Dame Emma Bridgewater wants to use honour to improve adult social care

The ceramicist Emma Bridgewater felt “dazed” after being made a Dame and wants to use the honour to push for improvements in adult social care.

Dame Emma received the honour for services to ceramics from the King in an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle on Tuesday.

She founded the Emma Bridgewater ceramics manufacturing company in 1985, specialising in cream-coloured earthenware made in Stoke-On-Trent.

The ceramicist said she spoke to the King about writing to him with an idea for a “new project” now that she’s a Dame, to work at building better communities for people living in care.

After receiving the honour, Dame Emma said: “I think that care, particularly for the elderly, we could be doing a lot better. There are some exemplary places, but between my mother who was very handicapped at 50 and lived 22 years in care and my sister who’s been in really her whole life, I feel we can make better communities and better links to the communities.

“I think maybe being a Dame has made me feel I could do that.”

The ceramicist also spoke about the impact of royal commemorative pottery for the Emma Bridgewater company over the years.

“Some of the greatest fun and the hugest response is when we make commemorative wares and what my now ex-husband and I knew instinctively is that there would be a huge enthusiasm for any mugs commemorating jubilees and marriages and babies,” said Dame Emma.

Dame Emma also paid tribute to the people of Stoke-On-Trent who had made her work possible.

“I’m a little bit dazed really, it’s been very lovely having my daughters with me. When I heard the news I had a huge wave of pride, for Stoke for the people in the factory. The business really wouldn’t exist without Stoke-On-Trent,” she said.

Others receiving honours at the ceremony on Tuesday morning included MP Sir Andrew Mitchell, actress and playwright Tracy-Ann Oberman MBE, and astrophysicist Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell.