Get Fired Up: Full Programme Announced for British Ceramics Biennial
Plus new spa for Newcastle, enterprise centre opens in Longton Town Hall, Moorland Pottery launches centenary Stokie Ware and some ace Lemmy statue pics!
Good News 🎉
🏺Getting Creative in a World Craft City. Featuring new works in clay by more than 60 international artists, the UK’s single largest ceramics event returns to Stoke-on-Trent from 06/09-19/10 – and the full programme has now been announced. There will be six weeks of free exhibitions, screenings, talks and events dispersed across the former Spode factory. Programme highlights include BCB’s flagship exhibition, Award, new work by 10 artists competing for the £10,000 BCB Award Prize. Watch out for Jane Perryman, whose plant-dyed ceramics chart her 20-year rewilding of an agricultural wasteland, and Daniel Silver who examines the human experience through ceramic and oil paint sculptures. Prepare to be inspired, too, by Clayscape, an experimental rammed earth architecture project from Tuckey Design Studio.
🤘 🎸 THE KNOT’S PERSON OF THE WEEK – Lemmy 🎸 🤘
The Burslem-born rock ‘n’ roll legend is now immortalised forever in the town centre following the unveiling of the statue last Friday, when thousands of rock fans descended on the town to witness the bronze statue being unveiled. The statue contains some of Lemmy’s ashes, which were accompanied to the ceremony by a procession of motorbikes. Read more about the Lemmy statue here.
🧘♀️ New Spa for Stoke. There’s no doubt that we have some great spas in Staffs (we’re looking at you, Moddershall Oaks and Hoar Cross Hall) – but now there’s a new place to go chillax, M Spa in Newcastle. Situated inside M Club Spa and Fitness Newcastle, this new wellness sanctuary features a Himalayan salt sauna, steam room, foot spas, heated loungers and Hydrotherapy pool. It's designed according to the principles of Feng Shui and the Five Elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water). Phase 2 of M Spa, which is located on Newcastle Road, will launch later this year, with treatment rooms and a relaxation lounge. The spa will even feature work pods so you can bring your laptop then chill after.
Foot spas and a Himalayan salt sauna are among the attractions at M Spa
🥨 Moorland Pottery Launches Centenary ‘Stokie Ware’. It's time to clear out your cupboards and ditch those old unwanted plates and mugs to make room for Moorland Pottery's swish new centenary collection. The special centenary mugs and plates feature a miner’s wheel, a duck, the canal, and the Stoke Knotty Train. The mugs and plates will be on sale soon alongside other specially designed merchandise, including tea towels, posters, tote bags and pin badges at Gladstone Pottery Museum and Potteries Museum & Art Gallery. Snap 'em up while you can so you can remember this landmark anniversary for years to come!
👔 New Venue for Stoke Start Ups. Got a great business idea? Then you’ll be pleased to know that Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Launch It, a charity that establishes enterprise hubs nationally, has opened a space inside Longton Town Hall for budding businesses. The first hub of its kind in the Midlands, the historic building now features 20 offices, open-plan co-working spaces, meeting rooms, Zoom booths plus a small kitchen and toilet area. Read the full story we did on this last week here and sign up to attend the open day on 22/05 here.
🎗️Hanley at Home Re-fund Supports Local Charities. Hanley Economic Building Society, in partnership with the Community Foundation for Staffordshire and Shropshire, is offering grants of up to £5,000 to local organisations through its Hanley at Home Fund. The grant scheme supports groups working with people at various stages of the housing journey, whether that’s preparing to move into a home or managing to stay in an existing one. For this next round of funding, the Hanley at Home Fund has just under £30,000 available. Think you may be eligible? Apply here – but get your skates on as applications close 01/06.
Really Good News 🎉 Your favourite news from the last week
⛳️ Big Stars set to Tee off at JCB: The LIV Golf competition is set to tee off this July and you wanted to know all the details…
👩🦰 Step Up For Stoke: Knotters were keen to volunteer for our centenary events
🤘 Lemmy Finally Comes Home to Burslem: See this amazing statue if you haven’t yet!
The Knot Pod 🎤 ⬇️ Catch James chatting with some of our amazing innovators
🥨 The Red Haired Stokie: Our ace local blogger, photographer & Knot contributor
🗣️ Kirsty Hulse: Get inspired, it’s the founder of leading event Confidence Live
🏃♂️ George Bettany: Jog to this chat with the founder of MARA Run Club
📽️ Daniel Moore: So much creativity going on in Stone at top agency Dissident
🎶: Ash and Ryan: Listen to two of Stoke’s biggest names in music and fashion
🕯️Beth Warren: Founder of sustainable candle brand The Wandering Bee
🥨 Good Vibes Only: A word from Helen, writer at The Knot
As a life-long rock fan and former music writer, I was gutted to miss the unveiling of Lemmy’s statue. Massive thanks to good friend of The Knot Jerome Whittingham for sharing his atmospheric black and white shots of the occasion - aren’t they fab? We’re also stoked to welcome a new writer to the Knot team, Jason Ritchie (he wrote this great piece on the Lemmy statue). There will be more stories from him, so stay tuned.
We’ve also been busy on our socials as we try and bring you news as and when we receive it: watch out for more posts on Insta and Facebook this week from us.
Thanks to everyone who responded to our poll about what you’d like to see more of in The Knot. Most indicated that you’d like to see more features on Stoke and Staffs. We hear you, and we’re on it. We’ll also return to profiling more of Stoke’s Unsung Heroes again: next up are the founders of Newcastle-based Contemporary Collage magazine, the only publication of its kind in Europe and a super-cool looking mag at that too…
Enjoy the sunshine this week, yellow suns every day on the weather forecast – yay!
Helen x
Weekly Weather (Stoke-on-Trent): Get the suncream out, it’s gonna be ☀️😀
Mon ☀️ 23° (9°) Tue ☀️ 21° (7°) Wed ☀️ 21° (7°) Thu ☀️ 22° (7°) Fri ☀️ 23° (8°)
Sat ☀️ 23° (8°) Sun ☀️ 23° (7°).
Sunrise 12/05 ☀️05:16 Sunset 12/05 🌅 20:55
