Pottery Throw Down star launches ceramics tours

A judge on Channel 4's The Great Pottery Throw Down has helped to launch a series of tours showcasing Stoke-on-Trent's ceramics industry.

Keith Brymer Jones officially opened the Beyond The Bottle Oven experience at Gladstone Pottery Museum and Duchess China 1888 on Tuesday.

The monthly tours across the two sites will begin at the end of March and will offer an insight into the city's industrial heritage as well as modern ceramics production, Stoke-on-Trent City Council said.

Brymer Jones said it gave people the opportunity to walk through years of "people creating wonderful work".

"The more we can do to expose the talent and creativity of the wonderful city of Stoke-on-Trent, the more people will be invested in what people do here," he said.

"That's what I think is so exciting about this initiative of marrying the old and the new."

Councillor Sarah Hill said Stoke-on-Trent was the "world capital of ceramics" and the tours gave people a chance to see where the industry started as well as how it continued to this day.

"That continuity is something few places can offer and it shows that ceramics in Stoke-on-Trent is not just history," she added, "it's a living, working industry that can and should continue to thrive with the right support."

The tours cost £45 per person, with the first taking place on 25 March and the second on 22 April.

Each event features a tour of Gladstone Pottery Museum, a "potter's lunch" at Gladstone's cafe and a tour of the Duchess China 1888 factory.

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