Celebrating Ceramic Heritage

We’ve spent the first half of this year working with the North Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Women’s Network to produce a documentary about the history of women working in the ceramics industry called ‘Bound By Clay.’ The film has been produced with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

It’s been a real pleasure to work on this film and meet with a great, cross-section of women of all ages and to hear about their experiences working at factories such as Beswicks, Spode, Royal Doulton and many others. We’ve heard wonderful tales of friendship and camaraderie and learned about the many different roles and skills, which were on the pot banks. It’s been a fascinating insight into the critical role played by women who worked on the pot banks.

As well as the many volunteers who have given up their time to speak to us (too many to name, come and see the film where they are all credited!) we have also been incredibly fortunate to have the support of some of the major local ceramic manufacturers such as Steelite, Wedgwood and Moorcroft who all gave their time to allow staff to take part in the film or allowed us to use their facilities. We also filmed on location at Clay College.

We’re also eternally grateful to the Staffordshire Film Archive who have licensed us some amazing archive footage of pot banks from the last 70 years.

The film will be shown at the Film Theatre in Stoke on Trent on June 12th and it would be wonderful if you could join us. Tickets are free and more information can be found here –‘GET TICKETS’

Many members of Team Inspired have had Mums and Grandmas work at various factories across the area including Wedgwood and Royal Doulton and so it’s been a real honour to tell this story and to preserve these precious memories and experiences to film for future generations to enjoy.