Stoke and the district seems to be getting a bit of a sweet tooth. Not only are the Cherry Bakewells made at Trent Vale in Stoke…

“In the last five years, Premier Foods has invested more than £22 million at its Stoke-on-Trent facility to improve the production process, with the introduction of more automation and technology.”

But we’ll soon have a big fancy chocolates factory too…

“Daniel’s Delights now employs 22 staff at the former Royal Doulton works in Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent. … The company has doubled its turnover to almost £2m in the past two years … The £440,000 in funding from Lloyds Bank will allow the business to buy its existing four-storey premises, along with the property next door to allow space for its expanding team.”

There are also quite a lot of edible nibbles being produced out at the old Cadbury’s milk chocolate factory, near Eccleshall. Now run as Knighton Foods. Apparently they produce a whole range of powdered yummies, of the Angel Delight packet type.

The Cherry Bakewells are on the telly tonight in a documentary, if you’re still a live BBC watcher. It’s not going to make up for years of the mainstream media slagging off Stoke, but it’s a start. Let’s just hope they don’t frame the factory footage with the usual stock footage of grotty Stoke back-alleys.