A ruin: The remains of a building, typically an old one that has suffered much damage or disintegration (Oxford Dictionary)
My nan did not work in the pottery industry, in fact, she actively discouraged her children from seeking employment there. She had a range of occupations, Sunday afternoon tea dance violinist in Tunstall, chip shop owner, and oatcake shop owner, so you probably could say she served the pottery industry even if she did not work in it. For me, Middleport was crinkle chips and egg for lunch at nan's on a Friday, heat blasts from the factories on Furlong Lane, playing in Middleport park and looking for intact ware on the shardrucks (a heap of broken pottery - Potbank Dictionary). I went to St Paul's church, that was originally a majestic horizon standing church, it was then replaced by a modest modernist less imposing building. Middleport like the new St Paul's church was not august, the houses were small and basic, but like all of the conurbations in Stoke, it had a close-knit supportive community.
My best friend's dad was head mold maker at Wood and Sons in Newport lane, the makers of the ubiquitous, TV prop and church fete favourite Green Beryl Ware tea set. He was made redundant in his mid-forties in the first wave of Thatcher era rationalising cuts, in the early 1980s after a life of dedication to the industry, and a legacy of highly skilled apprentices that he trained. I never visited his workplace, and the shardrucks were the nearest I ever got to exploring a pottery factory. Middleport pottery now in its half-ruinous half-renovated state provides an opportunity that never existed before. From the Middleport side of the canal, you can explore the beauty of the grand derelict outbuildings, persistently reminding us of an industrial past. The custodian and preserver of ceramics in Middleport now is the canal hugging post-industrial, semi-artisan Middleport Pottery home of and the Burleigh brand. Clay college teaches today's potters so that they can develop skills in the new ceramics of Stoke-on-Trent, studio pottery.
It cannot be denied that Middleport pottery, the location for the Great British throwdown, and Clay College's innovative heritage marketing, has begun to attract national and international interest. However, I am not sure how many visitors wander into the backlands of Middleport Pottery. Local community activists like Middleport Matters Community Trust should be applauded for encouraging visitors to expand their explorations beyond Middleport Pottery and to get up close and discover the personal identity of the creatively framed ruins that remain an important part of the community.
The renovated waterways furrow through an industrial landscape that is wrestling between presenting an honest past and the pragmatism of a reinvented future. A place that attracts those that have no connected history of the place, but want to build on a legacy to create a new and possibly necessary future, that for some who have experienced ruinous community damage and disintegration, may find it a challenge to immediately adapt to.
References
 |
| Back of Middleport Pottery V McGarvey cc |
My nan did not work in the pottery industry, in fact, she actively discouraged her children from seeking employment there. She had a range of occupations, Sunday afternoon tea dance violinist in Tunstall, chip shop owner, and oatcake shop owner, so you probably could say she served the pottery industry even if she did not work in it. For me, Middleport was crinkle chips and egg for lunch at nan's on a Friday, heat blasts from the factories on Furlong Lane, playing in Middleport park and looking for intact ware on the shardrucks (a heap of broken pottery - Potbank Dictionary). I went to St Paul's church, that was originally a majestic horizon standing church, it was then replaced by a modest modernist less imposing building. Middleport like the new St Paul's church was not august, the houses were small and basic, but like all of the conurbations in Stoke, it had a close-knit supportive community.
My best friend's dad was head mold maker at Wood and Sons in Newport lane, the makers of the ubiquitous, TV prop and church fete favourite Green Beryl Ware tea set. He was made redundant in his mid-forties in the first wave of Thatcher era rationalising cuts, in the early 1980s after a life of dedication to the industry, and a legacy of highly skilled apprentices that he trained. I never visited his workplace, and the shardrucks were the nearest I ever got to exploring a pottery factory. Middleport pottery now in its half-ruinous half-renovated state provides an opportunity that never existed before. From the Middleport side of the canal, you can explore the beauty of the grand derelict outbuildings, persistently reminding us of an industrial past. The custodian and preserver of ceramics in Middleport now is the canal hugging post-industrial, semi-artisan Middleport Pottery home of and the Burleigh brand. Clay college teaches today's potters so that they can develop skills in the new ceramics of Stoke-on-Trent, studio pottery.
 |
| Pots and Saggars Outside Middleport Pottery V McGarvey cc |
 |
| Flowery Mural Opposite Middleport Pottery V McGarvey cc |
 |
| Planters Flagging Middleport Chimney V McGarvey cc |
References
- Potteries.Org Middleport
- Pottery Dictionary
- Middleport Wikipedia
- Tunstall Wikipedia