The rise and fall of Stoke-on-Trent’s once-booming ceramic industry
From the 17th century, Stoke-on-Trent became the epicentre of the ceramic industry globally with its abundance of coal and clay surrounding the city.
The six towns across Stoke-on-Trent known as the ‘Potteries’ are still known globally for their innovation and advancements in ceramics.
However, today the ceramic industry has slowly fallen by the wayside, with the city sharing the skeletons of a successful past.
Pulling into the small and isolated train station of Longport, there were remnants of the skyline full of the famous Staffordshire bottle ovens a landmark of the cites heritage.
Despite the visual markers of historical value, it became apparent that these fossils are the survivors of the industries decline.
Dr Alasdair Brooks, Chief Executive of Reform Heritage based at Middleport Pottery: “At the peak of the Staffordshire ceramics industry there were at least 2000 of these bottle ovens across the city as a whole. Today there are only 47 survivors.”
“There used to be 2000 bottle ovens across the city, a third of which would have been firing at one time all powered by coal.
The Clean Air Act 1956 industry transitioned into cleaner means of production of gas and electricity, it quickly saw the demolition of the famous landscape and the history of Stoke-on-Trent.
“It was extraordinarily inefficient, and with a high percentage of the energy escaping, it essentially undermined the primary means of production.”
As the transition away from the coal fires also saw the movement to cheaper areas of production, with the trade seemingly moving away from the home of ceramics.
This has had a detrimental impact on the status of the heritage craft, with the 2023 reports showing that Industrial pottery is recognised by the Heritage Craft Association as a critically endangered trade.
This fear for the future of industry became apparent with the Burleigh factory remaining the only factory to use the skill of wet transferring with Alasdair speaking fearfully about this detrimental loss.
“Should we ever lose the transfer room, and the individuals simultaneously, that would be every individual in the world who still knows how to apply this decorative technique.”
So, with a lack of interest into the trade there is a potential that not only will the industry continue to decline but skills themselves will become extinct.
However, with only a handful of businesses still present in the city, the industry has had a decline from its once-dominant industrial power. There remains a service of protecting the industry in the global capital of ceramics.
The Burleigh factory in Burslem, is the last pottery of its kind, with the company continuing to make its entire collection in Stoke-on-Trent since 1889.
Jemma Baskeyfield, 44, Retail Manager & Company Historian spoke proudly of Stoke-on-Trent’s history in the industry: “There’s a culture that runs through the city and through the people that remains from people coming from generations of hard work in difficult jobs.”
Jemma would be well-informed of this DNA, growing up 100 yards away from Middleport Pottery, as she added:
“There is this natural loyalty that people in the area have, it’s probably because we feel on the backfoot or downtrodden, when we were such an important area.
“This city and the industry mean a lot to me; it means a lot to other people here.”
The change to the industry has been seen firsthand by Jemma, with the city now having derelict remains of the past.
However, she remains adamant that efforts are still being put in place for the future protection of ceramics.
“We’ve made progress in recent years by taking on apprentices. It is difficult to get young people to come into jobs, we can’t dress it up too much.”
Jemma was quick to add that attitudes towards the industry have changed: “Nowadays within the city, people travel, and they learn different ways of life.
“There’s a serious hardness to working in a factory and it doesn’t suit everyone. As time goes on it has been removed from the psyche of individuals, especially working-class individuals who live in this area.”
“They can make the same money or more sitting in a call centre, so it is difficult to get people to come into this type of work.”
The decline in the interest towards the city’s history has become detrimental, and with a lack of a future interest there is a fear that the critically endangered industry may fade away.
“We want to make the best pottery possible, how it’s been made in the past. So, it’s a concern that if we don’t keep going so much will be lost.”
However, despite the fears and concerns with aging with the last few remaining engravers past the age of training, Jemma was keen to share that not all hope was lost.
Although they want to remain traditional to their history they have made adaptations to production: “We worked with the University of West of England on a project to create the engravings.
“We use a new type of technology to do that, there is a great loss to this chunk of history, but we kept the process alive. It should be embraced, that the attitude of our company.”
The future of Stoke’s one illustrious industry hanging by a thread, there is always a concern for progress of a heritage trade.
As it continues to boarder the line of critically endangered, the city is desperate help and in need of a resurgence if it hopes to avoid being a historical time piece in the city woven bed of culture.
