Martha and her Spode plate
July 21st
We left about 8:30 a.m. for the "Potteries" in Stoke on Trent. We weren't sure about going because Heather's tummy was bothering her. She said she felt better so off we went. We made it in about 1 hour and 15 minutes after 2 wrong turns. After we started the tour at Spode, Heather start to feel faint. We took her to their infirmary and we continued on our tour. The interesting parts were how they make pots with plaster of paris molds, the old process of transfering the ink to the plates, and how they make plates. Martha had excellent luck in the factory shop buying 10 Christmas plates and 4 Santa plates. We had our lunch from a bakery in Stoke which also sold sandwiches and drinks. I even had a Cornish Pastie. After lunch we headed to Burslem and Royal Dalton. Their factory shop was not comparable with the selection at the Spode shop. The tour was similar but also quite different than the Spode tour. Their speciality is hand painted figurines. We drove home arriving around 6:00 p.m. After dinner and washing up, Martha and I walked around Bakewell and up to Bakewell Train Station. The weather today was rain and sunny with highs around 60.