Tag: Middleport pottery

Singing about the cut (canal).

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We sang about the boats and pots

Of horses pulling barges.

Before the cuts were built and dug.

The plates broke on the carts

A third of pottery destroyed

Because of mud and ruts

For a hundred years the canals enjoyed

The busy work of transport

Then motorways and rail roads were built

And ware shifted to “faster” ways.

The cuts were clogged with water weeds

The towpaths overgrown.

Until the leisure cruisers came

And cleaned the weeds away.

Now British waterways they rule

And you can moor your boat

Anglers dip their rods in water

And catch all sorts of course fish.

The canals are better than before

No shopping trolleys in them.

A resource for walkers, boaters, folk,

To enjoy and rest and play.

Middleport

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This weekend I went to Middleport pottery to sing with a choir to accompany a play called “Boats, Barrels and Bottle ovens”.

We sang seven songs. From different years over the time when the Trent and Mersey canal and the Caldon canal that is an offshoot of it were built by Josiah Wedgwood and James Brindley. Each era was represented by the cast acting out scenes, first by the side of the Dane, a working narrow boat, then inside a bottle oven to represent the Harecastle tunnel in Kidsgrove. A scene at a boat club in the 1960’s where they discussed reopening the cauldron canal that was full of rubbish and weeds at that time and finally we sang in a scene from the 1980s and then up to date.

I’m not fit or well and this was challenging with freezing cold, wet and windy weather, uneven cobbles and slippery surfaces. I can only thank the people who placed chairs for me so I could sit down in safety when I needed to. Without them I could never have done it. X

Scone time

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Sultana scones with cream on a Calico Burleigh Ware plate for tea.

It was very tasty and filling. I decided not to have jam on them, it would have been to sweet. But I did butter them.

Burleigh Ware is a type of pottery made at Middleport pottery in Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent. Calico is one of many pattern types made by transferring the pattern onto the pottery with transfer prints. It’s a skilled job to line up all the prints. They are mounted on paper and stick to the pottery when they are wetted, the print sort of slides off onto the piece. If you turn over pottery it will usually have the makers name and other details printed on the base. People who do this say they are in the ‘turnover club’ .

Mural on cafe wall

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I went out today to the health clinic. My friend helped me out so we went off for a hot chocolate afterwards. We were going to one cafe but the road was closed because some buildings are being knocked down. So we took a side street and ended up at Middleport pottery in Stoke-on-Trent.

The cafe there is in one of the old pottery buildings and overlooks the canal. I’m not sure who painted this mural but it is a delicate one that includes the love birds that appear on willow pattern plates and pots.

We sat near the door in a cool breeze and I enjoyed a rest after walking the short distance from the car park over the cobbled roadway to the cafe. I felt like I could start to recover.

Scones with cream, Middleport

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We just had tea at Middleport pottery. Hubby had coffee cake and I had a fruit scone with clotted cream.

I took a photo because of the blue plate. The cafe at Middleport uses it’s own pottery, so there is a delightful mix of different patterns.

The cafe overlooks the Trent and Mersey canal, and there are plenty of benches, tables and chairs to sit outside on when the weather is good. As we watched cyclists were going past on the tow path on the other side of the canal (literally where horses used to tow the barges in the 29th and early 20th century). We also saw two canal boats as they went past. A lovely afternoon despite the drizzle.

Middleport visit

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After visiting the Arts and Minds gallery in Harper Street Middleport today @arts_and_minds_vsn, we popped over the road to Middleport pottery to get a replacement burleighware tea plate to replace the one I broke. While we were in there I saw this stags head decorated with flowers on the wall. This is the kind of trophy I approve of… Ceramic! I took a photo because it was interesting…. I like the fact it is on an old wall with cracked and flaking paint. The place is an authentic piece of industrial history.

Waiting for coffee

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Hubby yesterday, we had gone over to Middleport pottery so I could draw with the Stoke on Trent Urban Sketchers group. We decided to grab a cup of coffee but the cafe was very crowded and I’ve just got over a cold and didn’t want to catch another or worse. I decided to sit at one of the big round tables outside and so took the opportunity to draw my hubby and the canal and view behind him. The pointy thing about a third of the way in on the right is a church steeple but my ink brush wasn’t thin enough to get a point on it! Anyway I was pleased with the results.

Middleport pottery urban sketch

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The felt pens came out today for a drawing of the chimney at Middleport pottery. Stoke-on-Trent Urban Sketchers were out at various places around the factory grounds and across the other side of the Trent and Mersey canal.

It was a warm morning, and there were some brief glimpses of blue sky through the bold grey clouds. I could have drawn Middleports iconic bottle oven, but I wanted to sit down on a bench so I drew the chimney and the roofs instead.

I liked using layers of felt pen, I started with a pale blue pen to outline the buildings but then used black to indicate bricks and worked dark to light, with horizontal and little vertical lines to indicate the brickwork. I even used some silver pan for the sky because my grey pan has dried up. A lovely couple of hours spent in good company.