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Pottery Manufacture
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Winkle & Wood Colonial Pottery by the Trent and Mersey canal in Stoke. Image shows landing stage and warehouse doorways

Winkle & Wood's Colonial Pottery in Stoke, September 1999. Image reproduced by kind permission of Ian Shaw.


Stoke-on-Trent has been famous for pottery manufacture for many centuries. The industry established in the area before 1600 and began to flourish in the 17th century because of its natural resources: clay and coal to fire kilns. By the late 1720s white ball clay was brought in from Devon and Dorset and after 1775 white china clay was imported from Cornwall for use in the production of a range of wares. Local clay was used to produce bricks and tiles,
industries which expanded greatly during the 19th and 20th centuries, and to produce a limited range of products.

In recent years a number of pottery companies have closed or moved their production overseas but several important names, including Spode and Wedgwood, continue to manufacture in this area.

Use the links under pottery in the left hand navigation bar, or those below, to find out more about a few of Stoke-on-Trent's pottery manufacturers.

Aynsley
Alfred Meakin
James Sadler & Sons
Spode
Thomas
Whieldon