Stoke-on-Trent Hotels - Smooth Hound Hotel Directory

Stoke-on-Trent is located approximately halfway between Manchester and Birmingham in Staffordshire. Historically, this town has been known for its pottery and is often referred to as The Potteries. Even though the pottery industry has not been at is peak in recent years, manufacturers such as Royal Doulton, Wedgwood and Spode still maintain headquarters in Stoke-on-Trent and there are also several factory shops located throughout the local area which are popular stops for shoppers. Other popular tourist sites include the Gladstone Pottery Museum and Trentham Gardens. The City Museum and Art Gallery is popular as well, offering an extensive ceramics collection.

Renowned for its pottery factories, Stoke-on-Trent has a great deal to see and do and is a city that comfortably accommodates to all budgets, tastes and interests with its exciting and dynamic range and variety of different activities on offer. Whilst Stoke-on-Trent is a city which has historically been famed across the whole of the UK for its strong dominant presence of ceramics, it has in recent times became the home to a rather unusual new attraction: monkeys. Yes, that's right. You will not be able to find anywhere else in the whole of the UK where monkeys are allowed to walk as brazenly and peaceably as they are in Trentham Monkey Forest.

The Trentham Monkey Forest manages to be a remarkably unique attraction not only by virtue of the fact that it has monkeys, but also due to the variety of species and number of different types of monkeys which inhabit the park, many of which are endangered or are perilously close to becoming so. The most striking thing about the Monkey Forest is just how tame and at ease the Barbary Macaques are, taking in the sight of so many different strange visitors admirably in their stride. This is largely due to the concerted efforts of the staff of the Monkey Forest all of whom have tried to the best of their ability to replicate in so far as is reasonably possible, an environment which most closely replicates their natural habitat.