Henry Hammond Lecture: Obsolescence and Renewal, Neil Brownsword

Brownsword explores the marginalised histories of ceramic manufacture in North Staffordshire, focusing primarily on the impact of globalisation in recent decades upon people, place and traditional skills. His reactivation of endangered industrial crafts has achieved widespread recognition, raising questions about the value and relevance of intergenerational skills and obscure regional histories, and how these can be re-imagined into new narratives that reinforce place identity.