A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



POTTERIES 



The manufacture of white earthenware was 

 introduced into the county of Durham between 

 1730 and I74O. 1 The pottery was begun by 

 Mr. Warburton at Carr's Hill near Gateshead ; 

 some of the original buildings still remain in a 

 dilapidated condition, and a small brown-ware 

 pottery is still carried on there. The initial stage 

 once passed, the development was rapid, and soon 

 four potteries were at work on Gateshead Fell. 2 

 White clay, a prime necessity in the production 

 of fine pottery, was cheap and abundant, as it 

 was brought by the Devonshire and Cornish 

 vessels fetching coal from the Tyne as ballast. 

 The Newbottle Pottery was started as early as 

 1755, and, in spite of its isolated position, managed 

 in the hands of the Scotts, Fairbairns, and B rod- 

 ricks to do a considerable trade for the first six 

 decades of the nineteenth century. 



The trade, however, concentrated itself chiefly 

 on the banks of the Wear, and early in the nine- 

 teenth century in one year the export numbered 

 292,042 pieces. This export trade was princi- 

 pally with North-East Europe. 



Norway took 



Denmark 



Prussia 



Germany 



Holland 



Guernsey 



Jersey 



British Northern Colonies 



16,000 pieces 



5.95 

 47,000 



4.30 

 145,092 



I4.550 

 15,800 



43,350 



292,042 



The favourite purchase of the many sailors 

 who frequented the port of Sunderland was a set 

 of Sunderland jugs or a gaily painted glass rolling- 

 pin. 



The principal firms were Antony Scott, 

 founded in 1788 at Southwick ; a rice dish with 

 the mark AS and date in a circle is in the 

 Sunderland Museum, and also a curious smoker's 

 companion, a pagoda-like erection consisting of 

 spittoons, ash-dish, candlestick, and extinguisher 

 fitting into each other. The firm celebrated 

 their centenary in 1888, but stopped working, 

 and the works were dismantled and sold in 1896. 

 Their best-known pattern was views of Haddon 

 Hall, Derbyshire ; at one time the Haddon Hall 

 pattern rivalled the Willow pattern in the North 

 of England in popularity. 



The Wear Pottery at Southwick was founded 

 by Brunton in 1789, but taken over by Samuel 



1 Jewitt, Ceramic Art of Gt. Brit. 

 1 J. Bailey, Gen. View of the Agric. ofDur. 

 3 T. Potts, Hist, of the Town, Port, Trade, and Com. 

 of SunJeHand, 165. 



Moore in 1803 ; it did an extensive continental 

 trade at one time, but falling into the hands of 

 inexperienced managers the trade decreased and 

 it was dismantled. The excellent specimen of 

 what is known as Sunderland pottery, probably 

 made about 1820, in the British Museum, is 

 stamped Moore & Co. The plate has in the 

 centre the favourite design of a steamship, trans- 

 fer printed ; the sea is washed with colour, the 

 sides and rim decorated with pink lustre, the rim 

 moulded with a shell and scroll design. The 

 firm got their supply of flint from near Beamish, 

 where they leased the Poctrerley Flint Mill ; * 

 there was another flint mill neat Whitehill, and 

 a third near Fencehouses ; all these were kept 

 employed supplying the Wearside Potteries. 



It was, however, at Hylton that two of the best- 

 known potteries were situated ; the earliest was 

 founded at North Hylton in 1762 by John 

 Maling, whose great-grandchildren now carry on 

 the largest pottery in the North of England at 

 Newcastle, to which place the works were re- 

 moved in 1817.' 



But the finest buildings and the best-conducted 

 pottery on Wearside was that of John Dawson 

 at the Low Ford Pottery, South Hylton ; 6 

 unfortunately the works have been dismantled, 

 but an interesting document was discovered when 

 the flint mill chimney was taken down in 1896 : 



John Dawson, Esq. 

 Hylton Lowford Pottery 

 Charles Frederick Dawson 



William Dawson 

 William Trotter Agent 



[A list of the workmen employed in building 

 the chimney follows.] 



This building was erected A.D. 1840 by J no - Daw- 

 son for the express purpose of grinding Flint. Colour. 

 Engineer, R. Hawthorne, Esq., Newcastle-on- 



Tyne. 



Engine, 27^ Horse Power. 

 Mr. J- Dawson aged 80. C. F. Dawson aged 

 [no age given]. W. Dawson aged 15. 

 Nachdem 



Charles F. & William Dawson ihre Erziehung 

 in Deutschland bekommen hatten kam der erste in 

 seinem l6ten & der letzte in seinem 15 ten Jahre 

 nach England zurtlck um in dem Frabrika ihres 

 Gross-vaters das Steinzeug Geschaft fortzusetzen 

 unter dem Aufsichte ihrer Vormunde der Herrn 



4 Beamish Estate Office ; ' Messrs. Smith, Moore 

 & Co. held Poctrerley Flint Mill on a 1 4 years lease 

 from April 5, 182710 1841 ; then SamuelMoore & Co. 

 took another 14 years lease from April 5, 1841.' 



8 White and Parson, op. cit. i, 55. 



6 Ibid, ii, 263. 



3 I2 



