Stoke-on-Trent

Stoke-on-Trent, the only polycentric city in the UK, is a federation of six towns along the A50, halfway between Manchester and Birmingham on the southernmost tip of The Pennines – just 10-miles from Alton Towers.

You may know it as The Potteries, given the city’s historic domination of England’s ceramics industry – some of which you’ll see at the Potteries Museum & Gallery or the £10 million Wedgewood Museum. That said Stoke-on-Trent had a thriving coal mining industry for 300 years, employing 20,000 local men until the last pit closed in 1994.

While this is Robbie Williams’ hometown, local businesswoman Denise Coates, founder of Bet365, hires more people here than any of the city’s other 9,000 firms.

Of course, the 240,000 residents here also have an army of skilled tradesmen tending to their every need.

From central heating experts in Cliffe Vale and appliance repairmen in Abbey Hulton to painters in Penkhull. Find the local tradesmen you need in our Stoke directory.