Stoke-On-Trent and Middleport Pottery

Up early on June 25th as Martin wanted to get back to Stoke-On-Trent to get the boat fixed the next day.  It was back down the same canal, 8 miles and 8 locks to Etruia which we had started out from 5 days ago.  The weather was cloudy with sunny spells and met up with friends at Etruria and then turned right at the junction onto the Trent and Mersey Canal and headed north to Burslem, part of Stoke-On-Trent, passed a lot of industrial land and old potteries.

Trent and Mersey Canal in Stoke-On-Trent, industrial buildings.

A notice about the history of the Trent and Mersey Canal

We moored on the canal outside the Burleigh, Middleport Pottery and visited this for the afternoon.

Middleport Pottery on the Trent and Mersey Canal, the old crane and packing buildings.

This pottery was built in 1888 and started up in 1889 on this site by William Leigh and Frederick Burgess.  They had previously begun on a small site in 1868 and then 2 decades later needed to expand.  The new Middleport Pottery was the vision of William Leigh who died the same year before it was completed and Burgess also died in 1895.  The task of implementing their vision was up to their sons who purchased pattern engravings and moulds from other pottery businesses as they closed down, to build up a vast library of shapes and designs.  Eventually the founders' surnames were combined to form the brand name Burleigh.

The original chimney for the coal firing and view of buildings that have been restored and used today, on the edge of the Canal.

Middleport Pottery was described as the "Model Pottery of the Staffordshire pottery industry" when it was first built.  The layout of the buildings, in parallel ranges with ovens incorporated into the production line, was designed to minimise the distance travelled between each process.  This was an attempt to partially mechanise an essentially handmade craft.  It had 7 bottle kilns in a row, 3 as biscuit ovens (for the first firing) and 4 glost ovens (used to fire the pottery after it had been glazed).  Today only one biscuit oven survives and is not used. 

The one Bottle kiln used as a biscuit oven that remains and the drying kiln.  Neither are used now.

The first time the iconic brand name, Burleigh, was used to name a pattern was thought to be in 1901, Production continued through both World Wars with new shapes and bright colours being introduced including cheap and cheerful art deco style afternoon tea sets.  Charlotte Rhead, a prominent designer, worked there during this time with the workforce peaking at this production time of about 500.  Post war, modern electric and gas tunnel kilns were introduced which ultimately led to the demolition of all but one bottle oven at Middleport and in 1956, replacing the old polluting bottle kilns in Stoke-On-Trent became compulsory.  In 1933 there were around 2,000 bottle kilns in the Potteries, by 1957 there were only 550 working bottle ovens left.

Plan of Middleport Pottery as it was.

Further modernisation occurred with automated jiggering and jolleying machines plus state-of-the-art printing machines.  Despite this traditional underglaze tissue transfer printing continued to occur at Middleport Pottery for the more complex pottery such as cups and teapots.

By the end of the 20th century the challenge of maintaining the fabric of the historic factory and keeping up with developments in technology was proving too much.  In 1998 staff were asked to reduce their hours and in 1999, the directors made the difficult decision to go into voluntary receivership.  After 110 years, the Middleport Pottery gates were about the close for the foreseeable future.  It was rescued by Dorling of The China Box Company who revitalised the underglaze transfer printed kitchenware and tableware and promoted the mixed blue and white dresser look which is now a brand look for Burleigh.  However by 2008 the new company was struggling and was acquired by Denby Holdings Ltd, the manufacturer of Denby Pottery which owns it today under the original company.

Examples of special pottery fired and the Burleigh "mixed dresser" of blue and white wares as it was in 2003 and is still made today.

By 2011, it was again at serious risk of closure because of the very poor state of repair of the buildings.  The Prince of Wales Regeneration Trust stepped in to buy and save the historic site and began a 9 million pound project to regenerate and revitalise it.  Half the site has been leased back to the Burleigh company and production is now increasing and working conditions have improved in the original buildings.  Middleport Pottery and the site continues to produce, using traditional techniques, the Burleigh pottery for which is was originally built in Victorian times.

The Slip Room

Slip and clay mixing vats

We were taken on a 2 hours tour of the pottery, through all the making processes in the original buildings and it was fantastic.  This included the mould room and the making of the moulds for the hollow pottery, the slip and clay mixing areas and watched plates being formed and actual process from the first firing to the final product.  I was told there are now 80 people working in the pottery, some have been there all their working life.  They are trying to recruit more younger, keen people to learn the traditional techniques.

Pottery waiting for first firing.

Sponging of pottery before it is fired, all pottery has to go through this process.

Plates awaiting sponging and firing.

I was even persuaded to try my hand at sponging down a plate on a wheel, I was surprised I survived it without ruining it !!!

I didn't make a terrible attempt !!!

After the first firing, the pottery is all glazed by hand and then dried in an electric kiln and checked for defects after this.

Glazing plares, all dipped by hand and then fired in the kiln.

The next step if patterned is making the tissue transfer and applying the glue, then cutting out and fixing the transfer to the cup or plate or whatever.  The tissue is then hand brushed off the pattern and left to dry and washed by hand.

Cutting out the tissue transfer to fit around the cup handle, they were quick.

Next step, wiping it on and taking out the creases.

Brushing off the tissue paper as it dries.  The pattern is only on the outside.

Washing all the pottery after it has dried with the transfer pattern in place.

The pottery is now checked several times before final inspection when it is eventually packed and sent out of the pottery.  There are several different lines of the pottery made at any time.  Unfortunately we did not see the hand painting being done.  Pottery for Prince Charles' Highgrove Shop is also produced here under his brand.

Pottery of all descriptions awaiting to be checked.

More pottery to be checked for flaws.

Final inspection.

There is also a museum on the site containing displays of all the different types of pottery made on the site during the years, plus models of how it would have been.  They have over 1,900 moulds that have been used as well and are continuing to catalogue it all as some of them have only been discovered this year.  This is the only remaining pottery that continues to be based on its original site and buildings in Stoke-On-Trent and still uses traditional techniques which are labour intensive to produce the pottery.  It was a fantastic tour and the restoration that has been done is exceptional and it still continuing.  A piece of history preserved.

Summary of the Burleigh process, it involves 25 pairs of hands from start to finish.

Following this visit, we continued a short distance up the canal to a mooring beside Westport Lake, a recreational and wildlife lake built in an old coal quarry, very peaceful, a lovely spot, for the night.

Boat moored on the Trent and Mersey Canal next to Westport Lake.

A Notice about Westport Lake.

View of Westport Lake and the wildlife.