Monument record MDR7974 - Victoria Pottery (site of), Chapel Street, Woodville

A Brick Yard is shown on the 1st ed. 6" map of 1887. It is not clear whether the two circular structures, presumably kilns, were part of the same works. Early 20th century OS maps name the works as the Victoria Pottery. The brick yard is no longer named. (3-4). Now a residential area (5) A stone bottle works was built on this site in the mid 19th century and was still there in the 1870s. The buildings were then derelict for some years and were later rebuilt and enlarged by Aldridge, Smith & Co. with an Edward Roland Tunnicliff as a sleeping partner. By 1900 Tunnicliff had taken over and the works was known as the Victoria Pottery. This pottery produced the type of wares that suited the clay of the district. In 1906 they were advertising 'Domestic Bristol ware, fireproof and yellow ware and Rockingham goods', showing examples of tea and coffee pots, stew pots and hot water bottles. They also made the earthenware teapots which have become known as 'Barge ware'. The idea of a pottery art guild based at the works had been broached by 1908. The guild, with a staff of ten, worked separately from the other side of the Victoria Pottery and won a number of awards and medals at various international exhibitions. Pieces included vases, fruit and confectionery bowls, pot-pourri jars, biscuit caskets, tobacco pots, cake stands, ink wells, candlesticks, altar vases and fonts. The business prospered until the end of the First World War and continued afterwards for a time following a merger with Ault Potteries Ltd. However, the financial problems of the 1920s and 1930s proved too much for them. Nothing now remains of the works. (6)