Middleport Pottery

Thursday, and we spent nearly all day at the pottery.

Our morning started off with a gentle cruise up to the moorings alongside the pottery.

Once inside we were plastered with stickers for the tour and the heritage trail and given an electronic key to access areas where the public couldn't go.

For example, the steam engine room. The potteries were right in the centre of a coal mining area and had clay in abundance.

Middleport Pottery was the first purpose designed where the layout of the plant followed the process of the production. They even had a bath house for their workers and families were allowed to use it at the weekend. Coal was in use the whole time, steam was available the whole time and hot water was available 24/7. 

We met many of the people who produce the amazing pottery and saw how they attached handles, transferred patterns and fired the pieces. And all still being done in the original Victorian premises. The hope is that the owners will still find it beneficial to pour money into the site to keep it running. 

We then moved 2 and a bit miles along the canal to Etruria ready to tackle the start of the Caldon Canal tomorrow.