Urban degradation and decay

It is evident that many areas of the Potteries and Staffordshire remain hit harder than most by the ongoing recession (we certainly haven’t left it) It’s most obvious on the High streets of the outlying Towns that make up the Potteries (Arnold Bennett’s now expanded five-towns- Tunstall, Burslem, Longton (plus Fenton, the forgotten town), Hanley & Stoke).

In rural towns (Leek, Biddulph and Newcastle & Stone to a certain extent) the only the only successes appear to be coffee shops and charity shops. In the City (perhaps a slightly too grand term for Hanley?) to those two successes you can only add Exchange stores & cash converters (Pawn shops by any other name). In the eighties of my adolescence it appeared that every other store front was an estate agent.