A death threat of sorts. What would GD do?

ttaskmaster said:
Only if it changed to shank from Shiv/Chiv in the days after my dad was in prison...

Also of interest:
"It stuck there like a dart in a dartboard. I pulled the glass out of my face with one hand and my chiv out of my pocket with the other. Then I got to work doing a bit of hacking and carving. I don't know how many blokes I cut that night. I didn't care ... "

"I was always careful to draw my knife down on the face, never across or upwards. Always down. So that if the knife slips you don't cut an artery. After all, chivving is chivving, but cutting an artery is usually murder. Only mugs do murder."
Billy Hill, 1920s-60s London Gangster and criminal mentor to the Krays.

Quotes from - https://www.theguardian.com/society/2008/jul/30/biography.billyhill
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8 years of working the landings in London - YOI, reform, and Cat A and it was always shank.

I dont have second hand anecdotal evidence I'm afraid.
 
I googled Hope Street, Hanley as I had no idea where it was, Stoke apparently. Just took an eye opening virtual drive down it on streetview, delightful looking place, not a somewhere I'd like to visit.
 
ivrytwr3 said:
I have the upmost respect for the police, but this is disappointing to read that you are saying it is worth reporting to record as a stat as oppose to actually catching these scum :(
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It's a running joke in the police. Doesn't matter what we do as long as the stats are correct. We're just as frustrated as you are.
 
Nick1881 said:
I googled Hope Street, Hanley as I had no idea where it was, Stoke apparently. Just took an eye opening virtual drive down it on streetview, delightful looking place, not a somewhere I'd like to visit.
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Directly opposite Brighter Futures is the Dudson bottle kiln museum which is quite nice.
 
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Nick1881 said:
It's part of Stoke on Trent though right? That's what Google told me anyway.
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Yes, but Stoke and Stoke on Trent are different places. Hope Street is in Hanley, not in Stoke.

This city is confusing to outsiders. It's confusing to locals as well, just not as much. It sometimes seems that every ~100m the name of the place changes.

Anyway...back on track.

The city of Stoke-on-Trent formed as a result of numerous towns and villages growing enough to merge. The number varies depending on how you count it. Some say 5 towns, some say 6 towns. There were also a bunch of villages.

One of the towns was Stoke-upon-Trent, which is always known locally as just "Stoke".

Another of the towns was Hanley. It's a couple of miles from Stoke (upon Trent).

So Hanley is in Stoke on Trent and Stoke (upon Trent) is in Stoke on Trent, but Hanley and Stoke (upon Trent) are different places. It's not just naming - they effectively function as and are thought of as different towns.

To complicate matters further, Hanley is the centre of Stoke on Trent. Stoke is not the centre of Stoke on Trent. It used to be, back in the mining and pottery days, but it isn't now. Lots of fun for people who come here by train and can't find anything much because the train station is in Stoke (upon Trent) and they're looking for the centre of Stoke (on Trent). Which is in Hanley, a couple of miles from the train station.

Ah, did I say that the train station is in Stoke (upon Trent)? Actually most of it is in Shelton.

Satnav is a good idea for anyone coming here. The local councils throw one way systems around to confuse matters further, but if you've got very recent updates you'll probably be able to get where you want to go. Which is probably "out of Stoke on Trent" :)

Local etymology trivia:

"Stoke" is an Old English word meaning "place". Stoke is definitely a right place :) That's why nowhere is officially called just "Stoke". Stoke upon Trent, Stoke on Trent, Stoke Newington, Stoke in Teignhead...always some other part to the name.

"Hanley" is also from Old English, but has been smoothed and modified over centuries into its current form so the original compound word isn't certain. It's probably a smoothed together form of two OE words which would translate into modern English as "High Meadow". It would have been grassland in the past and it is higher than Stoke upon Trent, which is a much older settlement would have been where Hanley was named from. It was probably used for grazing sheep, given how many sheep were in medieval England. So in the past Hanley was full of sheep faeces. It's debateable whether or not it has improved since then :)
 
Angilion said:
Satnav is a good idea for anyone coming here. The local councils throw one way systems around to confuse matters further, but if you've got very recent updates you'll probably be able to get where you want to go. Which is probably "out of Stoke on Trent" :)
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Don't forget to mention that, due to the layout of the City, a minor incident in Baddeley Green can quite easily cause a massive tailback In Trentham.
 
