Feats of clay

There was a time, several centuries ago, when potters were simply itinerant craftsmen, little more than tinkers. They roamed the country, using local materials to make receptacles for whoever wanted them. Farmers, for example, wanted butter pots that were thick and heavy so less butter was required to fill them. The potters obliged, duly pottering from village to village plying their trade. However, in North Staffordshire, they were struck by an extraordinary alchemy: underground lay exactly the right materials for their work. They left their travelling days behind and put down roots in Stoke. And lo, the industry with which the city has become synonymous was born.

This is probably apocryphal but there’s no doubt that the serendipitous discovery in the mid-17th century of an abundance of exactly the right sort of clay and exactly the right sort of coal in the ground in North Staffordshire duly brought the Industrial Revolution roaring into Stoke, transforming both the industry and the region.