Keep the ball rolling to build a legacy for city's centenary year

LAST Tuesday, I joined an invited audience of around 60 people in Stoke Minster for the launch of a specially commissioned book written by local historian, author and Sentinel columnist Fred Hughes.

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Using his inimitable gift for making civic history both engaging and accessible, 'Stoke-on-Trent: The Story of a City 1925-2025' is Fred's 'love story' to the Six Towns of the Potteries, highlighting the pivotal moments and people that have shaped where our royally designated city has come from and where it is going as it journeys 'through the deeps of readjustment, regeneration, reorganisation and expectant change'.

Fittingly, the launch event was staged in front of Josiah Wedgwood's memorial plaque mounted on the walls of the Minster with its epitaph proclaiming how one of the most remarkable and successful pioneers of the Industrial Revolution 'converted a rude and inconsiderable manufactory into an elegant art and important part of national commerce.

That the material impact of Wedgwood and the other Potteries' founding forefathers was felt right across the globe is unquestionable. But as Fred explicitly references, 'the pedigree of these pioneers reaches into our times' with craftsmanship cascading down through the generations from mould makers to hand painters, creating beauty and utility.