Port Vale 1963-64

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Manager Freddie Steele spent big, signing Northern Ireland international Billy Bingham from Everton for a then joint-club record fee £15,000. In November, Vale also paid Stoke City £12,000 for both ex-Scotland striker Jackie Mudie and left-back Ron Wilson. The highlights of the season came in the FA Cup, where Vale beat top-flight Birmingham City at St Andrews and drew 0–0 with Liverpool at Anfield. A poor 63/64 season overall with financial difficulties running into the following season.

As part of rationalisation the Roslyn China business, formally Reid & Co, was closed in July 1963. It produced dinner-ware and in particular tea sets. This works is now part of the Gladstone Pottery Museum which is the latest location of The Great Pottery Throwdown. The site has a number of bottle kilns including a decorating (muffle) kiln with a tall stepped flue.

The Man of Fire, designed by the London sculptor David Wynne was built in 1963 and positioned in Hanley City Centre. The Lewis’s / Debenhams building occupies the site of the Bishop and Stonier pottery works.

Having spent some time in the City of Stoke-on-Trent, he was looking for inspiration and said “…it hit me that the sculpture must have something to do with the great fires which dominate the life of the Potteries. An inscription reads: “Fire is at the root of all things both visible and invisible.” Referring to the sculpture, it was the reason why local children behaved while going shopping with their parents.