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Welcome to the Borough Guide for Newcastle-under-Lyme.

We really hope you enjoy reading this guide and find it a useful source on information about our Borough and the many features which we think make it such a great place to live, work, visit and do business.

Ours is a prosperous, style-conscious, urban centre with a long market town heritage. And while we have a proud history which can be traced back nearly one thousand years, we are also a community with a modern and exciting future.

Newcastle-under-Lyme is positioned in the heart of the United Kingdom with superb road and rail connections to the rest of the country. This enviable location combines with other factors including a pleasant setting, a range of restaurants and cafes, new town centre cinema complex and the prestigious New Vic Theatre, to make our area one of the most desirable in the region.

The Borough’s Keele University is an internationally recognised centre for postgraduate medical research and its booming Science Park has become one of the leading regional centres for medical and healthcare technologies. Our district comprises two principal areas of population - Newcastle and Kidsgrove – which are surrounded by many picturesque villages and hamlets.

Newcastle itself is a market town with a pleasant, floral, traffic-free centre and a centuries-old open air market. Small specialist shops are interspersed with national stores, cafes and restaurants to attract visitors during the day and there is also a booming night time economy.

Kidsgrove is situated six miles to the north at the southern edge of the Pennine range and is well known as a canal centre. Although our canal network is no longer well-used by industry, it is increasingly popular with visitors – particularly the awesome feat of engineering that was involved in building the one-and-a-half mile-long Harecastle tunnels at Kidsgrove.

We were proud winners of the national Britain in Bloom award in 2005 and are current holders of the regional Heart of England title - an honour we have won numerous times in the past. As well as the breath-taking floral displays, visitors can also enjoy our wide variety of historic buildings which range from half-timbered, thatched cottages in outlying rural villages like Betley to impressive Georgian buildings in the two main towns.

Each May Bank Holiday the town plays host to an annual Jazz and Blues Festival which draws thousands of visitors both from the Borough itself and the wider region. Local performers join forces with international stars to entertain throughout the holiday weekend setting toes tapping at numerous venues. A vivid and colourful reminder of the Borough’s past is the bustling market which helped to found Newcastle’s prosperity hundreds of years ago and now operates six days a week. Farmers’ markets are a popular additional attraction for the many visitors to Newcastle who can also sample a taste of Europe thanks to our occasional Continental markets.

So, whether you are just passing through or are thinking of staying here for longer - I am sure you will find plenty to help you enjoy your time in our Borough.

Chief Executive - Mark Barrow