Sheffield China And Pottery Factories... Help!

[Guest LadyDebonaire]

Hello!

I'm a china designer based in Sheffield. About 18 months ago I was selling my wares at a fair, and 2 old dears came to me for a chat. They said that they both used to work in a china factory in Sheffield before it closed down.

I regret not asking them the name of the factory, as I'm now really keen to find out more about it.

I have a little dream you see, and it's to open up this factory again, bring the old staff out of retirement, and get them to train the next generation of potters and apprentices so we can make Sheffield the new pottery capital of England!

I would appreciate any information you may have on any pottery factories in Sheffield, names of the companies, if you worked there, who the current owner of the factory might be?

Thank you!

Lianne

[RichardB]

Hello and Welcome to the Site LadyDebonaire.

I can think of hundreds of China dealers/merchants etc but not one China manufacturer; hopefully I'm wrong and we'll be flooded with them. What time period are we looking at please for the factory ?

Pottery is pretty much the same, only place I can find,at present, is Parkside Direct Pottery Co., 131/133 Middlewood Road (1957) and even then it doesn't say they were manufacturing.

Do you think these ladies were processing china and pottery brought in from elsewhere ?

[SteveHB]

Welcome LadyDebonaire,

looked through the 1965 directory, no one appears to be listed as a manufacturer.

[Edmund]

Some possibilities (the early ones included just for info, Romans excluded):

John Fox, potter, rented part of the Manor Lodge around 1715 and had a considerable output.

Swinton Pottery established 1745 in the Rockingham Works ( see )

Don Pottery at Swinton (same as above?) made a jug incorporating Spence Broughton's trigger finger

1828-9 Pigots Directory - John Fearby of Attercliffe Common was a potter

1905 Whites Directory - Walter Hawley 18 Rawmarsh Road Parkgate Rotherham was a potter

1911 Census - John Draper 13 Webster St, Carbrook was a potter - possibly refractory ware?

1911 Census - William Ward patient in Firvale Hospital was a potter

1970 Roy Newman established Pear Tree Pottery at Firbeck Lane. Laughton Dinnington - operated until middle 1990s

[Edmund]

From the 'BSA Group News - Centenary Issue' book of 1961, the section on Jessops (owned by BSA ) showed old photos of the crucible manufacture.

[Guest LadyDebonaire]

Wow thank you for all your responses everybody!

That picture is incredible, I can't imagine Health and Safety letting workers 'dance' on the clay to find lumps of rock now!

I am beginning to think that perhaps the ladies I met worked on decorating or distributing imported ware as Richard suggested.

It's really interesting looking at the rich pottery history that Sheffield has, I think it's mostly assumed that the potteries were all down in Stoke, but evidently not :)

[RichardB]

"1710 John Fox (1682-1738) a local potter with family connections to the glass works at Bolsterstone set up a kiln in Wolsey’s tower and made what is none as ‘Manor Wear’ very distinctive pottery for its time and of national historic importance. His kiln had eight flues and was 4.5 meters wide it was one of the first to produce pottery on an industrial scale one the only one to have been excavated in Sheffield."

From :

http://www.manorlodge.org.uk/sheffield_manor_lodge_story

...

John Fox, potter, rented part of the Manor Lodge around 1715 and had a considerable output.

...

[Bayleaf]

From the 'BSA Group News - Centenary Issue' book of 1961, the section on Jessops (owned by BSA ) showed old photos of the crucible manufacture.

A neighbour of my family was one of the last people to puddle clay like this. He was interviewed about his job on the BBC Radio programme 'Down Your Way'. Perhaps he should have been on 'What's My Line' on the tele, his mime would have been worth seeing!

(Now there's two programmes from the distant past!)

[Edmund]

The Don Pottery appears to have been an offshoot of the Leeds based Hartley Green Pottery (still in business, recently acquired by Denby Potteries). Their main pottery was founded in Leeds in 1770 by the brothers John and Joshua Green in partnership with Richard Humble.

Their current brochure including a potted (!) history excluding any mention of the Don factory, is here:

http://www.leeds-pot...uk/brochure.pdf

[Edmund]

So that's why the Rockingham Pottery got its name - owned by the Wentworth Fitzwilliams:

[Edmund]

There was a pottery at Attercliffe, behind the current Ice Stadium, off Coleridge Road (ex Pothouse Lane). Extract from A WALK THROUGH ATTERCLIFFE IN 1806:

"Retracing our steps to the main road again, we would have found on the left hand at Hill Top the residence and workshops of William Walkland, a wheelwright, whose family was of long standing in Attercliffe. Not far from Walkland's was an old house situated at the top of a garden, where lived Samuel Foster, a noted chisel maker. A couple of hundred yards further on we would have come to the Old Chapel, built in 1629, and its extensive burial ground. Nearby was the old windmill, with its house and a good garden. George Hill was the miller and corn factor. Across the road was Pot House Lane and there we would have seen the dwelling and a pottery worked by William Fearnley. Next we should come to Broughton Lane..."

The story of the pottery post 1844 is quite well documented by the Sheffield Independent:

The owner of the already well established pottery, George Hill, advertises to let the pottery:

From Sheffield Indexers:

Walkland, Jno&Wm (, earthenware manufrs.).

Residing at Attercliffe New Pottery. Attercliffe, in 1841.

Recorded in: Henry & Thos. Rodgers Sheff & Roth Directory - 1841.

The Walkland era seems to have ended with a tragic death:

Mr R.Bedford then seems to have taken the lease on until 1856:

In December 1858 Ernest Hill, son of George Hill, the retired miller of Attercliffe windmill, who had died on 27th March 1858, was running the pottery:

Ernest didn't appear to have made a success of the pottery, being forced to sell up in 1862:

The pottery was being let in 1863 by George Rymer, who had other business interests (possibly the Rymer boot and shoe business in Mansfield):

In 1864 the estate of George Hill was being sold by the trustees and benficiaries. The occupant of the pottery was Richard Bedford. Some of the properties being sold were:

The sales were still proceeding in June 1864:

The pottery was still functioning in 1888:

By 1893 the OS map shows housing on the site (between the new streets Amberley Road, Edward Road and Pothouse Road)

[SteveHB]

Midhope Potteries, by Joseph Kenworthy,

171 page book that is downloadable in pdf format - http://www.stocksbri...o.uk/collection