Resources on the North Staffordshire Pottery Industry

This index is focused on the history of pottery and potters
of Stoke-on-Trent, North Staffordshire, England.

NOTE: all the information is given in good faith and believed to be correct - however the history and identification of the companies can be vary complex - if you are going to use it for the basis of valuations, purchases or sales then you must verify it from independent, qualified sources.

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Identifying the markings

Identifying North Staffordshire pottery by the marks and symbols used on the bottom of the ware.

Identify by initials

Identify by the name of the manufacturer

Identify by Trade Names

general guide to dating - how to date English pottery.

about registration numbers - Registered numbers are a consecutive numbering system which started in 1884 of designs which were registered by companies.

marks indexed by categories

unknown marks

fakes & forgeries

Pottery Trade Names

A B C - Wartime concentration group letters

Ten Plain Years: The British Pottery Industry 1942-1952

BCM - British Commercial Monomark

English Royal Coat of Arms - in the late 19th and early 20th century many potters (both in England and also foreign firms) also used the Arms (or some similar design) as part of their mark - to gain some sense of importance and value.

About the Ware

'how it's made'
A section on the manufacture of pottery, with pictures from Wedgwood's Etruria works and details of tile manufacture.

Pottery Types
An explanation of types of pottery with examples. Also information on the materials used in the manufacture of ceramics.

Pottery Terms
Common and obscure terms used both today and in the past in the pottery manufacturing industry.

Manufacturers ware
Example of ware produced by some of the North Staffordshire potters.

Pottery Patterns

The Pottery Companies

Over 1900 pottery firms have operated in Stoke-on-Trent since the early 1700's - this is a list of all the known ones. Some lasted only a few years and some for well over 200 years.

Articles and features on potters and their ware.

Pottery Factories and works
Details of location of factories, with owners, periods of operation and photographs.

Pottery Advertisements

Pottery Company Letterheads

Pottery Trade Names

- take a 'walk' around a Victorian Pottery Company.

Wedgwood - 250 years of Wedgwood

Spode - 250 years of Spode

About the People

Background to potters such as Wedgwood, Spode, Whieldon, Mason.

Occupations in the Pottery Industry
Find out what your relatives did in the pottery factories

Scrivens 1840 report into child labour in the pottery industry.

Bottle Kilns

Nothing set the Potteries sky-line apart more than the weird bottle shaped brick buildings -in the heyday there were up to 4,000 bottle kilns with as many as 2,000 still standing in the 1950's. The Clean Air Act sounded the death-knell for the smoky, coal fired oven. There are 46 still standing today - most are listed buildings.

| How the Bottle Kiln works |

| The Sagger-maker and his bottom knocker |

| Photos of Kilns |

index of Brickworks and Tileries of the North Staffordshire Potteries district

- Stoke-on-Trent is well supplied with beds of heavy clay suitable for making bricks. These included Etruria marl and Old Mill marl, together with that associated with the coal seams:- Black Band , and the Middle and Lower Coal measures.