Seeing the floor in the Spode Factory is a memory of what went before. Industry and creativity joined. Scratched and chipped, the surface is damaged. Most of it is hidden by studios on either side of a central corridor. When you go into the studios some have metal, single glazed windows that let in the cold of winter. And once the cold gets in it doesn’t seem to get warm again till March!

The building is solid concrete and brick, with arched, barrel shaped ceilings high above. I think any heat rises up there and is lost to us on the shiny, scratched floor.

But here people worked hard to create beautiful ceramics, magical pottery, a hive of hot activity that didn’t need heating because of the kilns and machinery, now long gone.