Burleigh Pottery

Last updated

Burleigh Pottery
Type Private limited company
Industry Pottery
PredecessorHulme and Booth
Founded1851
FounderF R Burgess & W Leigh
Headquarters,
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
William Leigh & Frederick Rathbone Burgess (founders), Edmund Leigh (chairman)
Products Earthenware pottery
Owner Denby Pottery Company
Number of employees
Unknown
Website www.burleigh.co.uk
Teapot, 1896, Burgess & Leigh, V&A Museum Burgessleigh.jpg
Teapot, 1896, Burgess & Leigh, V&A Museum

Burleigh Pottery (also known as Burgess & Leigh) is the name of a pottery manufacturer in Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent. The business specialises in traditionally decorated earthenware tableware. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Contents

The factory is a nineteenth-century grade II* listed buildings known as the Middleport Pottery. In addition production facilities at site, which is next to the Trent and Mersey Canal, [5] has a visitor centre and a factory shop.

History

The business was established in 1851 at the Central Pottery in Burslem as Hulme and Booth. The pottery was taken over in 1862 by William Leigh and Frederick Rathbone Burgess, and traded from that date as Burgess & Leigh. The trademark "Burleigh", used from the 1930s, is a combination of the two names.

Burgess and Leigh moved to different works, first in 1868 to the Hill Pottery in Burslem and then in 1889 to the present factory at Middleport, regarded at the time of its construction as a model pottery. Its scale and linear organisation contrast with the constricted sites and haphazard layout of traditional potteries such as the Gladstone Pottery Museum.

In 1887 Davenport Pottery was acquired. It was of interest in part for its moulds. Burleigh retains a notable collection of historic moulds which are still used.

Wash basin & jug Basin, bedroom (AM 1966.243-1).jpg
Wash basin & jug

Leigh and Burgess died in 1889 and 1895 respectively, and were succeeded by their sons, Edmund Leigh and Richard Burgess. On Richard's death in 1912, the business passed entirely into the ownership of the Leigh family. In 1919 it became private limited company, Burgess & Leigh Limited.

The years between the wars are often regarded as the company's "golden age", with a number of extremely talented designers and artists such as Harold Bennett, Charles Wilkes and Ernest Baily. Perhaps the best known was Charlotte Rhead, who worked here between 1926 and 1931, noted particularly for her work in tubelining. By 1939, the factory was employing over 500 people.

From as early as 1987 the company develpoped a thriving export network, concentrating primarily on the Empire (later Commonwealth) and American markets, but later also focussing on Europe.

After a run of financial difficulties, the company was sold in 1999 to Rosemary and William Dorling, and traded as Burgess Dorling & Leigh. In 2010 it was acquired by Denby Holdings Ltd, the parent company of Denby Pottery.

Conservation status

Middleport Pottery, Burslem Middleport Pottery, Burslem - geograph.org.uk - 625998.jpg
Middleport Pottery, Burslem

The Middleport Pottery was listed in the 1970s. [6] By this time six of the seven bottle ovens on the site had been demolished. The surviving bottle oven was given its own listing. [7] In 1988 the course of the Trent and Mersey Canal through Stoke-on-Trent was designated a linear Conservation Area.

Decline

English Heritage put the canal Conservation Area on the "Conservation Areas at Risk" Register in 2010, in large part because of urban decay caused by the decline of traditional industries. A 2011 review of the Conservation Area noted that the Middleport Pottery was a building at risk. [8]

Restoration

The Prince's Regeneration Trust offered to renovate the buildings, allowing their continued use as a working pottery. [9] The project involved a sale and lease-back deal via the United Kingdom Historic Building Preservation Trust (UKHBPT). In 2014 Prince Charles visited the pottery to open a visitor centre. [10]

Media appearances

The factory was the location for four series of The Great Pottery Throw Down , [11] and was featured in an episode of Peaky Blinders. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trent and Mersey Canal</span> Canal in England

The Trent and Mersey Canal is a 93+12-mile (150 km) canal in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire in north-central England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities to the east of Burton upon Trent and north of Middlewich, it is a wide canal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stoke-upon-Trent</span> Human settlement in England

Stoke-upon-Trent, commonly called Stoke is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Burslem, Fenton, Longton and Tunstall form the city of Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stoke-on-Trent</span> City and unitary authority in England

Stoke-on-Trent is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of 36 square miles (93 km2). In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement in Staffordshire and is surrounded by the towns of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Alsager, Kidsgrove, Biddulph and Stone, which form a conurbation around the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Etruria Works</span>

The Etruria Works was a ceramics factory opened by Josiah Wedgwood in 1769 in a district of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which he named Etruria. The factory ran for 180 years, as part of the wider Wedgwood business.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denby Pottery Company</span> British manufacturer of pottery

