Middleport is a residential and industrial district in the city of

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022, making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire ...

, England. Middleport lies to the west of Burslem, between Burslem and the

Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. It is adjacent to the city of Stoke-on-Trent. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the population ...

district of Porthill. To the north is Tunstall and to the south Cobridge and

Etruria Etruria ( ) was a region of Central Italy delimited by the rivers Arno and Tiber, an area that covered what is now most of Tuscany, northern Lazio, and north-western Umbria. It was inhabited by the Etruscans, an ancient civilization that f ...

. Middleport conjoins Longport. Middleport is primarily residential, with distinctive Victorian

terraced house A terrace, terraced house ( UK), or townhouse ( US) is a type of medium-density housing which first started in 16th century Europe with a row of joined houses sharing side walls. In the United States and Canada these are sometimes known as row ...

s. However, it also a working

industrial district Industrial district (ID) is a place where workers and firms, specialised in a main industry and auxiliary industries, live and work. The concept was initially used by Alfred Marshall to describe some aspects of the industrial organisation of nat ...

and contains several potteries: ranging from

Middleport Pottery Middleport Pottery was built in 1888 by Burgess & Leigh Ltd (founders William Leigh and Frederick Rathbone Burgess). It is located at Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent, England. The buildings, which still house an active pottery, are protected for t ...

, owned by Re-Form Heritage and claimed to be the only working Victorian pottery remaining in the city, and

Steelite Steelite International is a British ceramics manufacturer headquartered in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. They specialise in alumina-strengthened vitreous tableware for the hospitality industry. The company had a turnover of £117 m ...

, a large manufacturer of hotelware. The

Trent and Mersey Canal The Trent and Mersey Canal is a canal in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire in north-central England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities to the east of Burton upon Trent and north of Middl ...

and a key path of the

National Cycle Network The National Cycle Network (NCN) was established to encourage cycling and walking throughout the United Kingdom, as well as for the purposes of bicycle touring. It was created by the charity Sustrans who were aided by a £42.5 million N ...

run through Middleport. The line of the canal through the City of Stoke-on-Trent is a linear

conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewoo ...

. Middleport contains one of the nation's richest stretches of canalside industrial heritage. Since 1990 the canal area has benefited from around £1m of Groundwork funding, and £4m of Townscape Heritage funding. Clarice Cliff's Newport Pottery, where she produced some of her most famous work, was adjacent to the canal and an artist-designed 12-foot steel markerpost identifies the location. Middleport is an area that is strategic to the regeneration of the city, as it sits in the centre of a ring of imminent projects totalling around £250m: the Chatterley Valley scheme, the Etruria Valley scheme, the regeneration of Burslem town centre, and a proposed major "

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail transport, r ...

" interchange and business-park on the site of the old Shelton Bar steel rolling-mill. Middleport piloted a

community warden A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geo ...

service in 2002 & 2003; as a result, crime dropped by 80 per cent. The service was subsequently extended across Stoke-on-Trent and adopted in other cities. Middleport features in several of the novels of

Arnold Bennett Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist, who wrote prolifically. Between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaborati ...

, and the film version of his ''

The Card ''The Card'' is a comic novel written by Arnold Bennett in 1911 (entitled ''Denry the Audacious'' in the American edition). It was later made into a 1952 movie, starring Alec Guinness and Petula Clark. Like much of Bennett's best work, it is ...

'' was filmed in Middleport with

Alec Guinness Sir Alec Guinness (born Alec Guinness de Cuffe; 2 April 1914 – 5 August 2000) was an English actor. In the BFI, British Film Institute listing of 1999 of BFI Top 100 British films, the 100 most important British films of the 20th century ...

. Middleport Park Bowling Club has a national reputation and has won several national trophies. Middleport Matters (founded 2015) is a local community action group dedicated to improving the lives of those who live and work in Middleport and the surrounding areas.

References

{{Stoke-on-Trent Areas of Stoke-on-Trent