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The Middlesbrough Pottery

Before Middlesbrough became a steel-making powerhouse, it was a small town with ambitious businesses taking their first steps. The Middlesbrough Pottery was one of them.

A Middlesbrough Pottery food dish. Image courtesy of Kirkleatham Museum and Grounds.

It was 1834 and the town of Middlesbrough as we know it today was only 5 years old, its population only 2,000. It had originally been a small farm and purchased by Joseph Pease, whose father Edward Pease had been one of the innovative minds behind the Stockton and Darlington Railway (SNDR). The railway line had since been extended to the new town and Middlesbrough quickly began to grow.

It was the secretary of the SNDR, Richard Otley, who founded the Middlesbrough Pottery. He had been inspired by other pottery companies in the North East, and Middlesbrough was in the perfect position for a pottery company – clay for making pots could be sourced locally and other materials could be brought by boat or train. As it happened the company was situated next to the River Tees, with its own wharf where not only materials were delivered but finished ceramics were exported. The Pottery’s first overseas order was to Gibraltar in September 1835.

The area circled in blue is where the Middlesbrough Pottery was based. The pottery wharf on the banks of the River Tees can be seen at the top of this picture, and the railway station at the bottom. Today the area is home to Middlesbrough College. Image courtesy of Kirkleatham Museum and Grounds.

The Middlesbrough Pottery made jugs, basins, dinner ware and other domestic ceramics like plates, dishes and cups in glazed enamel and in a range of colours including blue, red, green and black. The wares also bore the maker’s mark of an anchor with ‘MIDDLESBROUGH POTTERY’ above it in a horse-shoe shape.

'Our Early Days' nursery plate

Nursery plates were made to be small and to be used by children. They often featured children playing, animals, and bright colours like this one. They could be educational and also feature the alphabet and nursery rhymes.

Image courtesy of Middlesbrough Museums Service.

'The Bottle' nursery plate

Nursery plates could also feature cautionary tales, such as this one, which was the first in a series telling a dark tale of how a family became destitute after drinking alcohol. This was most likely made in response to the temperance movement, which promoted abstinence from alcohol.

Image courtesy of Middlesbrough Museums Service.

Covered food dish

Image courtesy of Kirkleatham Museum and Grounds.

Lion in detail

Image courtesy of Kirkleatham Museum and Grounds.

Inside of dish

Image courtesy of Kirkleatham Museum and Grounds.

Maker's mark

Image courtesy of Kirkleatham Museum and Grounds.

Blue and white transfer floral design plate

Image courtesy of Middlesbrough Museums Service.

Serving plate in the 'Convolvolus' design.

The ‘Convolvolus’ design was one of the Middlesbrough Pottery’s most popular designs. Whereas other plates would have had images transferred onto them, this design would have been hand-painted.

Image courtesy of Middlesbrough Museums Service.

In 1840 another man who was involved in the running of the SNDR joined the Middlesbrough Pottery, Isaac Wilson. He became Director of the pottery in 1852, renaming it to Isaac Wilson & Company. These years were the company’s most successful as they exported about 250,000 pieces of pottery in one year alone.

Following this success the Pottery looked to expand their trade in the continent by opening a warehouse in Hamburg. For a time trade consisted of the Middlesbrough based pottery making wares with German scenes to be sold in Germany, and the Hamburg pottery making ceramics bearing scenes of Middlesbrough, Stockton and the wider Teesside area and exporting them to England. Not long after this trade began to suffer when a tariff on English products exported to Germany was imposed. This tariff did not apply to German wares sent to England however.

'Rhine' plate

This plate may have been one of the ceramics made for the German market as the Rhine River passes through Germany to the North Sea. The location of the design cannot be determined.

Image courtesy of Kirkleatham Museum and Grounds.

Detail of 'Rhine' plate

Image courtesy of Kirkleatham Museum and Grounds.

Nursery plate with gentleman reading

Image courtesy of Middlesbrough Museums Service.

Nursery plate with woman, son and dog

Image courtesy of Middlesbrough Museums Service.

'Wild Rose' plate

The ‘Wild Rose’ design was another of the Middlesbrough Pottery’s most popular designs. It portrayed an idyllic scene, originally thought to be of a Staffordshire canal, but was later revealed to be a view of Nuneham Courtenay outside Oxford.

Image courtesy of Middlesbrough Museums Service.

'Wild Rose' serving dish

The building on the left of the design was Nuneham Park House, and the bridge and thatched cottage resemble part of a riverside walk that Capability Brown planned when he landscaped the grounds in the early 1780s.

Image courtesy of Middlesbrough Museums Service.

'Caledonia' design plate

Image courtesy of Middlesbrough Museums Service.

By the 1870s the Pottery had begun to decline. Middlesbrough was fast becoming a centre of industry and the workforce for the Pottery was shrinking. There was also added competition with the emergence of the Linthorpe Art Pottery, whose style was more different and modern. The Middlesbrough Pottery managed to keep going until 1887 when the Company closed.

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