NEWCASTLE. 
S02 
This monaftery, having fallen to decay, was reftored by- 
Randal, fecond earl of Chefter, in the reign of Henry I. 
and filled with canons of the order of St. Auguftine. Af¬ 
ter its renewal it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and 
All Saints; and at the period of the diffolution had feven 
religious inmates, and poflefled endowments to the amount 
of 121I. 3s. 2d. per annum. 
As the Grand-Trunk Canal, which direCtly conneCts 
the navigation of the Trent, the Merfey, the Severn, and 
the Thames, with, collaterally, almoft every trading-town 
in the interior, pafies clofe toNewcaftle, its pofition mutt 
be regarded as extremely favourable to trade and manu- 
fa&ures. Its vicinity, moreover, abounds with'coal; and 
contains an exhauftlefs ftore of feveral kinds of clay, ad¬ 
mirably adapted for the manufacture of various forts of 
earthenware ; and, accordingly, here are fituated the moll 
extenfive and valuable Potteries in Great Britain. The 
diftriCt comprehended under this title is fomewhat above 
eight miles in length, and nearly as many in breadth, in¬ 
cluding within its compafs feveral thriving market-towns 
and villages, which entirely owe their rife and profperity 
to this branch of induftry; and is perhaps the moft po¬ 
pulous and bufy of any diftriCt of fimilar extent in Great 
Britain. The foil prefents, in almoft every part, a great 
variety of clays ; covering rich and productive ftrata of 
coal, which, lying in general near the furface, are wrought 
at a comparatively fmall expenfe. Thefeftrata are ufually 
divided by veins of clays, moft of which form excellent 
fire-bricks for conftruCting potters’ kilns and fagars, to 
burn the ware in. Finer clays alfo are plentiful in many 
places ; of which in former times the bodies of the wares 
themfelves were wholly manufactured. To thefe advan¬ 
tages, joined to the inaptitude of the foil for hufbandry- 
purpofes, this diftriCt is doubtlefs indebted for its felec- 
tion as the fite of its prefent ftaple manufactories. When 
this originally occurred is utterly unknown ; but the ex- 
iftence of fome kind of earthen-ware manufactory can be 
traced at leaft two centuries back. Its principal feat at 
that period was the town of Burflem, which was called a 
butter-pottery ; that is, a manufactory of pots for the pre- 
fervation of butter; and under that name it is marked in 
feveral old maps; but this eftablilhment feems to have 
been, even fo late as the year 1686, very inconfiderable, 
as Dr. Plot, in his Natural Hiftory of the county, fays, 
that the tale of its products was chiefly “ to the poor 
crate-men, who carried them at their backs over all the 
country.” All the ware was then of a coarle yellow, or 
red, black, and mottled. The common glaze was pro¬ 
duced by lead-ore finely powdered, and fprinkled upon 
the pieces of ware before firing; fometimes with the ad¬ 
dition of manganefe. Occafionally, when the potter 
wifhed “ to fliow the titmoft of his flcill,” he employed in- 
ftead of lead ore, calcined lead itfelf, but ftill fprinkled it 
on in the fame rude manner. 
The era of improvement commenced about the year 
1690, when two ingenious Dutchmen of the name of Elers 
fettled here, and introduced the practice of adding com¬ 
mon fait to the clay when at its higheft heat, in order to 
give it a fuperficial vitrification. The fame individuals 
alfo introduced the manufacture of a new fpecies of ware, 
in imitation of the unglazed red china of the Eaft; and, 
the clays here being fuitable for the purpofe, they fuc- 
ceeded wonderfully for a firlt attempt, fo that many of 
their tea-pots are faid to have fold as high as a guinea each. 
