Good Friday, 10 April 2009: Our Wedding Anniversary

Tired lie-abeds, we got up late, and were down in the breakfast room just in time before they stopped serving at 10:00. We had toast and coffee; but the coffee was horrible (presumably well-stewed).

Our target for the day was the Moorcroft factory and whatever went with it (which turned out to be the Moorcroft Heritage Visitor Centre). We drove up to Stoke, passing the interesting-looking Trentham Gardens estate en route (more followed from that!); hunted around, and finally found Moorcroft in the Stoke suburb of Burslem.

We first looked round the Moorcroft museum—a single (large) room, but full of the most beautiful pottery. Moorcroft work is character­ised by the use of brilliant iridescent colours within upraised slip outlines, a method pioneered by William Moorcroft (1872-1945) while working for James McIntyre and Co. Don was particularly taken by the design on a large vase, entitled “After the Storm” (1997, height 22 inches or 56 cm), the last piece designed by William’s son Walter (died 2002) as a centenary celebration piece, and his only landscape design. Turned out to be only £3500—if you can find one to buy!

Leaving the museum room, we spent ages in the sales showroom, trying to decide on a piece to buy ourselves for our anniversary present. We looked at plates, bowls, vases, lamps, and plaques; but while Don favoured landscapes and pictorial scenes, Margaret preferred flowers and fruit. Such disagreement between us is rare.

Eventually, we had a bright idea. The Moorcroft pottery comes in “families” of items sharing the same design, such as the “Swaledale” vases, jug, lamp, and plaque; and several of the design sets include miniature plates, about 12 cm across, which are known under a variety of names such as “sweet dishes” or “pin dishes”; but which the Moorcroft factory call “coasters”. They’re not exactly cheap, but much less expensive than any of the larger items, such as a vase; so we could afford several for what a single vase would have cost us, and could pick a mix of designs. And they would handsomely augment our existing (sparse) plate collection, split between here and Wellington.

So we finally decided on 7 different designs, the one shown being “Entwined”. Naturally we had to have a book (well-illustrated) on Moorcroft history; and Don joined the Moorcroft Collectors’ Club, thereby getting an immediate worthwhile discount on our purchase!

The Moorcroft factory was definitely An Experience, and we’ll probably add to our coasters collection (including some exclusive edition pieces that can only be got in New Zealand). But we decided we’d had enough excitement for the present, with more to come that evening, so went back to the hotel.

We arrived about 2:30, and while Margaret settled in for a snooze, Don settled down to do some work on the laptop. Briefly. That was when we discovered that the “WiFi in every room” didn’t extend to our room. Don went down to find out what was going on, and it was then that we learned that the main part of hotel doesn’t have WiFi; only the newer (and larger, accommodation-wise) annex called “The Lodge”! Don made his complaint known (the WiFi was an important reason for our having booked), and the manager allowed him to use his office with Ethernet connection—and brought him a complementary wine to ease the pain!

Margaret came down and found Don around 5:30, and we went into the lounge to sit and read (and drink, and eat chippies and peanuts) until it was time to walk down the High St for dinner.

9 p.m. We had a delicious dinner (with champagne, naturally) at Pasta di Piazza, which has a delightful outside area at the back (though we dined inside as it was raining lightly & not very warm). It was after 23:15 that we made our way up to our bed.

You can see the full set of photos here.