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.
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.
The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall, that now make up 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.
Poole Pottery is a British pottery brand, now based in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, England. As a company, it was founded in 1873 on Poole quayside in Dorset, where it continued to produce pottery by hand before moving its factory operations away from the quay in 1999. Production continued at a new site in Sopers Lane until its closure in 2006. The name is now a brand for products made in Staffordshire. Historical products from Poole Pottery are displayed in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Bone china is a type of porcelain that is composed of bone ash, feldspathic material, and kaolin. It has been defined as "ware with a translucent body" containing a minimum of 30% of phosphate derived from animal bone and calculated calcium phosphate. Bone china is the strongest of the porcelain or china ceramics, having very high mechanical and physical strength and chip resistance, and is known for its high levels of whiteness and translucency. Its high strength allows it to be produced in thinner cross-sections than other types of porcelain. Like stoneware it is vitrified, but is translucent due to differing mineral properties.
Wedgwood is an English fine china, porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd. It was rapidly successful and was soon one of the largest manufacturers of Staffordshire pottery, "a firm that has done more to spread the knowledge and enhance the reputation of British ceramic art than any other manufacturer", exporting across Europe as far as Russia, and to the Americas. It was especially successful at producing fine earthenware and stoneware that were accepted as equivalent in quality to porcelain but were considerably cheaper.
Portmeirion is a British pottery company based in Stoke-on-Trent, England.
Royal Doulton is an English ceramic and home accessories manufacturer that was founded in 1815. Operating originally in Vauxhall, London, and later moving to Lambeth, in 1882 it opened a factory in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, in the centre of English pottery. From the start, the backbone of the business was a wide range of utilitarian wares, mostly stonewares, including storage jars, tankards and the like, and later extending to pipes for drains, lavatories and other bathroom ceramics. From 1853 to 1901, its wares were marked Doulton & Co., then from 1901, when a royal warrant was given, Royal Doulton.
Churchill China PLC is a British pottery manufacturer based in Stoke-on-Trent in the United Kingdom.
Mintons was a major company in Staffordshire pottery, "Europe's leading ceramic factory during the Victorian era", an independent business from 1793 to 1968. It was a leader in ceramic design, working in a number of different ceramic bodies, decorative techniques, and "a glorious pot-pourri of styles - Rococo shapes with Oriental motifs, Classical shapes with Medieval designs and Art Nouveau borders were among the many wonderful concoctions". As well as pottery vessels and sculptures, the firm was a leading manufacturer of tiles and other architectural ceramics, producing work for both the Houses of Parliament and United States Capitol.
The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery is in Bethesda Street, Hanley, one of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. Admission is free.
George Albert Wade was an English pottery manufacturer. Born in Burslem to a family who ran a pottery business, he was knighted in 1955 for political and public services.
Dudson is a British company that manufactured tableware, glassware and porcelain. It is one of the oldest brands of its industry in England, founded in 1800. It was also one of the first pottery companies to identify a need to serve specifically the hospitality market, and began to serve exclusively this segment soon after its launch. In 1891 it even developed a stronger type of vitrified china for the hospitality market and it's believed to be one of the first globally to do so.
Aynsley China Ltd. was a British manufacturer of bone china tableware, giftware and commemorative items.
Royal Winton is an English brand of earthenware and fine bone china tableware, made by Grimwades Limited, a Stoke-on-Trent based company founded by Leonard Lumsden Grimwade and his elder brother, Sidney Richard Grimwade, in 1885. Pieces are marked with either name, or both. Among many other themes, the company made pieces with New Zealand interest, partly directed at the market there.
Steelite International is a British ceramics and tableware manufacturer for the hospitality industry. It is based in Middleport, a district of Burslem in Staffordshire, England, with offices in New Castle, Pennsylvania and showrooms worldwide.
Lucideon is an independent materials development, testing and assurance company based in Stoke-on-Trent and in the US. Lucideon owns testing facilities around the world.
W H Grindley was an English pottery company that made earthenware and ironstone tableware, including flow blue. The company was founded in 1880 by William Harry Grindley, JP of Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent.
Flux Stoke-on-Trent is a spin-out company from Staffordshire University. Located in Stoke-on-Trent, traditional centre of the English pottery industry, it produces decorated bone china tableware that is manufactured in the city and primarily designed by students on its ceramics master's degree programme.
William Greatbatch was a noted potter at Fenton, Staffordshire, from the mid-eighteenth to the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. Fenton was one of the six towns of the Staffordshire Potteries, which were joined in the early 20th century to become the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England.
