It’s unhealthy to let the world fall away

FRED Hughes’ article, headlined ‘Real friends always trump virtual hate’ (The Sentinel, April 27) was very interesting.

The first half expressed the fears that have brought about the Online Safety Act.

The online world is certainly a dangerous place and needs supervision. It is also an addiction. When I get on the 3 or 3A bus every other day, most of the other passengers under

30 are staring into their phones.

The outside world falls away. This is unhealthy.

The second half was interesting for a different reason: the number of groups taking a loyal interest in Burslem and assessed as such online.

They include June Cartwright’s ‘Our Burslem/ Mothertown, ‘Burslem Matters’, ‘Burslem Past and Present’ and ‘Official Burslem’.

In the same issue of The

Sentinel it was announced on the front cover that Clarice Cliffe (died 1973), our greatest woman pottery designer, would be posthumously honoured by a blue plaque awarded by English Heritage and placed on the wall of her Shelton home.

She was one of a quartet of ground-breaking Potteries women commemorated in The Way We Were early in 2022.

In the same time frame Steve Booth gave Burslem History Club a talk on her, illustrating it with samples of her work.

She started work at 13 for 6/- a week, by sheer talent rose to fame and became a strong influence on the evolution of the pottery industry.

Surely if Burslem is capable of producing not one but several brilliant potters, we can revive their spirit.

Possibly a multiplicity of groups are necessary to show different aspects of Burslem life and evolution. Or perhaps some people are members of two or more groups.

Let us be optimistic and hope that the coming Spring Festival will encourage people to talk to one another without phones.

MARGARET BROWN BURSLEM