It's a bright day in late October outside the Victorian Middleport Pottery in Stoke-on-Trent and a knot of photographers is standing opposite the main entrance alongside a group of locals leaning on crush barriers. They are there to greet HRH The Prince of Wales, who is about to arrive
to inspect the progress being made on his latest heritage-led regeneration project.
And he couldn't have chosen a better place to set up a job-creating scheme.
The ceramic industry in Stoke has been shattered by the lure of cheap foreign production, much of it in the appropriately-named China. In 1945, 79,000 people in the city owed their livelihood to the pottery trade, today it employs fewer than 10,000. Middleport, home of the world-famous Burleighware, is just one of around 40 projects currently being handled by The Prince's Regeneration Trust, which between them give jobs to hundreds of people.
These range from a barge-repair workshop in Yorkshire to a stately home in Scotland, the common link being their role in preserving those elements of the nation's industrial and architectural heritage that
are so dear to the prince's heart. Apart from employing people directly, the Trust's schemes act as a catalyst for further investment by others. In an exclusive interview with business:life, the Prince discusses the
work of the Trust.
business:life Why is heritage regeneration important?
Prince Charles First, I think it helps to define what I mean by "heritage-led regeneration".
It is a simple idea that involves using the conservation and reuse of redundant buildings of historic and architectural importance, primarily in areas of social and economic deprivation, as a catalyst to regenerate the local area by helping to create employment and residential opportunities, enhanced aspiration and, in time, economic growth.
This form of regeneration is important because, by finding new uses for seemingly redundant buildings, we can create valuable economic benefits for local communities. But it is about more than creating jobs, homes, offices and new business opportunities. People feel an enormous attachment to buildings that represent the history of their area - whether they are former mills, factories, hospitals or churches. Bringing these buildings back to life, particularly in deprived areas, helps to increase people's pride in their neighbourhoods and to reinforce their sense of identity. Apart from anything else, it does honour to the memory of those skilled and dedicated craftsmen, many of whose descendents will still be living in the area, who gave so much of their lives to build these special places. There are also environmental benefits. For example, reusing a building means that
the embedded carbon in the building and its materials are not wasted.
My Regeneration Trust has worked tirelessly to bring these economic, social and environmental benefits to communities across the country, showing that reusing buildings that have been carefully and skilfully constructed leads to a sustainable regeneration of both the buildings themselves and the communities in which they are situated. This is exactly what we are in the process of doing at Middleport Pottery in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent.
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