Middleport Pottery

Middleport Pottery was built in 1888 by Burgess & Leigh Ltd (founders William Leigh and Frederick Rathbone Burgess). It is located at Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent, England.

Middleport Pottery has been described as a "Model Pottery" of the Staffordshire Pottery Industry at the time of its construction. Its scale and linear organisation contrast with the constricted sites and haphazard layout of traditional potteries such as the Gladstone Pottery Museum. It was designed to make all production processes more efficient and to improve conditions for the workforce. The passageways between the ranges were just wide enough for a cart to get through, and for the easy movement of workers and pottery. Finished pottery was placed (using the crane next to the packing house) straight onto barges on the Trent and Mersey Canal waiting to take the ceramics out to the coast for international export. Alternatively they were sent out by horse and cart via the road.

The Boulton steam engine powered the machinery for mixing clay and continued to be in use until the coal strike of the 1970s. It was fed by a large boiler that also provided steam for heating and drying pottery.

Middleport Pottery had many pre-eminent designers over the years. Charlotte Rhead worked there from 1926-1931 producing her exquisite tube-lined designs, and David Copeland worked at the Pottery in the 60s, bringing new modern designs while still using traditional copper plate engraving skills.

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

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 Middleport Pottery was a building at risk.

In 2010 the Pottery was acquired by Denby Holdings Limited, the parent company of the well-known UK ceramics and consumer goods manufacturer Denby Pottery.

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