Visit to World of Wedgwood

Tuesday 22^nd May

Me and Mr Wedgwood!

Sculptures at Wedgwood

Potter at Work!

Making our pots

Concentrating!

Today we are off to the World of Wedgwood.  We walked along the towpath and up over the bridge, over the railway line and up the road and into the Wedgwood estate, it is about a 20 minute leisurely walk from the canal.  The museum is free to look around but there is a fee to do the factory tour.

We had booked an Afternoon Tea Experience day, this is an early birthday present for me from Kev.  

The Finished Articles!

We went to reception and they gave me a nice presentation folder with all the information we needed and booked us on the factory tour at 11.30am and our afternoon tea for 1pm. 

Tea Conservatory

They have a tea conservatory where you can try their Wonderlust range of teas so we did some tea tasting and then had a look around the shop and the factory outlet.

Having Afternoon Tea

It was the time for the factory tour, it was a guided tour and our guide was really good and very informative.  We started on the second floor and there were viewing platforms looking down onto the factory and then we went down onto the factory floor and saw all the processes from moulding to firing, glazing and decorating.  

Afternoon Tea

Some of the people working there explained to us what they were doing.  There was one guy painting 22 carat gold onto a plate and that plate will sell for £1000 and the whole dinner service would cost around £50,000, a set had been commissioned by someone and that was what he was working on, each plate takes about a week to make and unbelievably it is dishwasher safe!

Lobster Bowl

It was a really good tour and you can go back round again on your own during your visit if you want to.  When you get to the end of the tour you get an opportunity to have a go at throwing a pot so of course we had to have a go, it was great fun and they didn’t turn out too bad, they air dried them for us so we could go back later and pick them up.

Huge Vase

It was then time for our afternoon tea so we made our way to the restaurant, we had to walk through the shop and there was several people gathered together and a lady sat on a stool being interviewed and we walked through the middle as we didn't realise what they were doing and no one said we couldn't pass through.  We went on into the restaurant which was really nice and elegant and they brought us our afternoon tea on a 3 tier cake stand and we could choose the tea we wanted, we had one of the Wonderlust teas we had tried earlier, it was called Oriental Jewel and we also had Oriental Beauty and Emerald Duchess and they were all really nice.

Portland Vase

The lady that had been interviewed came into the restaurant and she was whisked away to a separate room, we found out from one of the waitresses, it was Vera Wang, an American Fashion Designer and she also designs for Wedgwood.

Bournvita Jug

Our afternoon tea was delicious and we really enjoyed it.   We then went into the museum and had a good wander around there looking at all the lovely items which range from the 18^th to 21^st Century.  

Ferdinand the Bull

Vera Wang Set

There was a lovely Cauliflower Coffee Pot and a Portland Vase from the 18^th Century, a Lobster Bowl and a huge Vase from the 19^th Century, a Bournvita Jug, Ferdinard the Bull and a S225 which was commissioned by Josiah Wedgwood & Sons to celebrate the 225^th anniversary of the founding of the company  from the 20^th Century and also a Coffee Pot by Vera Wang and a Doll's House Advent Calendar in porcelain which contains individual Wedgwood ornaments and lots of other lovely pieces. It is a fascinating museum to look around.

Shape 225

We went and collected our pots then walked back down to the canal.  There is a house on the main road which sells eggs so we popped up there to get some and then walked back to the boat.

We had a really lovely day at Wedgwood, such a nice early birthday treat, I thoroughly enjoyed it and so did Kev.  It is well worth a visit and we will definitely be going there again when we are back up this way.

There is a Goose family with three small babies which live in the field opposite where we are moored and this evening they came over to the boat so we could feed them and see the youngsters properly, very sweet.

Goose Family