless you want a drink, your hair or eyebrows doing or a takeaway you can forget it.”
In 2019, data showed Burslem had a higher percentage of empty units than anywhere else in the UK.
Then local councillor Alan Dutton joked: “You could fire a canon up Queen Street and there’d be no danger of hitting anybody.”
Now, Queen Street, once host of the town’s thriving market place, is full of empty shop fronts with faded signs hinting at what used to be – Boots, a letting agent, a hair salon, a chicken takeaway, a courier shop, an insurance broker.
There is a butcher’s, open one day a week, a college and a pharmacy but the towering gothic splendour of the Wedgwood Institute Building, once the town library, is empty and the huge indoor market next door is also closed.
Builder Alan Wetherby, 42, working to restore some of Queen Street’s shops, said: “There is nothing here besides pubs and takeaways and the only thing you could be sure of on a night out would be a fight.
“I would never bring my wife down here. It is just getting worse and worse.
“The George Hotel used to be a lovely place. We went there after my daughter’s christening. It was the sort of place you’d go for a special occasion or a fancy Sunday dinner.
“Now, it just houses homeless people and you see people staggering out of there on monkey dust. Heroin is another big problem.
“Drugs are everywhere and the busiest place is the pharmacy.”
Since the 12th century, Burslem was noted for its pottery industry and by the start of the 20th century it was booming with many world-famous firms like Royal Doulton and Wedgwood based there.
Jim Stocko, 74, recalled: “When I was a clay delivery driver in the 1970s your greatest fear would be a drop off in Burslem because the place was rammed. Now there’s virtually nothing left.”
Café volunteer Keith Booth, 68, said it was foreign competition that brought down the industry and with it the town.
He said: “I know some Indonesians came over and asked Royal Doulton to help them set something up over there.
“They did that and then they were selling us the pottery at half the price. By 2004, Royal Doulton was gone.”
Many blame the then Labour Council for failing to manage the decline.
They point to plans from the noughties to turn Burslem into a heritage attraction while encouraging shops to go to nearby Tunstall and Hanley.
“The way they went about it was a disaster,” said Keith. “They pulled out the bandstand and the seating in the town square and spent £2million building a glass arts centre next to the old town hall but nobody wanted it.
“Within 10 years they pulled the whole thing down. Now we are left with nothing.”
Café worker Emma Potts, 32, a mum of four, added: “Having four kids around here is a really big worry. When I was growing up you could still leave your doors open and the streets were a lot safer.
“You see a lot of people on drugs and I think it has got worse since all the lockdowns.”
Locals say that to revive the place, the council at least need to address some of the basics.
“If anyone did come here they’d find there was nowhere to park anyway,” said Matt, 48, a dispatch supervisor. “I went to posh old Henley on Thames and found their parking was cheaper than Burslem.
“There are no car parks and then on-street parking is at least £1 an hour. I know of an accountant that moved because there was nowhere for customers to park and the same goes for hair salons.”
Local councillor Jane Ashworth, leader of the minority Labour group on Stoke Council, said the challenges were big.
“Around here they call it vandalism by neglect,” she said. “We need to sort out the heritage buildings and find anchor tenants for them and we need a review of parking charges as a matter of urgency.”
She described Government plans to put in £56m of levelling up money as “laughable”.
“Stoke has seen £750m cut since 2010 and to get the £56m we need to put in £21.8m ourselves through loans which will cost £40m to repay.
“It means spending less on social care to free up money to get the levelling up fund.”
She also admitted that the town with its evident drug problem had become “scary” for women and children.
Jane said: “There is a visible group of people with substance problems, mostly the very cheap monkey dust, that brings down the town centre and makes it scary for women.
“You don’t want your children seeing that sort of erratic behaviour.”
Retired welder Peter Grabowski said: “This used to be one of the busiest towns around.
“There was a popular theatre, a fantastic arts school, a library and now just a few takeaways, vape shops and places to gamble.
“The rot set in when Royal Doulton closed. That was 4,000 jobs. Now they are building houses but with no jobs and no amenities to go with them.
“They need to build a car park for starters and install another free cash machine. There’s only one here and nobody trusts it.”
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