A Walk Through Pottery History
Our long distance walk this year was the 92 mile Staffordshire Way from Mow Cop in the North to Kinver Edge in the South. I was not expecting to write a pottery article but although I did not see a pot or visit a pottery I was constantly reminded of the history of the county as we walked through it.
The walls of Stoke station were tiled with murals of scenes from the old potteries.
Around the corner was an abandoned bottle kiln and the Pottery Museum.
On the bus to our starting point we passed through some of the famous 5 towns, Hanley, Burslam and Tunstall. The names were evocative but they now looked run down and sad. Some potteries still survive and we passed signs to Moorfcroft, Wedgwood, Royal Doulton, Spode and the Gladstone pottery museum.
We started walking at Mow Cop on the gritstone hills at the edge of the Peak District. The fine sand we were walking on was previously added to local clays to improve the strength and quality of the pots. However, this iron-stained sand was not ideal when the market demanded whiter wares.
In the valleys the footpaths were slippery with the bright red Eturia Marl clay which, with seams of excellent long-flame coal, was the reason why the pottery industry started in this area.
Our first night was spent at Hotel Rudyard on the edge of Rudyard Lake. Here, at the turn of the century, between 8,000 and 12,000 visitors would flock by train during Stoke Wakes (pottery holidays). The lake was built as a reservoir around 1797 to supply the canal system. The hotel used to be the water baliff's cottage.
Many miles of our footpath were along the banks of old canals, The Caldon Canal, the Trent and Mersey Canal and the Shropshire Union Canal. Staffordshire has no natural access to the coast. Before 1777 the delivery of raw materials was by wagon or packhorse trains on rough roads. The amazing network of canals built in the late 18th century allowed ease of carriage of white clay from Cornwall, salt from Cheshire, churt stone for grinding, flints from S.E.England and lead. They were also a safe way of transporting fragile pots out of the area. Many potteries were built alongside the canal. Wedgwood's factory at Etruria had opened in 1769 before the canal reached it in 1773 as he was an investor.
Other parts of the path were along disused railway lines which displaced many of the canals for transport only 150 years' later.
The track ran alongside old Consall Station which has been restored for tourists.
Names such as Coalpit Wood indicated their past history.
We passed many old mills. Water was the principal source of power until the developement of steam engines.
Along the banks of the canals were many old flint kilns. Flint was needed as an alternative source of silica from sand when the market demanded whiter wares. From about 1720 it was used with local white clays as a slip coating a red clay vessel. The flint first had to be calcinated in a kiln where it was layered with coal and heated to about 1100°C. It could then be ground down.
We visited Cheddleton Flint Mill as we walked along the Caldon canal. Restored in 2002, it was a fascinating place. A water mill was recorded there on the River Churnet in 1253 while in 1580 there were two mills; one for grinding corn and one for washing woollen cloth. The canal opened in 1778 to transport the mineral resources of the Churnet valley. By 1815 both mills were used for grinding flint for the potteries. From 1856 to 1903 it was owned by the earthenware manufacturer J&G Meakin, whose pottery was in Hanley. It was later used for grinding ceramic stains. The huge wet grinding pan was turning, driven by the restored waterwheel. It was made out of wood with arms that ran the calcined flint over hard churt stones. A washtub separated material still too coarse and the resulting slip was run off into a settling ark before being dried in a coal fired slip-drying kiln ready for transport. In a small museum were full explanations of the history of pottery on well illustrated wall charts.
We passed over Watling street on the Telford Viaduct carrying the Shropshire Union canal.
My souvenir was a cricket ball size of clay exposed by a horses' hoof print.
A memorable walk for a potter.