Angilion said:
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That was a bit more information than I needed, but thanks for clearing things up, actually I'm still confused.

Only time I go that way is to go to Overclockers (I've been 2 or 3 times) or to avoid the M6 when travelling South, I get off at junction 15 and pick up the A50 towards Derby, then pass though Burton on Trent.
 
Nick1881 said:
That was a bit more information than I needed, but thanks for clearing things up, actually I'm still confused.

Only time I go that way is to go to Overclockers (I've been 2 or 3 times) or to avoid the M6 when travelling South, I get off at junction 15 and pick up the A50 towards Derby, then pass though Burton on Trent.
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I think the main thing people need to know about Hanley is that when a film director wanted a decaying post-apocalypse environment for their film they chose Hanley because it already looked like a decaying post-apocalypse environment so very little set dressing was needed. That's not hyperbole. It happened a couple of years ago. I was there - I saw it happening. The film is called "The Girl With All the Gifts". The main set dressing they needed to do was to add more vegetation because Hanley looked too desolate for a post apocalyptic urban wasteland.

There's also a decaying building which was used as the demonstration location for the renovation of Hanley that was going to happen. Models, drawings, all that sort of thing. It's now rotting away. Literally rotting away. You can look through the filthy windows to see the mould and the rotting bits of collapsed ceiling along with cheerful artists impressions of a beautiful, vibrant city centre that never was. They got as far as ruining the existing city centre, but they didn't build a new one. It was a silly idea from the beginning and apparently planned by people who were so detached from reality that they thought illiteracy was a selling point. Intu Sentre. No, really, that's what the plan was called.

Actually, that was more information than necessary. I'll try again:

I think the main thing people need to know about Hanley is to avoid it.
 
Malevolence said:
Don't forget to mention that, due to the layout of the City, a minor incident in Baddeley Green can quite easily cause a massive tailback In Trentham.
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I am almost ready to believe that the planners genuinely believed that Star Trek is a documentary and everyone has access to transporter technology. The planners definitely made it harder to get into, out of or around the city by any other means of transport. The bus station was closed and a new one was built that was too small, in the wrong place, had terrible road access and was downright dangerous to use because of the access problems. Car parks were closed and paved to create squat ugly useless seating that's handy only for junkies to sprawl on. There isn't any rail access. The only useful thing the city planners have done is to allow the old bus station to be used as a makeshift car park for most of the year. Of course, it's used for an outdoor funfair in the middle of winter. Obviously people really want a rollercoaster and suchlike in the freezing rain.

We would have been better off hiring some youths who have played some light city sim games to do the planning. They would have been much cheaper to hire and they would have had some idea of how a city works.
 
Nick1881 said:
I googled Hope Street, Hanley as I had no idea where it was, Stoke apparently. Just took an eye opening virtual drive down it on streetview, delightful looking place, not a somewhere I'd like to visit.
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Hope Street is full of shops and an area where all our musical instruments shops were/are and I've spent an absolute fortune on that Street, it isn't really a place where people live.

Anyway, isn't it about time all us Stokies got together for a drink and perhaps a big love in session after :)
 
Angilion said:
I think the main thing people need to know about Hanley is that when a film director wanted a decaying post-apocalypse environment for their film they chose Hanley because it already looked like a decaying post-apocalypse environment so very little set dressing was needed. That's not hyperbole. It happened a couple of years ago. I was there - I saw it happening. The film is called "The Girl With All the Gifts". The main set dressing they needed to do was to add more vegetation because Hanley looked too desolate for a post apocalyptic urban wasteland.

There's also a decaying building which was used as the demonstration location for the renovation of Hanley that was going to happen. Models, drawings, all that sort of thing. It's now rotting away. Literally rotting away. You can look through the filthy windows to see the mould and the rotting bits of collapsed ceiling along with cheerful artists impressions of a beautiful, vibrant city centre that never was. They got as far as ruining the existing city centre, but they didn't build a new one. It was a silly idea from the beginning and apparently planned by people who were so detached from reality that they thought illiteracy was a selling point. Intu Sentre. No, really, that's what the plan was called.

Actually, that was more information than necessary. I'll try again:

I think the main thing people need to know about Hanley is to avoid it.
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I'm so sad. I pop in Druckers once a week for a custard slice.
 
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