‘We can’t go back’: Staffordshire firms fight to keep ceramics tradition alive

The Wedgwood factory and corporate offices at Barlaston. Two decades ago, about 600 peopled worked in the factory; now there are 75. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Rob Morley has been made redundant eight times since he was a teenager, working in different ceramics factories across Staffordshire that have all shut or downsized, one by one.

From WH Grindley, where he started when he was 16, the list includes Washington Pottery, Hanley Bank, Imperial, and Eastwood among others, but the most recent is Royal Stafford.