Burleigh Pottery (also known as Burgess & Leigh) is the name of a

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...

manufacturer in Middleport,

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

. The business specialises in traditionally shaped and patterned domestic

earthenware Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids by coating it with a ce ...

of high quality. The pottery occupies nineteenth-century grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

s known as the

Middleport Pottery Middleport Pottery was built in 1888 by Burgess & Leigh Ltd (founders William Leigh and Frederick Rathbone Burgess). It is located at Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent, England. The buildings, which still house an active pottery, are protected for t ...

. The site, which is next to the

Trent and Mersey Canal The Trent and Mersey Canal is a canal in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire in north-central England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities to the east of Burton upon Trent and north of Middle ...

, has a visitor centre and a factory shop as well as production facilities.

History

The business was established in 1851 at the Central Pottery in

Burslem Burslem ( ) is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is often referred to as the "mother town" of Stoke on Trent. T ...

as Hulme and Booth. The pottery was taken over in 1862 by William Leigh and Frederick Rathbone Burgess, and traded from that date as Burgess & Leigh. The trademark "Burleigh", used from the 1930s, is a combination of the two names. Burgess and Leigh moved to different works, first in 1868 to the Hill Pottery in Burslem and then in 1889 to the present factory at Middleport, regarded at the time of its construction as a model pottery. Its scale and linear organisation contrast with the constricted sites and haphazard layout of traditional potteries such as the

Gladstone Pottery Museum The Gladstone Pottery Museum is a working museum of a medium-sized coal-fired pottery, typical of those once common in the North Staffordshire area of England from the time of the industrial revolution in the 18th century to the mid 20th centu ...

. In 1887

Davenport Pottery Davenport Pottery was an English earthenware and porcelain manufacturer based in Longport, Staffordshire. It was in business, owned and run by the Davenport family, between 1794 and 1887, making mostly tablewares in the main types of Stafford ...

was acquired. It was of interest in part for its moulds. Burleigh retains an outstanding collection of historic moulds which are used today in the production of Burleighware. Leigh and Burgess died in 1889 and 1895 respectively, and were succeeded by their sons, Edmund Leigh and Richard Burgess. On Richard's death in 1912, the business passed entirely into the ownership of the Leigh family. In 1919 it became private

limited company In a limited company, the liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by Share (finance), shares or by guarantee. In a company limited by ...

, Burgess & Leigh Limited. The years between the wars are often regarded as the company's "golden age", with a number of extremely talented designers and artists such as Harold Bennett, Charles Wilkes and Ernest Baily. Perhaps the best known was

Charlotte Rhead Charlotte Rhead (19 October 1885 in Burslem – 6 November 1947) was an English ceramics designer active in the 1920s and the 1930s in the Potteries area of Staffordshire. Charlotte Rhead was born into an artistic family. Her father Fred ...

, who worked here between 1926 and 1931, noted particularly for her work in

tubelining Tubelining is a technique of ceramic decoration. It involves squeezing a thin line of clay body through a nozzle onto the ware being decorated. An alternative term is "slip trailing". The skill takes time to acquire and it is associated with art ...

. By 1939, the factory was employing over 500 people. The business took great pains, from as early as 1897, to build up a thriving export network, concentrating primarily on the

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

(later

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

) and American markets, but focussing later also on Europe. After a run of financial difficulty, the company was sold in 1999 to the Dorling family, Rosemary and William Dorling, and traded as Burgess Dorling & Leigh. In 2010 it was acquired by Denby Holdings Ltd, the parent company of the

Denby Pottery Denby Pottery Company Ltd is a British manufacturer of pottery, named after the village of Denby in Derbyshire where it is based. It primarily sells hand-crafted stoneware tableware, kitchenware and serveware products including dinner sets, mugs ...

Conservation status of the Middleport Pottery and current use of the buildings

The Middleport Pottery was listed in the 1970s. By this time six of the seven

bottle oven A bottle oven or bottle kiln is a type of kiln. The word 'bottle' refers to the shape of the structure and not to the kiln's products, which are usually pottery, not glass. Bottle kilns were typical of the industrial landscape of Stoke-on-Trent ...

s on the site had been demolished. The surviving bottle oven was given its own listing. In 1988 the course of the Trent and Mersey Canal through Stoke-on-Trent was designated a linear

Conservation Area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

Decline

English Heritage put the canal Conservation Area on the "Conservation Areas at Risk" Register in 2010, in large part because of urban decay caused by the decline of traditional industries. A 2011 review of the Conservation Area noted that the Middleport Pottery was a building at risk.

Restoration

The Prince's Regeneration Trust The Prince's Foundation (formerly the Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture until 2001, the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment until 2012, and the Prince's Foundation for Building Community until 2018) is an educational charity est ...

offered to renovate the buildings, allowing their continued use as a working pottery. The project involved a sale and lease-back deal via the United Kingdom Historic Building Preservation Trust (UKHBPT). In 2014 Prince Charles visited the pottery to open a visitor centre. Burleigh continues to manufacture earthenware pottery in a very traditional way, preserving skills, including underglaze

transfer printing Transfer printing is a method of decorating pottery or other materials using an engraved copper or steel plate from which a monochrome print on paper is taken which is then transferred by pressing onto the ceramic piece. Fleming, John & Hugh H ...

, a now very rare form of decoration. Each item of Burleigh ware is made from start to finish at the Middleport pottery and passes through at least 25 pairs of hands.

References

Bibliography

* * Mckeown, Julie, 2003. "Burleigh: The Story of a Pottery". Richard Dennis.

External links

Burleigh Pottery websiteThe Denby Family
{{Stoke-on-Trent Ceramics manufacturers of England Companies based in Stoke-on-Trent Companies established in 1851 Grade II* listed buildings in Staffordshire Staffordshire pottery Privately held companies of the United Kingdom 1851 establishments in England