Hull Is This

June and Annette are challenging company. They challenge us to think positively about Burslem.We met in the Market Place Cafe, just opposite the former Burslem town hall.For about an hour they spoke passionately about their home town – the ‘mother town’ of the potteries – its history, its characters, its architecture, its future.“Annette calls me mother,” said June.The friend that introduced me to June and Annette calls them both ‘the mothers of the mother town’. They speak of Burslem with both love and affection.“We have an excellent community,” said June. “It always comes together for anything. It’s a beautiful old town.”June and Annette are leading members of ‘Our Burslem’, a community action group which promotes Burslem, putting on events in the town, and co-ordinating a large and vocal social media presence, on facebook in particular.Their mission is not political, or rather not ‘party political’. Actually, the group demonstrates a ‘pure’ democracy, being a movement of diverse people uniting in action an