Month: Feb 2024

Tunstall’s 18th Century Pottery Industry

Some jasper made at Adams’ Greengates Pottery in Tunstall was equal to, if not superior to, jasper made by Wedgwood at Etruria

William Adams’ Greengates Pottery in Tunstall.

During the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution changed the face of Britain, making it the ‘workshop of the world’. 

Earthenware factories were built in Tunstall, a township that included Sandyford, Newfield and Furlong. At the end of the 18th century, there were seven factories making pottery. Small coal and ironstone mines were scattered throughout the district. Blue bricks and tiles were made in the Chatterley Valley. 

As early as 1735, William Simpson was making earthenware in the township. By 1750, Enoch Booth had a factory near a field called Stony Croft. The factory made cream coloured ware glazed with a mixture of lead ore and ground flint. 

In 1763, Admiral Smith Child built Newfield Pottery, where he produced earthenware. By the 1780s, two brothers, Samuel and Thomas Cartlich, were making pottery and mining coal at Sandyford. There were brick kilns, coal mines, a flint mill and a crate maker’s workshop at Furlong. 

During the 1740s, George Booth and his son Thomas leased a pottery factory. on an estate called Will Flats, next to Furlong Lane. In 1779, Burslem pottery manufacturer William Adams rented the factory and part of the estate.

On 1 March 1784, William purchased the factory and the land he had been renting. He changed the estate’s name from Will Flats to Greengates and demolished the old factory.

William built Greengates Pottery (shown above), where he made high-quality stoneware and jasper ornaments for the luxury market. He employed Swiss modeller Joseph Mongolot. Joseph helped him create models for moulds to produce the bas-reliefs for jasper and stoneware. 

Pottery produced by William was sold to wealthy customers. Some purchased ware from his showrooms in Fleet Street, London. Others visited the Greengates factory’s showrooms where they bought tea sets, dinner services, jasper, and stoneware ornaments.  

In his book, Marks and Monograms on Pottery and Porcelain, William Chaffer mentioned the quality of Adams’ jasper. He said some of it was “equal to, if not superior to” jasper made at Etruria by Wedgwood.

Revised: July 2025

St. John’s Church, Goldenhill

After watching this video, we are asking ourselves whether Stoke-on-Trent City Council cares about our city’s heritage or realises the role heritage buildings can play in revitalising the declining economy of a post-industrial area?

The Great Wind (1839)

The Great Wind
The Great Wind brought destruction and death to the Mersey Estuary.

Between Sunday, January 6th and Thursday, January 10th, 1839, a hurricane known as ‘the great wind’ swept across the British Isles leaving a trail of death and destruction.

Small boats and ocean-going sailing vessels were blown onto sandbanks in the Mersey Estuary. Many were broken up by high waves before steam tugs could reach them. Passengers and crews were forced to take to the lifeboats. Most were rescued, but over 100 men, women and children were drowned.

As it swept across Cheshire, the hurricane destroyed farmhouses and uprooted trees. Particles of salt were blown along village streets. Buildings, hedgerows and fields were covered with a layer of white salt, giving the impression that there had been a heavy frost.

When the hurricane hit North Staffordshire, gale-force winds caused extensive damage.

A 130-foot-high chimney at Apedale was blown down. Streets in Newcastle-under-Lyme were blocked by falling masonry, and windmills in the Potteries lost their sails.

The galleries in Christ Church, Tunstall, were destroyed when pinnacles on the church tower were blown down and fell through the roof. At Chell, the wind blew the roof off the new workhouse that was being built for the Wolstanton and Burslem Union.

Note: The Great Wind is one of a series of articles written by Betty Martin before her death. Other articles from the series will be posted from time to time.