Why Britain's Pottery Industry VANISHED to China

For over 200 years, the small towns of Stoke-on-Trent and the Staffordshire Potteries produced the finest ceramics in the world. Wedgwood, Royal Doulton, Spode, Minton — names that defined British craftsmanship and shipped to every corner of the empire. At its peak, the industry employed over 70,000 people, and the smoke from its bottle kilns turned the sky permanently grey. Then, in the space of a single generation, almost all of it disappeared. Factories closed, kilns went cold, master potters retired with no one to train, and the orders that built the industry quietly moved to Jingdezhen and Guangdong. This is the story of how Britain's pottery industry — built across two centuries of craftsmanship, innovation, and working-class skill — vanished to China in less than 30 years, and what's left of it today. Did anyone in your family work the Potteries? Share their story in the comments.