The green of Fenton Tip

‘Fenton Tip’ does not refer to a rubbish dump. The word ‘tip’ in Stoke-on-Trent is more likely to mean a coal tip, i.e. where all the spoil from coal-mining extraction would be piled. Some of these coal-tips go as high as hundreds of feet.

Nowadays, with all the mines closed, the tips are almost all greened over – returned to nature - though some still smoulder even now. Youngsters think they are strange, sudden hills, not knowing their real origin.

Fenton Tip is where the old Glebe Colliery stood, and this mining tub marks the spot.