Well today was an absolute blast, Lorraine will takeover the commentary soon.
I woke early and planned out a few things. We were for the first time able to have an early breakfast, and get the day started early, most things do not open until 10 am, so I found a few things to do that were not time sensitive. On the road by about 8:30am to Knypersley Reservoir. It was a 1 mile walk around through a tree lined path that had a nice Camelot, King Arthur, Game of Thrones feel about it. And we saw squirrels and birds, but the squirrels are so fast it is damn hard to get a good picture because they are gone before you can get the camera out.
Then it was off to what we hoped was a canal to see narrow canal boats and maybe take a ride but when we arrived there was no canal and no boats so that was a bust.
So then we headed to Middleport Pottery, where "The British Pottery Throwdown" was filmed and is the home of the Burleigh Pottery factory (Burgess and Leigh are the founders). TGBPT did two seasons then BBC cancelled it. We jokingly said wouldn't it be great if they were filming. And yes you guessed it, Season Three was being filmed there while we were there, Channel Four in England picked up the show. Middleport pre-dates Henry Ford by around 30 years, it was a purpose built pottery facility in 1886 with a flow industrialisation system. They joke that Henry Ford got his ideas from Middleport on a tour of the facilities. It has been in continuous operation since being built as a pottery facility. It was a blast to be there. Anyway now to Lorraine to buzz about it, she got a headache with the excitement of it all.
(Lorraine) So where do I begin. We took a factory tour which included watching employees actually making and decorating the porcelain. The highlight was seeing a bottleneck kiln. I'd seen them on TV but to stand in front of one was brilliant. There were nearly 5000 in operation at one stage but now there area only 46. Most were demolished or left to ruin due to the Clean Air Act in the 60's. Turns out the kilns were only 10% efficient and that most of the smoke and debris fell on the town making it quite a dirty place to live. The tour took us through the process from raw clay to biscuit firing to cleaning to re-firing to decoration and glazing. A teapot can take up to a month to make and pass through 20 pairs of hands. We then wandered around outside the factory, we saw the narrow boats that were used to transport the pottery to London and the bath house that was provided for employees to use after their shifts. We then hit the display store which was filled with so many plates, teapots and teacups my head nearly exploded. Funny thing, Sean bought more than I did.
We then visited the Moorcroft factory which also had a kiln. We didn't do the tour on this one and I didn't buy anything because it was way too expensive. For such a run down little place, it produces a very expensive product but the pottery there is exquisite.
Next we had a look at Royal Doulton. Turns out they closed down a while ago and all that is left is the derelict building. Doh!
Back to me (Sean) now, the drive to Blackpool was fairly boring, but Blackpool did live up to the expectation I was provided by a close friend, England's answer to the Gold Coast. It is off season so most things are closed, but you get the vibe. The videos are from outside the hotel and I have to say I am happy we came here, if only to break up a long drive it is just so kitsch and pretentious.
2019-09-18 - Stoke on Trent (to Blackpool)
2019-09-18 - Blackpool Wanderings
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