Monument record MDR7984 - Pottery works (site of), High Street, Woodville

Buildings depicted on OS map of 1887, function not specified, but the same as that shown in source 3. Unclear if pottery works in operation at this time (1-2). (SK 3169 1905) Pottery named on maps of the 1920s (3-4). Building (not named) and open ground in 1977 (5). In 1994, no obvious remains of works (6) This pottery was sometimes called 'Hartshorne Potteries' but should not be confused with the better-known Hartshorne Potteries of the Thompson family. It stood on the north-west side of Blacksmith's Lane at Woodville, fronting the High Street, and passed down the same family from the time it was built in c. 1818 until the end of the Second World War. The buildings were demolished around 1948 having latterly been in the occupation of Nadin, Parker & Co. The title deeds show that the pottery site was originally part of a field called Near Gorsty Close belonging to Francis Allen of Butt House Farm. Allen sold all or part of the close to a victualler who in turn sold to three potters, complete with a potworks recently erected on part of the land. The potters were Thomas and George Hallam of the Woulds Pottery on Ashby Woulds and Robert Robinson of the Round Woulds in Church Gresley. In 1823 Robinson released his share in the pottery to the other two partners, after which it remained in the Hallam family until 1945. It was purchased by Thomas Pickering who demolished it and sold the site to a firm of coachbuilders for use as a coachbuilding works. Most of the site was acquired for redevelopment in 1961 with a further purchase in 1967. (7)