How “rough” is the Rough Guide To England?

There are times when one needs to protest; not about Trump, Brexit, North Korea, Benefit Cuts, etc. but about things much more important and local. Some things are MUCH too important to ignore.

Our grand Tour of England was planned a few months back, beginning with a list of places and things we wanted to see before we “pop our clogs”! That list got clustered into 5 regions, one of which we called the Industrial Midlands from The Potteries across Shropshire and down to Hereford. (England’s South Coast is next if you’re interested). We began in The Potteries, specifically at The Gladstone Pottery Museum, a fantastic preserved set of bottle kilns, workshops and …… people, all preserving the old traditions and crafts of industrial England.

We have a travel blog, you’re possibly reading it, and later that night I opened my Rough Guide To England to check a few facts. The chapter on The West Midlands begins on page 420 with a lovely photo of The Ironbridge. On p424 there is a map with Stoke on Trent at the top and Gloucester Forest of Dean at the bottom. Within the area/city of Stoke on Trent is The Potteries, the home of Josiah Wedgewood, the man whose daughter married Charles Darwin, the officially recognised World Capital of Ceramics.

And yet, there is absolutely no mention of any of this in The Rough Guide To England. Look in the index; Stoke, no? Potteries, no? Wedgewood, no? Gladstone Pottery Museum, no? Arnold Bennett, no? Anna of the Five Towns, no? Why not, especially since their guidebooks say “full coverage” on the front cover. Missing such a significant area of England’s industrial past is a hell of an omission!

We’ve written to Hayley Cox and Sarah-Jane Wilson at Rough Guide and hope they can explain. A reblog of my post or tweet @thetwodocs might help.

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Categories: books, Travel

Tags: England, English Heritage, Gladstone Pottery Museum, Rough Guide, the potteries