Stoke-on-Trent has secured £131,514 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for Stoke 100: Our Time, Our Place, Our Heritage – a major intergenerational project celebrating and contributing to safeguarding the city’s endangered industrial ceramic hand-skills.
Led by Stoke Creates in partnership with British Ceramics Biennial, the project will bring together ten ‘Living Heritage Heroes’ aged 65+ with twelve young people aged 16–25. Together, they will explore what it means to be a World Craft City today and help shape the future of Stoke-on-Trent’s living heritage.
Through research visits, hands-on workshops and archive exploration, participants will document endangered skills such as mould-making, tissue transfer, hand-casting and gilding. The project will result in a co-created Clay Manifesto, a touring exhibition, and the premiere of a newly commissioned documentary film.
Susan Clarke, Executive Director of Stoke Creates, said:
“The ceramics industry is facing significant challenges for many reasons. This funding allows us to act at this critical moment. Stoke-on-Trent has recently been designated a World Craft City, but designation alone is not enough. We need to safeguard the skills that built this city and ensure young people see themselves in that story.
Our Time, Our Place, Our Heritage is about celebrating the makers behind the objects and creating new pathways for the future, and our thanks go to The National Lottery Heritage Fund and National Lottery players for making this project possible.”
The project runs from April 2026 to February 2027.