Stoke-on-Trent Excursion

Three of us, Georgia Neilson, Paul Eastwood and myself headed down to Stoke-on-Trent planning to visit the pottery museum and source supplies from one of the many retailers based around the five towns. I hadn’t visited Stoke for many years, along with the pottery museum, so I wondered what, and how, it had changed.

We reached the museum just before lunchtime. Wasn’t quite as I had remembered it, but that was perhaps to be expected.

The majority of the work on display chronicles the history of ceramics, and in particular, the history of pottery production in the five towns. What was once a thriving Industry has suffered over the past few decades with production relocating overseas.

Parking the car, I was struck by the ‘have a nice day’ image painted on a nearby wall, and the faded glory of a building that perhaps embodied the ambition of the area a hundred years ago.

The collection includes a history of ceramics before Stoke and the era of the bottle kiln. The principle difference between these two Greecian artifacts and the production that the ‘Potteries’ has specialized in is perhaps the target audience; the Greecian pots were created for a privileged few, whilst the Potteries has generally embraced mass-production and the mass market.

This said, the Peacock was a magnificent ‘one-off’ piece a ‘tour-de-force’ of the Magolica style.

Once popular, but later found to encourage the transmission of harmful bacteria, these cow creamers were quite impressive.

There was an example of pots being fired in a ‘sagger’ ( a sort of a box mad from fire clay that protected the ware from the flames of the coal-fired burners, and perhaps helped to act as an ‘equaliser’ reducing hot spots), this one was on display as the teapots it contained had over-fired and bonded with the sagger.

There was an example of a potters wheel in a display. With this one a second person would have been required to manually power the wheel; possibly a child.

There were also examples of work from the 1800’s that stradled mass production and a cottage industry; glazes using slip (diluted clay) used to ‘ice’ (as in cake) pots with patterns, designs and personalize with names and dates etc- not a technique associated with mass-production.

Tiles. There has been a history of ceramic tiles being manufactured in the Potteries and the following image captures a range of designs, or styles, that has been offered by local manufacturers, including majolica.

In addition to the Pottery museum, we also went around the ‘wedgewood’ museum, although I don’t have a photographic record of this. It was a newish, purpose-built building with an extensive retail outlet. I have always associated Wedgewood with the blue, and black, ‘Jasper Ware’ decorated with white medallions inspired by classical mythology. The reality is so much more, I was taken with the range of wares produced by the factory since 1759, including tableware and work that followed the prevailing trends and fashions.

As the ceramics Industry has been centered in Staffordshire, so have the material suppliers; or have been. Some of those that I remembered have either retreated online or left the market. When we arrived at potterycrafts, we were greeted with the following window sign;

Paul Eastwood had the presence of mind to call the number listed, and someone generously offered to open-up the shop, allowing Paul and Georgina to buy several samples of clay. I wanted to check out their range of wheels.

I wanted to see what was available and to see if I could try them out. There were only two models on display, and although it wasn’t possible to fully try them out, I could get a feel for their suitability. The trip was really useful, interesting and well worth the journey. A return visit would be worth the undertaking.