Denby Pottery Company Ltd is a British manufacturer of pottery, named after the village of Denby in Derbyshire where it is based. It primarily sells hand-crafted stoneware tableware, kitchenware and serveware products including dinner sets, mugs and serving dishes, as well as a variety of glassware products and cast-iron cookware.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Staffordshire Potteries</span> Historic ceramic-producing region within the present Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England

The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall, which is now the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. North Staffordshire became a centre of ceramic production in the early 17th century, due to the local availability of clay, salt, lead and coal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burslem</span> Human settlement in England

Burslem is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is often referred to as the "mother town" of Stoke on Trent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middleport, Staffordshire</span> Human settlement in England

Middleport is a residential and industrial district of the town of Burslem in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, England. Middleport lies to the west of Burslem, between Burslem town centre and the Newcastle-under-Lyme district of Porthill. To the north is Tunstall and to the south Cobridge and Etruria. Middleport conjoins Longport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Poole Pottery</span>

Poole Pottery is a British pottery brand. The name is now a brand, owned by Denby, with the products made in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tunstall, Staffordshire</span> Human settlement in England

Tunstall is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Hanley and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It was one of the original six towns that federated to form the city. Tunstall is the most northern, and fourth largest town of the Potteries. It is situated in the very northwest of the city borough, with its north and west boundaries being the city limit. It stands on a ridge of land between Fowlea Brook to the west and Scotia Brook to the east, surrounded by old tile making and brick making sites, some of which date back to the Middle Ages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlotte Rhead</span>

Charlotte Rhead was an English ceramics designer active in the 1920s and the 1930s in the Potteries area of Staffordshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Longton, Staffordshire</span> Human settlement in England

Longton is one of the six towns which amalgamated to form the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910, along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Burslem and Stoke-upon-Trent. It is in the ceremonial county of Staffordshire, England

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gladstone Pottery Museum</span> Industrial museum in Staffordshire, England

The Gladstone Pottery Museum is a working museum of a medium-sized coal-fired pottery, typical of those once common in the North Staffordshire area of England from the time of the industrial revolution in the 18th century to the mid 20th century. It is a grade II* listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Longport, Staffordshire</span> Human settlement in England

Longport is an area of Stoke-on-Trent, England. It is the location for Longbridge Hayes industrial estate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Etruria Industrial Museum</span> Museum in Etruria, Staffordshire, England

The Etruria Industrial Museum is located in Etruria, Staffordshire, in England. The museum is a typical and well-preserved example of a nineteenth century British steam-powered potter's mill. It is situated between the Trent and Mersey Canal and the Etruria staircase locks of the Caldon Canal. The museum has a modern entrance building, leading into a Grade II* listed building which was formerly the Etruscan bone and flint mill. The mill is also a scheduled monument.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bottle oven</span>

A bottle oven or bottle kiln is a type of kiln. The word 'bottle' refers to the shape of the structure and not to the kiln's products, which are usually pottery, not glass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A.J. Wilkinson</span>

A.J. Wilkinson was a pottery or potbank at Newport in Burslem, owned by the Shorter family since 1894. A sprawling complex of bottle ovens, kilns and production shops, it lay beside the Trent and Mersey Canal, the artery which provided it with coal and the raw materials for earthenware. In its heyday it employed 400 manual workers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fowlea Brook</span> Stream in Staffordshire, England

Fowlea Brook rises in Staffordshire and flows through the northern parts of Stoke-on-Trent, England. It is a tributary stream of the River Trent, and is 6 miles (9.7 km) long.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middleport Pottery</span>

Middleport Pottery was built in 1888 by Burgess & Leigh Ltd. It is located at Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent, England. The buildings, which still house an active pottery, are protected for their historic interest. Middleport Pottery is owned and operated by Re-Form Heritage.

A potbank is a colloquial name for a pottery factory in North Staffordshire used to make bone china, earthenware and sanitaryware.

References

  1. https://www.burleigh.co.uk/ [ bare URL ]
  2. "Made in Britain: Burleigh Pottery". 6 April 2015.
  3. "Burleigh Victorian pottery firm sale agreed". BBC News. 24 August 2010.
  4. "Featuring British Made Burleigh Pottery's Collection 'One' - the Smashing New Collection You Need in Your Home".
  5. Historic England & 1297939.
  6. "Middleport Pottery (Burgess, Dorling & Leigh)" . Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  7. "Bottle Kiln at the Middleport Pottery". Listed buildings in SOT. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  8. "The Trent & Mersey Canal Conservation Area Review" (PDF). Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  9. Tyler, Richard (2011). "Burleigh pottery saved". Telegraph. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  10. "HRH The Prince of Wales officially opens Middleport Pottery after a £9 million restoration". The Prince's Regeneration Trust. Archived from the original on 28 October 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
  11. Biswas, Shuvrajit Das (17 September 2020). "Where is The Great Pottery Throw Down Filmed? TV Show Filming Location". The Cinemaholic. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  12. "Bonus scene from Peaky Blinders was filmed at Middleport Pottery". 24 September 2019.

Bibliography