ii The Wedgwood Family 1 1 



century Burslem was a poor struggling little village 

 of thatched houses. When the Kev. Mr. Middleton, 

 incumbent of Stone, was enforcing upon his hearers the 

 duty of humility, he said they might be compared to 

 so many sparrows, as all of them had been hatched 

 under the thatch. The Big House, with the adjacent 

 earthenware manufactory, erected by Thomas and 

 John Wedgwood in 1750, was the only building in 

 Burslem covered with slates. 



Hanley, Shelton, Lane, and Stoke were of still less 

 importance than Burslem. Longport did not exist until 

 the construction of the Trent and Mersey Canal. The 

 original potters scattered themselves over the districts 

 in which clay, wood, and coal were found. The primi- 

 tive pottery works were widely spread over an area of 

 some ten miles in extent. 



The houses in which the families of the workers 

 lived were only thatched hovels, sometimes covered 

 with mud. The midden was a conspicuous object before 

 every door. In many places there were mounds of 

 ashes and shard-rucks, consisting of broken pots and 

 spoilt earthenware. Beside them were the hollows 

 from which the potters had dug their clay. These 

 were usually filled with stagnant water. Everything 

 was coarse, rude, and unwholesome. 



Yet alehouses abounded, for the people were greatly 

 given to drink. As an excuse, it may be said that the 

 earthenware was usually sold in the public -houses. 

 The potters had their sports too miserable remnants 



