United strength is stronger

City reaffirms ties with the Chinese capital of porcelain

- Sentinel Reporter

TWO world-famous ceramic cities have reaffirmed their cultural and academic ties with a renewed agreement to work in partnership.

Stoke-on-Trent’s ceramic heritage spans more than 300 years, growing from small-scale workshops in the mid-17th century into an industrial powerhouse.

The area's natural resources of clay and coal, alongside the innovations of master potters like Spode and Wedgwood, established the city as the World Capital of Ceramics.

The Chinese city of Jingdezhen has a more than 1,700-year ceramics tradition and is known as China's porcelain capital.

It is the origin of the word ‘China’ to describe fine porcelain wares - the very ceramics that helped position Stoke-on-Trent at the centre of the Industrial Revolution and the world’s ceramics trade.