A short story of Stoke: Andy Hussey

This small narrative depicts my visit to Stoke-on-Trent, exploring the area and some shots that depict some of the general feelings from the trip. 

Its a visual timeline of the experience of the visit which I feel shows some of the more interesting highlights.

'Harry's House'
The first real glimpse of the gritty side of Stoke, the livingroom floor we were supposed to be staying on.

Getting to know the Staff students, after a meet and great at a local bar it was time to educate ourselves in the history of Stoke-on-Trent

'Dan and Charlie'
One's from UoG, ones from Staff.....they both wear hats.

amongst some of the dismal rundown areas of Stoke there was the occasional glimpse of beauty. 

'1 in 10'
The ratio of pregnant teens in Stoke is 1 in every 10 and this girl was just a walking cliche.

An old chimney stack catches the evening sunlight quietly nestled in the back streets of Hanley.

'An early start..'
It wasn't even six in the evening and one of Harrys housemates was getting ready for the coming house party. We saw him down four cans of stout via a beer bong in less than half an hour, taking less than 5 secs to drink each can.

'Godsend'
After a long day and an even longer night we were able to secure a different living room to get some sleep in as the party raged on into the morning hours. Staff student Sean offered us some peace and quiet and we jumped at the chance, only around 4 hours sleep but it was much appreciated. 

The next morning we were all very tired and very hungry so a quick bite at the S.U and we hit the road for a days shooting.

An overview of stoke taken from an abandoned building site.
John and myself decided to head towards another area of stoke and do some exploring. We spotted a hole in the security fence. oOne of us had all ready pointed out the vantage point we would get if we were able to get in so we were pretty happy when we saw the gap.

'A little further on...'
Just down the road after what seemed a relatively pleasant walk though a small park we wandered into one of the worst areas I have been to in my life. I had never felt as uncomfortable as I did there, with boarded up and burnt out buildings, 10ft high razor wire security fences around peoples back gardens and written off cars left to rust on the road sides; but it was the unearthly silence that unsettled me the most, there was nobody to be seen or heard anywhere, just the odd twitch of  net curtains as we hastily took photos.

A brisk walk and we were in Burslem where we bumped into a few of the others from our group. We thought we would find some working factories or national trust sites but all we found were disused derelict factories, shops and row upon row of abandoned houses. 

The centre of Burslem was the town hall and was a real site and a shock to see in such an area. 

With little money and even less sleep we all took a break inside a KFC to gather our thoughts and rest our feet. Everyone was feeling pretty down beat by this point.

'At the end of the day it gets dark...'
With 2 days shooting under my belt I was ready to get my head down for a few hours sleep but with the realisation that there was another house party back at Harrys and the hotel not so politely telling us we weren't welcome I was ready to bite the bullet and head home. But in keeping with the whole trip there were no available seats on the train so it was a long journey sat on the floor with my bag on my lap. Despite this fact it wasn't long before I was fast asleep with my head wedged under a storage rack.

The view form the train door just before it pulled into Cheltenham Spa really helped lift my spirits.