The next improvement was made in the fubftance of the 
ware itfelf by a Mr. Aftbury, as tradition aflerts, through 
this incident: Being on his way to London, he happened 
to have powered flint recommended to him to cure fome 
diforder in his horfe’s eyes, and accordingly a flint-ftone 
was thrown into the fire, to render it more eafily pulver- 
able, which changing to a pure white by the influence of 
the heat, the potter was ftruck with the idea that his ware 
might be improved by an addition of the fame material to 
the whiteft clays. He tried the experiment with tobacco- 
pipe clay, and the event proved fully anfwerable to his 
expectation. Thus originated the white ftone wares, 
which foon fupplanted the coloured ones, and continued 
for many years the ftaple branch of pottery in this country. 
It was, however, about the year 1760, that the moft 
important improvements began to be made in the Staf- 
fordfhire potteries, by the late Jofias Wedgewood, efq. 
This gentleman not only improved the compofition, 
forms, and colours, of the old wares; but likewife invented, 
in 1763, a new fpecies of ware, for which he obtained a 
patent, and which, being honoured by her late majefty’s 
approbation and patronage, received the name of queen's 
ware. Continuing his experimental refearches, Mr. 
Wedgewood afterwards invented feveral other fpecies of 
earthenware and porcelain, of which the principal are : 
1. A terra cotta; ref'embling porphyry, granite, Egyptian 
pebble, and other beautiful ftones of the filiceous or crys¬ 
talline order. 2. Bafaltes, or black ware ; a black porce¬ 
lain bifcuitof nearly the fame properties with the natural 
ftone,receivingabigh polifh, refilling all the acids, and bear¬ 
ing without injury a very ftrong fire. 3. White porcelain 
bifcuit ; of a fmooth wax-like appearance, of fimilar pro¬ 
perties with the preceding. 4. Jafper ; a white porcelain 
of exquifite beauty, poifefling the general properties of 
bafaltes ; together with the Angular one of receiving 
through its whole fubftance, from the admixture of me¬ 
tallic calces, the fame colours which thofe calces give to 
glafs or enamels in fufion; a property poffeffed by no por¬ 
celain of ancient or modern compofition. 5. Bamboo, or 
cane-coloured bifcuit porcelain, of the fame nature as the 
white porcelain bifcuit. And 6. A porcelain bifcuit re¬ 
markable for great hardnefs, little inferior to that of 
agate; a property which, together with its refiltance to 
the ftrongeft acids, and its impenetrability to every known 
liquid, renders it well adapted for the formation of mor¬ 
tars, and many different kinds of chemical veffels. For 
fome further account of this gentleman’s difcoveries; fee 
the article Wedgewood. 
The above fix diftinCl fpecies of ware, together with 
the queen’s ware firlt noticed, have increafed, by the in¬ 
duftry and ingenuity of different manufacturers, and par¬ 
ticularly by Mr. Wedgewood and his fon, into an almoft 
endlefs variety of forms for ornament and ufe. Thefe, 
varioufly painted and embellifhed, conllitute nearly the 
whole of the prefent fine earthen-wares and porcelains of 
Englifh manufacture. 
The number of perfons who derive their fupport from 
the manufacturing part of the pottery-bufinef's alone, in¬ 
cluding the wives and children of thofe employed in it, is 
computed to exceed 25,00a perfons; and probably three 
times that number depend for bread on the labour itcreates, 
particularly in the collieries, in procuring the raw mate¬ 
rial from feveral diftant parts of the kingdom, and in the 
inland navigation connected with the lame, and of the 
manufactured produCl. The principal towns and hamlets 
comprifed within the limits of The Pottery, are Stoke, 
Hanley, Shelton, Golden-Hill, New-Field, Smith-Field, 
Tunftall, Long-Port, Burflem, Cobridge, Etruria (the 
feat of the Wedgewoods), Lane-End, Lower-Lane, and 
Lane-Delft. Beauties of England and Wales. Oldfield's Re- 
prefentative Hijl. 1816. and Wilkes's Britjjh Directory; to 
which laft work we refer for a defcription of the Pottery 
Towns, and their principal inhabitants. 
INDEX 
