How England’s broken ceramics industry put itself back together

More than 150 years after the heyday of the British ceramics industry, things are looking more positive than for some time. Potteries capital Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire, England, is currently hosting the fourth British Biennial Ceramics festival, an eight-week exhibition and international showcase. And the BBC is shortly to air The Great British Pottery Throw Down, a sort of Bake Off with clay filmed at Stoke’s Middleport pottery factory (which recently received a £9m restoration).