KEY POINTS:
Lord knows the English can't make a decent coffee to save themselves, but a cup of tea served in bone china, now that they can do.
And it takes a trip to "The Potteries" of Stoke-on-Trent to learn a little about the fine bone china that the steaming cuppa is served in.
For starters, why do they call it fine bone china? Because it's made with around 50 per cent crushed cattle bone. The recipe was perfected in the closing years of the 18th century by Josiah Spode, one of The Potteries' heroes, hailed for his brilliant white tableware. It was an innovation that transformed The Potteries, inspired brilliant artistry and is still eaten off, supped from and much admired today.
Stoke-on-Trent, an hour's drive from Birmingham, Manchester and East Midlands airport, is a true heart-of-England destination. The English visit by the busloads, primarily attracted by the "China Experience", a giddying tour of factory shops selling the wares of world-famous brands, such as Wedgwood, Spode and Royal Doulton. It's good old retail therapy.
Increasingly, international visitors are finding their way here too - many on their second or third visit to Britain - with tourists spending more than $400 million at The Potteries last year.
The Potteries, as Stoke-on-Trent's original five towns are universally known, is living history - cradle and home to an industry that transformed society, along the way serving up pure practicality and high artistry, often on the same plate.
Ceramics from The Potteries were a major part of the giant leap forward in Victorian times. Just think of a world without flushing loos made of china, without hygienic tiles on the floors and walls of bathrooms and eateries. Not to mention those exquisitely decorated dinner sets Stoke-on-Trent's artisans and industrialists exported to the four corners of the globe.
That's the debt Britain and the world owes The Potteries, neatly observed by local literary hero Arnold Bennett in his novel The Old Wives Tale: "You cannot drink tea out of a tea-cup without the aid of the Five Towns, you cannot eat a meal in decency without the aid of the Five Towns."
Today, a visit to The Potteries takes in attractions such as the outstanding Gladstone Working Pottery Museum, the $50 million restored Italian Gardens at Trentham and the soon-to-open $30 million Wedgwood Museum.
It's a far cry from the soot-covered city of Victorian times, where bottle ovens belched black smoke and children worked 12-hour days in atrocious conditions. They paid a heavy price for the intricate 1000-piece dining sets ordered by Europe's royal houses and the ceramic saucers and cups from which the English middle class took tea in their parlours.
Spode himself was put to work in a pottery at the age of seven but went on to defy his humble origins, first opening his own small factory, making cream-coloured and blue painted earthenware, then buying the business of his former employer in Stoke-on-Trent.
Spode could have rested easily after his perfection of blue underglaze printing on earthenware from hand-engraved copper plates in 1784.
The innovation spurred phenomenal growth in the English tableware industry, but Spode proceeded to create fine bone china. It was ceramic, so brilliantly white and delicately translucent that in 1823 he received an order for a 1300-piece table service for the East India Company at Canton. Spode was making china _ for China.
Stoke-on-Trent's crowning attraction, scheduled to open next April, is the new Wedgwood Museum, which will house an 8000-piece ceramics collection, 75,000 manuscripts and fine art, including works by Stubbs and Reynolds. The collection is valued at more than $300 million.
Josiah Wedgwood - the grandfather of Charles Darwin - was a scientist, artist and social reformer who founded his own pottery company in 1759.
Wedgwood's reputation as a company prizing artistry is second-to-none, whether it be the 1773 "Queen's Ware" service made for Catherine II of Russia (featuring more than 1200 hand-enamelled views of British gardens, palaces and landscapes), the famous blue-black jasper copy of the first-century Portland vase, or sought-after modern designs by Vera Wang and Jasper Conran.
Like most of The Potteries' famous brands, Wedgwood has been through hard times as fashions change and it has had to compete with and, to some degree, embrace mass-production from China.
But as ever more product is mass produced, new interest builds around the work of the potters and artists of Stoke-on-Trent. And that alone looks likely to save The Potteries.
IF YOU GO...
Getting there:
Cathay Pacific has regular flights to London from Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch with stopovers in Hong Kong. Go to www.cathaypacific.com for fares. Stoke-on-Trent is 90 minutes drive from London and there are regular trains.
Stay:
Try the Moat House in the village of Acton Trussell, less than 30 minutes' drive from Stoke-on-Trent. Excavations suggest there has been human occupation around this site since the Iron Age and the raised mound on which this moated accommodation sits dates to Norman times. There are 41 rooms with prices from $375.
www.moathouse.co.uk
Go pottering:
Stoke-on-Trent is one of the world's most fascinating and important ceramics centres. Whether it's the history of famous brands or the modern Jonathan Plant Moorland Pottery (Robbie Williams' sister bought the star a set of mugs), this is the heart of the industry in England. Don't miss the Gladstone Working Pottery Museum, where you can throw your own pot, the Wedgwood Visitor Centre and Museum, the factory shops on the China Experience, and the annual Stoke Ceramic Festival
www.stoke.gov.uk/museums,
www.thewedgwoodvisitorcentre.com,
www.moorlandpottery.co.uk,
www.stokeceramicsfestival.co.uk
Trentham Gardens:
One of Europe's most stunning gardens, Trentham, which dates to 1086, will have more than $300 million spent on it by the time its restoration is complete. The exquisitely recreated $50 million Italian Garden is one of the most important garden projects in Europe, and is a beautiful place for a walk. www.trentham.co.uk
Wild life:
The Trentham Monkey Forest has quickly become one of Britain's premier wildlife attractions since opening in 2005. The forest has 140 Barbary Macaques living as close to wild as possible without actually being free. Its conservation programme has seen 600 monkeys re-introduced into their natural habitat on Morocco's Atlas mountain. Price: adults $15, children $12.
Antony Phillips visited Stoke-on-Trent with assistance from Cathay Pacific and Visit Britain.
- Detours, HoS
