| LIFESTYLE | My Trip To Emma Bridgewater

I’m so excited to be able to tell you about my trip to the Emma Bridgewater Factory in Stoke-on-Trent as a birthday present. As a relatively new collector, I felt that making the journey to the factory was almost a “pilgrimage” of sorts, and also can you even call yourself a fan if you haven’t been to visit?! My friend and I both had tickets for the Experience Day, which cost (a very reasonable) £30.00 each. This included a guided tour of the factory, afternoon tea and the opportunity to decorate your own item of pottery. You can also book to have just a tour of the factory which is an incredible £2.50!

We arrived with plenty of time to spare before our tour started, so we decided to have a nose around. The factory itself I must admit looks pretty bleak from the outside. It’s a typical large red brick Victorian style factory sitting amongst similar grim-looking buildings, and next door to a petrol station. Still- we weren’t there to admire the outside!

We walked through the main entrance which takes you straight into the restaurant area. The smell of coffee and freshly cooked food wafted out as soon as the doors were opened. It was only about 10.30 and yet it was already bustling inside. I noticed that they had a large selection of cakes on display as we walked past the counter too! Just off the restaurant is the “Seconds” shop. This I was obviously most excited about- discounted Emma Bridgewater items? Yes please!

Everything in the seconds shop was easy to browse through, and they had a lot on offer. I spotted a selection of large Black Toast teacups straight away. I recently bought the saucer, but unfortunately couldn’t find the matching teacup on the website; there must have been at least 30 for sale in there. I also saw items that I have never seen on the website before. We both made a mental note of what we wanted and headed over to the walled garden outside.

 As soon as we stepped outside, a group of chickens came running over to us! They were the funniest chickens I’ve ever seen, with feathery legs and feet. These chickens are allowed to roam around the garden which I really liked. I was a bit scared walking around that I’d trip over one of them though! The garden had raised beds in railway sleepers, and was crammed full of different flowers and shrubs. For a while, I completely forgot that I was in the middle of Stoke-on-Trent as it was so peaceful.

It was almost time to do the tour, so we made our way back into the seconds shop where a lady was marking names off a register. We were put into a group of around 16. Personally I would have preferred an even smaller group as it was quite difficult to hear what the tour guide was saying in parts of the factory and she really had to shout. Our tour guide was Jill, who was fantastic and her enthusiasm for the company was contagious. As she was talking to us, her daughter walked past who also worked for the company! Jill told us that there are lots of families that work there. I got the impression that even though there’s a large amount of employees (around 300), there was a real sense of family and the staff were very much valued. We were also told that on that day Emma herself was at the factory, and she’s happy to be approached and to have photos with you. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see her- maybe next time!

The tour of the factory itself was really informative. It was fantastic being able to see first-hand the time and effort that goes into creating each piece. Each item goes through approximately 6 different stages- from pumping the clay into the moulds, sanding imperfections and quality control, firing the pottery and decorating the items by hand. It makes you appreciate the amount of work that goes into making hundreds of these pieces each day.

My favourite part of the tour was the decoration stage. We walked into a large room where members of staff sat at “stations” and hand painted and sponged designs onto the pottery. Some people were doing about 8 at a time! The way they dipped the sponges into the paint and effortlessly transferred the patterns on was fascinating. Jill explained to us that they hold decorating apprenticeships which 

last 2-3 months and after that time each apprentice is offered a job in the factory- how fantastic!

After the tour which lasted around 45 minutes, we went into the restaurant where a table had already been reserved for us. We had a delicious afternoon tea (all served on EB plates of course!) which consisted of sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, vegetable crisps, flapjacks and carrot cake. We weren’t made to rush our lunch at all, and we were told that whenever we wanted we could pretty much just show up at the decorating studio and start to decorate our mugs.

Now came the fun part! We made our way over to the decorating studio to decorate a mug. It was so quiet inside as everyone was concentrating so hard! We were told that we could choose to decorate a piece of pottery up to the value of £15.00. From what I can remember this could be a French bowl, a ½ pint mug or a plate. If you wanted to decorate anything else, then you would obviously have to pay extra. Both my friend and I chose a mug to decorate.

I didn’t find decorating easy at all! I had an idea in my head of what I wanted to do, and I thought that using a sponged design would be too messy, but in hindsight I wish I had done that instead. I chose to do a navy blue hand painted scalloped design around the rim of the mug at the top and bottom. I wanted to keep the design simple as I’d like to be able to keep the mug for years and not feel like I did a childish design! We were told that the colours in the pots look a lot different to what they do after the pottery has been glazed, so I’m just hoping that when I get my mug I like the colour! Again, we didn’t feel rushed at all and could really take our time. The only few downsides for me were that the wait to get your item was around 4 weeks, and as I don’t live nearby I asked for the item to be posted which cost £5.00.

Lastly we revisited the seconds shop and the gift shop. What I really liked about the seconds shop was the fact that you could you could examine each piece for the defects in person and pick out the best ones. If you buy seconds online, you have no idea what the defect will be and it’s pot luck as to whether you will get a tiny defect or something worse such as wonky lettering. I stocked up on mostly all Black Toast items as that’s my absolute favourite pattern. After that I picked up a feather pattern baby mug and a new mug for Christmas- the Wind in the Willows “Christmas in the Wild Wood” mug which is just beautiful.

We left the factory feeling very tired but thrilled with our new purchases, and so happy that we were able to visit. The overall feeling I got from the visit is that this is still very much a British family business, and the staff seem happy to work there and proud to represent Emma Bridgewater. I would definitely recommend stopping by if you are in the area, or actually if you fancy an 8 hour round trip like us! The Experience Day ran like clockwork and without any hitches, and not with you being herded around like cattle from place to place!  I’m glad to have ticked the tour off on my to do list, and I’m already thinking of the next time I can visit to be able to do some proper seconds shopping….maybe I’ll drag the other half along- he’d love that!