Walking through history

Evening Everyone.
Today the weather was finally a little better - the rain had stopped but it was still a bit chilly.
We decided to go for a walk at a local beauty spot called Westport Lake.
Due to the long spell of hot weather previously, the water levels in the small lake were very low. This revealed an area like a beach but instead of being covered in shells it was covered in fragments of broken pottery. This comes as no surprise as we are in "The Potteries". It is fascinating what you find when you just walk along it. Pieces of broken bowls, plates and cups, cup handles, old clay pipes. (These items were dumped around the Lake in 1900 to raise the banks.)

This "pottery beach" that the hot weather has exposed, covers a large area alongside the lake. It's really interesting to look at. 

We walked down to the canal which runs alongside the lakes and this is where the "potbanks" (pottery factories) were built alongside so that the ware could be transported on the canal barges before road transport was available. 

An old sign post alongside the canal towpath

If you look carefully you can just about make out the bricked up doorway from where the ware would be loaded onto the barges. To the right is a bottle kiln. The local landscape is dotted with these but unfortunately there are not so many working kilns left anymore. Whole generations of families would work on these pottery factories and they were the main employers in this area. My mum worked in one of these factories putting the patterns on the pottery. It was a highly skilled job and hard work. 

This made us smile. It is a mobile bar that goes up and down the canal.  It's usually sited outside the local football stadium on match days. There are a few of these that sell different things including a local delicacy called oatcakes (more about these another day).

Here are just a couple more photos that I took of the information board. 

We are lucky to have such a rich culture and heritage in this area and I am very proud of how hard my ancestors worked to give us the lifestyles that we have today. Work was hard, long hours, and poorly paid. The people who worked on the factories looked after each other and were like little families. My mum still has friends that she made at work over 60 years ago. 

Sometimes we forget to look at what is on our own doorsteps and be thankful for what we have.

Until tomorrow

Jules x

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