Middleport is a residential and industrial district of the town of Burslem

Burslem

The town of Burslem, known as the Mother Town, is one of the six towns that amalgamated to form the current city of Stoke-on-Trent, in the ceremonial county of Staffordshire, in the Midlands of England.-Topography:...

 in the city of Stoke-on-Trent

Stoke-on-Trent

Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Middleport lies to the west of Burslem, between Burslem town centre and the Newcastle-under-Lyme

Newcastle-under-Lyme

Newcastle-under-Lyme is a market town in Staffordshire, England, and is the principal town of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme. It is part of The Potteries Urban Area and North Staffordshire. In the 2001 census the town had a population of 73,944...

 district of Porthill

Porthill, Staffordshire

Porthill is a suburb of Newcastle-under-Lyme and a ward in the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. Porthill Bank is the main backbone with streets such as Vale View, First Avenue and Inglewood Drive leading from it. It is a major transport link as the A500 can be easily...

. To the north is Tunstall

Tunstall, Staffordshire

Tunstall is an area in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. It was one of the original six towns that federated to form the city. Tunstall is the most northern town of the city of Stoke-on-Trent....

 and to the south Cobridge

Cobridge

Cobridge is an area of Stoke-on-Trent in the county of Staffordshire, England. Cobridge has a Holdcroft centre on Sneyd Street, a community centre and a C of E church called Christ Church on Emery Street which is Grade II listed. Cobridge once had a railway station on the Potteries Loop Line...

 and Etruria

Etruria, Staffordshire

Etruria is a suburb of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England.-Home of Wedgwood:Etruria was the fourth and penultimate site for the Wedgwood pottery business. Josiah Wedgwood, who was previously based in Burslem, opened his new works in 1769. It was named after the Italian district of Etruria,...

. Middleport blurs into Longport

Longport, Staffordshire

Longport is an area of Stoke-on-Trent, England. It is the location for Longbridge Hayes industrial estate.Longport railway station, opened by the North Staffordshire Railway on October 9, 1848, is on the Crewe to Derby and Stafford to Manchester Lines....

.

Middleport is primarily residential, with distinctive Victorian terraced house

Terraced house

In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...

s. However, it also a working industrial district

Industrial district

Industrial district was initially introduced as a term to describe an area where workers of a monolithic heavy industry live within walking-distance of their places of work...

 and contains several potteries: ranging from Burleigh Pottery, the oldest working Victorian pottery; to the art-driven Lorna Bailey

Lorna Bailey

Lorna Bailey is an English potter and businesswoman.-Life and work:Lorna Bailey was brought up in the Wolstanton area of Newcastle-under-Lyme, England, close to the Potteries area of Stoke-on-Trent....

; to Steelite, a modern mass-production ceramics producer.

The Trent and Mersey Canal

Trent and Mersey Canal

The Trent and Mersey Canal is a in the East Midlands, West Midlands, and North West of England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities—east of Burton upon Trent and west of Middlewich—it is a wide canal....

 and a key path of the National Cycle Network

National Cycle Network

The National Cycle Network is a network of cycle routes in the United Kingdom.The National Cycle Network was created by the charity Sustrans , and aided by a £42.5 million National Lottery grant. In 2005 it was used for over 230 million trips.Many routes hope to minimise contact with motor...

 run through Middleport. The line of the canal through the City of Stoke-on-Trent is a linear conservation area

Conservation area

A conservation areas is a tract of land that has been awarded protected status in order to ensure that natural features, cultural heritage or biota are safeguarded...

. Middleport contains one of the nation's richest stretches of canalside industrial heritage. Since 1990 the canal area has benefited from around £1m of Groundwork funding, and £4m of Townscape Heritage funding. Clarice Cliff

Clarice Cliff

Clarice Cliff was an English ceramic industrial artist active from 1922 to 1963.Cliff was born in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, England.- Early life :...

's Newport Pottery, where she produced some of her most famous work, was adjacent to the canal and an artist-designed 12-foot steel markerpost identifies the location.

Middleport is an area that is strategic to the regeneration of the city, as it sits in the centre of a ring of imminent projects totalling around £250m: the Chatterley Valley scheme, the Etruria Valley scheme, the regeneration of Burslem town centre, and a proposed major "park and ride

Park and ride

Park and ride facilities are car parks with connections to public transport that allow commuters and other people wishing to travel into city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system , or carpool for the rest of their trip...

" interchange and business-park on the site of the old Shelton Bar steel rolling-mill.

Middleport piloted a community warden service in 2002 & 2003; as a result, crime dropped by 80 per cent. The service was subsequently extended across Stoke-on-Trent and adopted in other cities.

Middleport features in several of the novels of Arnold Bennett

Arnold Bennett

- Early life :Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which joined together at the beginning of the twentieth century as Stoke-on-Trent. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, and the...

, and the film version of his The Card

The Card

The Card is a short comedic novel written by Arnold Bennett in 1911, . It was later made into a 1952 movie starring Alec Guinness and Petula Clark. It chronicles the rise of Edward Henry Machin from washerwoman's son to Mayor of Bursley...

was filmed in Middleport with Alec Guinness

Alec Guinness

Sir Alec Guinness, CH, CBE was an English actor. He was featured in several of the Ealing Comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he played eight different characters. He later won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai...

.

Middleport Park Bowling Club has a national reputation and has won several national trophies.