The Potteries area in Stoke on Trent isn’t a picturesque area of England and it’s not like one our factory outlet areas in the states. Each factory stands on it’s own and you have to do some driving in between the shops depending on your interests. We were not devoting a whole day to this venture as we were more interested in getting to our next destination in the Cotswolds.

I was most interested to see the Emma Bridgewater shop. We chose the second factory that was closest to E.B. which was Aynsley.

Here’s a link where you can poke around and see all the different potteries there are to visit in the area.

I’m a real bargain hunter and even the discounted prices weren’t floating my boat. I chose a few items to pack away in my suitcases to bring home. If you are serious about buying there was a shipping option at the factory stores.

I chose the hedgehog for my souvenir mug. The inscription on the bottom says “Numbers of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle’s friends and relations are seriously depleted in the twenty-first century. Falling insect populations and rising traffic levels have all taken their toll as has excessive tidiness in the garden with the loss of vital log heaps and piles of leaves.

A couple egg cups and a tea towel rounded out my purchases at Emma Bridgewater.

It was fun to poke around our second stop but we left empty handed. My buying skills were kind of like this next sign we saw…

Happy first October weekend to all of you. We got some fabulous sunshine on Friday and I hope we have more in store. We have some serious yard work that needs to get done and some dry days would really help that venture. I’ll continue with my England posts Sunday night or Monday. Enjoy your weekend!