Maison Cupcake

The Sweet Life At Home

  • Home
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Journal
    • Classes and Events
  • Misc
    • Oui Love France
    • Love The Stow
    • Party Food Ideas
    • Family Food Ideas
Home » Emma Bridgewater factory shop

Emma Bridgewater factory shop

August 19, 2009 by Sarah / Maison Cupcake

Five years ago I bemused my colleagues with news of a trip I’d taken to Stoke on Trent.  I had spent a happy day with my husband viewing the bottle kiln at the Gladstone Pottery Museum (pictured above), with it’s cafe that serves tea and cake on Royal Winton Chintzware, several factory shops to salivate over crockery and rounded it off to the museum in the town centre where they display historical ceramics from the region and describe how they are made.

For a crockery fanatic like me, a trip to The Potteries is heaven and I have been hankering to return ever since.  Taking my son on a mini holiday to the Midlands this week presented me with the opportunity and to my father’s surprise I requested that we take a trip up the M6 to Stoke in order that I might revisit the Emma Bridgewater factory shop.

Bridgewater crockery enjoys a cult following.  A relative newcomer to the Staffordshire pottery scene, the company was founded around 20 years ago and is distinguished by it’s creamware with stamped designs such as polka dots, hearts and stars.  There are also designs with wording around the edge and drawings.  The core designs are polka dots and “black toast” which stay in long term production, other designs come and go within a couple of years, hence their collectibility.  There is even a collectors club and rare pieces command high prices at auction.  Prices brand new are not cheap: £15.95 for a mug and £49.95 for a teapot.  The range has more recently been expanded to include lots of cheaper non pottery items such as biscuit tins, trays, stationery and tea towels.

My first pieces of Emma Bridgewater were polka dot cake plates, a teapot and jug which we received as wedding presents.  I later added two (sadly discontinued) “Organic and Green” plates that my husband and I eat from for nearly every dinner and a 1 pint mug which says “I ? Farmer’s Markets” which sits on my kitchen windowsill.  Previously I had collected Cornish Blue Creamware and on moving house I agonised whether to switch to Emma Bridgewater mugs in my new kitchen.  The price put me off, I opted for Nigella Lawson Living Collection cream mugs instead which worked out £7.50 each.  But it was a poor decision, the mugs looked tatty after just six months of use, their matt surface showing multiple scratches.  Worse still, handles started dropping off.  We are back to using the Cornish Blue… unless I switch to Emma Bridgewater in the future.  It is tempting, although I didn’t buy any mugs today.

My son could quite easily have been a bull in a china shop, my dad took him outside with this red plastic basket for him to wheel around merrily in the courtyard.

I spent 20 minutes scanning the racks of Emma Bridgewater factory seconds which are sold here at around 25% discount. They mark items with a black chinagraph pencil to point out the flaws but seriously there is barely anything wrong with most of them and people would be unlikely to notice the difference at home.

Knowing that certain ranges quickly disappear, I opted for this season’s Union Jack design in a teapot and two side plates in Starry Skies .

We rounded off our trip with lunch at nearby Trentham Gardens and a rendezvous with my mother who was moored up a few miles away on her narrowboat.

Filed Under: Journal

About Sarah / Maison Cupcake

Sarah has published recipes on Maison Cupcake since 2009 and lives in London.
Read More/Contact

« Cupcakes for Martha
What’s Up Cupcake? Whitstable »

About Sarah / Maison Cupcake

Sarah has published recipes on Maison Cupcake since 2009 and lives in London.
Read More/Contact

Follow Sarah / Maison Cupcake

  • Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

© 2009-2023 Sarah Trivuncic

All content copyright of site owner
Sarah Trivuncic except where otherwise stated. All rights reserved. Neither images or text may be reproduced without permission. Privacy / Disclosure

Archives

Copyright © 2023 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT