Stoke-on-Trent is a city in north Staffordshire that has been the centre of the British ceramics industry for around three centuries, so closely associated with pottery that the area is known simply as the Potteries. The city was formed in 1910 by the federation of six towns: Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton.
Local supplies of clay, coal for firing and, from the eighteenth century, canal links for transporting materials and finished wares allowed the district to grow from small country potteries into an industry of international importance. Firms based there have included Wedgwood, Spode, Minton, Royal Doulton, Moorcroft and many others, producing everything from salt-glazed stoneware, creamware and bone china to transfer-printed tableware, majolica, tiles, figures and Art Deco pottery. Countless smaller factories also made earthenware for everyday use, and the bottle ovens that once dominated the skyline have become symbols of the area, with surviving examples preserved at museums such as the Gladstone Pottery Museum. For collectors, the names, marks and pattern numbers of Stoke-on-Trent factories are essential tools for dating and attributing British ceramics, and the city's museums hold outstanding reference collections.
