🧢 Rolling back the years
It was great to be back in the Media Centre at this year’s World Travel Market. Little has changed since I was last there, in the pre-Covid years. I tried to work it out: this was probably the 36th time I’ve attended the event. The venues may have changed many times over all those years, but the most notable change this time was the ease of getting there: God Bless the Elizabeth Line, and all who sail in her! But it was as busy, hot and as borderline crazy as it had ever been. Bright lights, big city - and even bigger stands and displays. It felt great to be flying the flag for VisitDerby and “Stoke100” (on the eve of all the celebrations and events that will mark 100 years of Stoke-on-Trent officially being granted its city status). Both stories were well received by many familiar faces amongst the travel media I met on the day; and it was a great springboard for the coming year… Watch out, now, for regular updates from both cities.
🧢 This week’s ‘Top Pick’ @WeightmanPR: The Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
The ‘National Gallery of the North’, The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool boasts one of the most important and renowned collections of paintings in the UK. The collection includes European Renaissance paintings, masterpieces by Rubens, Rembrandt, Turner and Stubbs, Pre-Raphaelite artworks by Rossetti and Millais, Impressionist works by Monet and Degas and contemporary works by Hockney, Wylie and the winners of the John Moores Painting Prize. And for a native of The Potteries, there’s even a permanent display of art deco works by the eponymous Clarice Cliff, and Susie Cooper (image below).
🧢 One of the warmest welcomes in Britain
The people of Stoke-on-Trent are looking forward to offering visitors one of the warmest welcomes in Britain during the 100th anniversary of the city being granted city status in 2025... “Ay up duck” is a greeting believed to be of Old Norse origin, that is used widely throughout North Staffordshire, and other parts of the Midlands. "M' duck", meanwhile, is thought to derive from a very respectful Anglo-Saxon form of address: "Duka" (which translates as "duke"). Non-natives of Stoke-on-Trent may also be surprised to hear men greet each other in Stoke-on-Trent as “duck"!
🧢 The 2025 Railway200 train-load of official events will now stop at…Derby
Two Railway200-specific events in next year’s anniversary year of the birth of the railway are being hosted in Derby. The Midland Railway Study Centre will be hosting three weekend-long events in 2025 in the Museum of Making at Derby’s Silk Mill: “How the Railway Came to Derby”, “The Victorian and Edwardian Railway Worker” and “Railways of Derby in the Black & White Years” (dates TBC). These events will be showcasing objects and documents relevant to the theme with daily presentations and the famous “Kirtley Junction” model railway will be operated by its dedicated volunteers. Alstom, the UK’s leading supplier of new trains and train services, meanwhile, will be opening its historic Derby factory to the public for the first time in 2025 to host an unprecedented event in celebration of Railway 200. The Greatest Gathering on 1, 2 and 3 August will see the largest temporary assembly of rolling stock and railway-related exhibits in a generation, all coming together for three fun-filled days across the vast estate of Derby Litchurch Lane Works.