People can to take a walk around the Wellington Street area of Hanley and experience the atmosphere in years gone by, by looking at photographs and listening to local residents telling stories of the area's past.

The launch of the city's first oral history trail will allow people to visualise one of the areas of Stoke-on-Trent which has undergone significant regeneration delievered by RENEW North Staffordshire.

This trail uses mediascape technology to provide you with a new and exciting way to experience a taste of the history of the Potteries.

This trail has been created by The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery and RENEW North Staffordshire and was made in conjunction with local residents and with the assistance of photographer Roger Brown.

Anyone who would like to experience the Wellington Street Trail simply has to visit the Community Centre on Dresden Street where you can loan a tour guide device.

Alternatively, if you have your own GPS-enabled Windows PDA , you can share the experience by visiting www.mscapers.com. Then simply follow the instructions to download the mediascape software for free, and search for ‘Wellington Street Trail’.

Instructions for use:

Turn the device on and plug in the earphones
(Turn device over, slide the pen out from the bottom right)
Tap once on ‘Start’ at top left of the screen
Tap once on ‘mscape player’
Wait for the program to load
Tap once on the arrow to the right of ‘Wellington Street Trail’
Wait a few minutes for the trail to load (approx. 3 mins)
When the device finds a signal it will play the ‘Welcome screen’
Read the information and follow the instructions
Tap the buttons as directed to see the information

On the ‘Home’ page
‘Start’ – takes you to the map options
‘Help’ – takes you to instructions to help you navigate the device
‘Info’ – gives you more information about the trail

On the ‘Start’ page
‘1937’ – takes you to a map of that year that will show you walking around the area
‘Now’ – takes you to a more current map that will show you walking around the area
Select one of these maps to start the trail
Tap ‘home’ at any time to return to the home page

When walking around the area a sound will play when there is a story for you to hear or some photographs for you to see.

Follow the on-screen instructions to listen to the story or view the images.

HINT: It is best to remain still whilst listening to the stories.

When you have visited an area before the device will ask if you want to hear the story again. The trail will only play each story twice.

When you have visited all of the areas a congratulations message will be displayed. You can carry on listening to all the stories until each story has been played twice.

Searches
"Stoke"