You cannot eat a meal in decency without the aid of the Five Towns

They are unique and indispensable. From the north of the county right down to the south they alone stand for civilization, applied science, organized manufacture, and the century—until you come to Wolverhampton. They are unique and indispensable because you cannot drink tea out of a teacup without the aid of the Five Towns; because you cannot eat a meal in decency without the aid of the Five Towns.

A. Bennett, The old wives' tale (1908), 2

Man hardened clay into a bowl before he spun flax and made a garment

Probably no one in the Five Towns takes a conscious pride in the antiquity of the potter's craft, nor in its unique and intimate relation to human life, alike civilized and uncivilized. Man hardened clay into a bowl before he spun flax and made a garment, and the last lone man will want an earthern vessel after he has abandoned his ruined house for a cave, and his woven rags for an animal's skin

Arnold Bennett, Anna of the five towns (1902; Penguin 2016), 113