Industry

The Potteries is a district in North Staffordshire synonymous with its primary industry.  The factories with their bottle ovens, mills, and kilns, create a distinctive skyline which, in the 19th century, would have often been obscured by  smoke rising from the pottery firings.

Canals flowed through the towns hauling raw materials to the factories and carrying  finished goods to the port of Liverpool. In rows of terraced houses, the workers lived nearby their factory, where they labored for 12 hours a day six days a week.  

In this industrious, and sometimes noxious environment, millions of pieces of blue printed pottery were produced and were exported throughout the world.

To learn more about the industry see our companion exhibit  www.Spodeceramics.org
or pick and click on the topics below

   The Potteries
   The workers
   The printing process