A potted history of a May Bank Holiday day out.

First we dropped our son off at a big boys' play area like this:

Then we went exploring Stoke on Trent with map in hand looking for mugs, plates and the like in the famous factory shops.

Unfortunately we saw a lot of these:

...But eventually some of these.

Have you ever noticed that many of the successful potters in Stoke were called Josiah? (eg. Wedgewood and Spode). I wonder if they could have foreseen the decline of their industry or whether they would be amazed how long the success did last. Anyway, it is a sad sight to see derelict factories at every turn.

We didn't find any ideal plates or mugs but still, we came home a bit brighter having splashed out on a bargain pack of lightbulbs.