How this story came about

When the Black Country Memories Club was arranging its "Made in Bilston" exhibition, Philippa Tinsley of the Wolverhampton Art Gallery kindly scoured their store rooms for Bilston artefacts and let us have a list of them.  The list included ceramics by Bew and Myatt.  Apart from the brief reference in Lawley, we knew nothing about these potteries.  So, in due course, I researched local trade directories and some other sources and put an account of Bilston and Bradley Potteries on this site, together with photos of the then known examples, including one acquired by Reg Aston.  In due course Barbara Bibb made contact and gave us a photo of another example she had just acquired.  Then, at the Bilston Craft Gallery, Andrew Alvarez and Francesca Cambridge started work on a new permanent exhibition, "Craftsense".  Francesca identified many further examples of Myatt wares in the city council's collection at the Art Gallery and at Bantock House.  

Frank Sharman was then contacted by Ivor Noel Hume, OBE.  He is a retired historical archaeologist, who worked for the City of London at the Guildhall Museum and became the Director of Archaeology at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.  He continues as a ceramics expert, specialising in stoneware and earthenware.  One of his many books is If These Pots Could Talk: 2000 Years of British Household Pottery, published by the University Press of New England in 2001 and it is available here in the UK.  Noel had acquired a large Bilston-Bradley jug and, whilst the email correspondence was going on, acquired another huge one.  He has carried out the most remarkable and detailed research on these, and some similar ones, and the results of this work will appear in 2005 in Ceramics in America.  He has kindly provided us with photos and permitted us to refer to his findings here and now.  I have made the briefest summary here: much more detail and argument will appear in Ceramics in America.

At the opening of the Craftsense exhibition we were put in touch with the Mary Weaver collection - which immediately more than doubled the number of known examples of Myatt pottery!

I have pleasure in acknowledging the assistance of all those named here.

Introduction:  the initial information

Staffordshire pottery is world famous but it is normally associated with the products of the Stoke on Trent area.  But in the days when Bilston and Bradley were still in the county of Stafford, pottery was made there too and at least some of it appears to have been of a very high order.

It is likely that, as was originally the case with the Potteries, local clays were used.  In the Bilston area of southern Staffordshire there were many clays.  The fireclay, so essential to the metal producing and metal working industries of the area, was in abundant supply.  So was brick making clay.  But there seem to have been finer clays too, which probably include those exploited by Wards of Darlaston for their garden pots.  Wards first factory was in Bilston, in what was then called Goose Throttle Lane.  What seems to be the pit from which they dug their clay remains as a pool in The Lunt. It may have been this sort of local clay that was used by the various Bilston potters for their earthenware.

Nothing much seems to be known about these potters. Geoffrey A. Godden's "Encyclopaedia of British Pottery and Porcelain Marks", Barrie and Jenkins, 1964, is the only book I have found which makes any reference at all and that to only one pottery.  The entry (at p. 456) reads:

Myatt Pottery Co., Bilston, Staffordshire, 19^th century. Earthenwares.  Impressed trade mark registered in 1880, with a note that this mark had been used by the applicants and predecessors for 30 years before 1875.  Continued to c.1894.

Advertisements of this firm list “Rockingham, green and yellow ware, Bristol Stoneware, Flower Vases, Plaques in Terra-cotta, Ornamented glazed wares”.

Godden then adds what amount to words of warning for anyone trying to find out more about these potters.  "A similar mark was used by Joseph (?) Myatt, Lane Delp and Fenton.  Staffordshire Potteries.  Late 18^th to early 19^th century.  Earthenware, Wedgwood-type Wares".  Godden also notes "Myatt  Impressed mark [without the enclosing rectangle] late 18^th to early 19^th century.  Many potters of this name were working in the Potteries from c.1790 into the 19^th century.  It is difficult to state with certainty which used this mark, or to fix the period to narrow limits." 

To this I would add another, and more basic, warning:  Myatt must not be confused with Myott, a very prolific, modern, pottery from Stoke on Trent.  And it might also be noted that Bilston pottery must not be confused with Bilton pottery, Bilton being a manufacturer in Stoke. 

In his History of Bilston (published in 1893) G. T. Lawley has a short passage (at.p.261) in which he deals with "The Pottery Trade".  He says:

"At Mount Pleasant a large Pottery was established a few years ago, where all kinds of Pottery and Art Ware are manufactured.  The business which is carried on under the name of the Myatt Pottery Co, was originally located at Bradley in the township, where it was for more than half a century in the hands of the Myatt family.  On its removal to Bilston a superior class of articles was manufactured and now some very beautiful art works can be obtained, worthy of being placed in the drawing room or boudoir.  Messrs. G. B. & D. Thorneycroft are now the proprietors.

"The Bradley pottery is one of the oldest in the district, having been erected more than a century ago by Wilkinson, the great ironmaster, and has been carried on in succession by Jackson, Myatt & Wild, Myatt, Bew, and at the present time by Messrs A. Turner & Sons, who make a large variety of Salt Glazed Stone Ware for chemical and domestic use, Bristol Glazed Bottles, Jars, Rockingham Tea Pots, Yellow Ware, Garden Pots, Porous Cells, &c.."

Lawley is usually a reliable historian, is known to have access to all the local trade directories, and is writing almost contemporaneously of the events he mentions here.  But he is known to have relied on hearsay or oral tradition and does not often cite his sources.  His account seems to suggest that there was only ever one pottery in Bradley.  

The 1902 Ordnance Survey map for the Bilston area marks three sites as being potteries.  

To the right, facing Mount Pleasant is "Bilston Pottery".   To the left, facing what is now Prouds Lane, is a site simply marked "Pottery".

This section of the map shows "Bradley Pottery".  This is the only pottery shown in Bradley. Note that it is not on a canal and not at Pothouse Bridge.

The 1902 map for Willenhall also shows a pottery about a mile north of Bilston town centre.  It lies on the splendidly named Throttle Goose Lane, now prosaically re-named Darlaston Lane.  Reg Aston tells me that this was the original works of Wards of Darlaston, who made garden pots and the like and moved from this site into Darlaston soon after this map was made.  It is doubtful if this pottery could be any of those referred to as Bilston potteries in the trade directories but it is evidence of a potting tradition and, probably, of local supplies of suitable clay.

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