New home for Josiah statue destroyed in council blunder

'Capo' will be returning to Festival Park

- Hayley Parker

A JOSIAH Wedgwood sculpture destroyed by council contractors is to be rebuilt and reinstated in a new place.

Plans have been drawn up to resurrect the 10ft redbrick statue of the master potter's head two years after it was demolished in error.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council wants to install the artwork - known as Capo - just a stone's throw away from Wedgwood's former home of Etruria Hall on Festival Park.

It was created by Vincent Woropay for the 1986 National Garden Festival and was subsequently moved to a prominent location near the Grade II-listed Etruria Hall in 2009. But it was then reduced to a pile of bricks during work in January 2023 to widen Festival Way as part of the Etruria Valley Link Road project.