Residents are being invited to share their memories of the city and the city council  is also inviting businesses who want to be part of the centenary to get in touch.

Events will be held across seven themes – civic, children and young people, culture, heritage, community, environment and futures.

The council will be working with partners to deliver the celebrations, which Lord Mayor Councillor Lyn Sharpe said would ‘acknowledge our proud past at the same time as looking towards our future as a great city’.

Speaking at the launch event, Cllr Sharpe added: “We are a proud city built on clay and coal. We are proud potters, we are plate turners. We are great, we are Stoke-on-Trent.”

The Gladstone event featured performances by the Dharshanodiyaa Dance School and schoolchildren from St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Primary School, Hartshill, as part of the City Music Service’s City Songbirds. Guests were treated to oatcakes from Feasted with drinks served in ‘Gladstone Blue’ mugs made by Duchess China, while a demonstrator from the museum showed off her skills and local poet Nick Degg performed his poem ‘I come from a town.’

Lloyd Cooke, chief executive of Saltbox, said he was ‘delighted’ that the year of celebrations would begin in June with the civic prayer breakfast.
He said: “The civic prayer breakfast has become a very significant annual event in the city and I’m delighted it has been chosen to kick off the centenary year.
“The 100th anniversary celebrations are a wonderful opportunity to look back and be nostalgic, but are also a springboard to recognise what is going on now and aim for better things in the future.”

Other events planned for the centenary year include a celebration of Stoke-on-Trent artist Arthur Berry and interactive heritage trails across the city.

Fiona Wallace, managing director of the New Vic Theatre, said: “It will also be Arthur Berry’s centenary next year and the city influenced everything he did. It was in his DNA. We will be celebrating the city and a famous son of the city at the same time. He is our Lowry.”

The first application for city status was refused by the Home Office because Stoke on-Trent had fewer than 300,000 inhabitants – the usual minimum population for city status – even after becoming a federation of six towns in 1910.

But a direct approach to King George V changed that and on June 5, 1925, Stoke on-Trent gained city status in recognition of its contributions to the pottery industry.

Clare Wood, artistic director of the British Ceramics Biennial, which will be staged next year, said: “It’s so natural that the Biennial will happen in the centenary year and it is a wonderful opportunity to bring even more focus to the creativity of the city.

“The Biennial works so well in Stoke-on-Trent because we are working with contemporary artists who are drawing on the richness and the heritage of the city.”

Young people will be able to learn new skills such as welding or throwing a pot at workshops held by Stoke-on-Trent College, while students will put together ‘a meal fit for a king’ at the college’s Hammersley Restaurant.

Director of marketing at Stoke-on-Trent College, Claire Williams said: “Our young people are proud to be from the city and this is a good opportunity to bring people together to celebrate that.”

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Article by Hannah Hiles (pictured) who is a freelance journalist and writer based in Stoke-on-Trent, with a strong interest in heritage, regeneration, arts and culture, and tourism. Hannah is a former senior journalist at The Sentinel/ Stoke-on-Trent Live and the Birmingham Mail, and has also worked in communications for Keele University and Ceramics UK.