Angela, Portsmouth, 1935
Angela has lived in Stoke-on-Trent for 50 years. Her father was in the Navy and she grew up in wartime living near London. Angela comments: “To avoid the bombing I was sent to boarding school. When I left school my only ambition was to travel. The first opportunity to do so was teaching English to a family in Genoa. On my return I sold Christmas cards in Fortnum and Masons before I obtained a job in the Registry of MI5. Very soon I was moving in left wing circles and looking up people I was meeting to see if MI5 had a file on them. They often did but the information was invariably trivial. Small wonder that I was asked to leave!”
Angela went on to work at the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Delinquency and a hostel for girls on probation. It was the swinging 60s and “I loved it. It was the best of times and there was little reason not to think that things would get better and better. I rode a Vespa in a mini-skirt and in those days it was possible to park on the kerb in Piccadilly. I became a youth worker for a church in Earls Court running a youth club for Teddy-boys and I became involved in East West relations which led to visits behind the Iron Curtain to Russia and East Germany. A stint at William Temple College followed studying theology and sociology which, Angela says, was a blind alley. “Theology was not my thing although the social gospel of feeding the hungry and helping the afflicted was and still is.” During this time, she hitch-hiked to Jerusalem with a girl- friend narrowly escaping the Skopje earthquake only to get caught up in a coup in Damascus which, she says “saw us being driven to the Jordanian border by cheery soldiers in an armored car.” Back to London, she became Youth against Hunger Secretary for Christian Aid and in this capacity spoke to UN FAO conferences in Rome and Canada. However, she needed a qualification and enrolled at Birmingham University to study Sociology and Social Work. In 1968 she met her husband Frank and they moved to North Staffordshire when Frank obtained employment at Keele University. “Arriving in Stoke was a shock after living within walking distance of the West End and getting to know Stoke was a challenge. We used to go down to London on Saturdays for a bit of culture for £2.50 return!”
Angela, about 17 years old.
Angela worked for the Probation Service until she retired in 1995, "I thoroughly enjoyed it, including a bracing six years in Stafford Prison! On my retirement I became a non-executive director of NHS Combined Healthcare Trust, chair of the North Staffordshire Race Equality Council and PARINS, a multi-agency project dealing with racist incidents, and the Potteries Housing Association, now Brighter Futures.
Meanwhile Frank founded and edited a journal on education and ageing, travelled and lectured, and chaired several local and national community organisations. He died in 2002.
In 2004 Angela donated a kidney to her niece Sarah. She explains, “Unusually the operation failed. I came back to Stoke on a miserable January day to an empty house thinking what to do with this horrible experience. It was difficult to just go on as if nothing had happened. That’s when I decided to raise money for kidney patients.” Under the banner of ‘Angela’s Just 70 Challenge’ she raised £30,000 which was divided between the North Staffs Kidney Patients Association and the Salma Dialysis Centre in Khartoum in Sudan.” She had visited the Centre with a Sudanese doctor with whom she and Frank and had become friends when Frank was in hospital following a stroke. Since then Sarah has successfully received a kidney from her friend Sue.”
Reflecting on Stoke she says, “Stoke is not pretentious! I have not for a moment regretted moving here and I expect to die here! The City parks, the reclaimed pit and pottery spoil tips are now wooded and green and our canal network makes for an intriguing landscape. Stoke has improved immeasurably over the years. The development of the Spode factory complex is exciting as it comes alive as a venue for ceramic festivals, craft workshops and theatre. What’s not to like in Stoke? And speaking personally I value and enjoy the great diversity of our local population.”
Angela Glendenning, 2018
“My project now is to grow old gracefully or, preferably, disgracefully! I mean there’s no doubt that when you’re coming up to 84 there are deficits. I had to give up riding a bike this summer and it really pained me to do so. I’ve ridden a bike in Vietnam and Cambodia, Holland, Italy and the Baltic States and I didn’t want to stop but I wobble about too much. I used to run regularly with Stone Master Marathoners but now I can only jog.
“I was North Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Citizen of the Year which was a surprise and humbling. With a Palestinian friend I established Sumud Palestine which supports farmers and mental health professionals in the West Bank and I campaign for peace and social justice for Palestinians and Israelis. I am patron of an educational charity in Northern Ethiopia which I have visited five times and I provide Christmas lunch for 200 of the poorest of the poor in Mekelle.
“My current commitment is to an asylum and refugee charity, Asha North Staffordshire. Getting to know asylum seekers from all over the world enriches my life. I’ve always been most at home working with people who have fallen on hard times and who are struggling with life. They are my inspiration and keep me going, besides what else could I do?”