• #Although the date of 1805 is sometimes given for a start date for this company - September 1805 was the date that Sampson's father, Samuel, died. Sampson was around 10 at the time. Entries in the Pottery Gazette Directory give 'estd. 1820' 

• From around 1795 to 1799, at the Market Street Works in Lane End, Samuel Bridgwood had been partnership with his brother-in-law, Richard Johnson as Johnson & Bridgwood, earthenware manufacturers. After 1799 Johnson & Bridgwood had separate businesses. 

• After Samuel's death in 1805 his widow Kitty Bridgwood (née Johnson) continued the business and in 1814 bought her brother's factory (Richard Johnson having been made bankrupt in 1810). 

• Around 1820 Sampson joined his mother in managing the two factories and the business became Kitty Bridgwood & Son.  

• In 1822 the Bridgwood/Johnson works had been sold and Sampson had been briefly jailed as an insolvent debtor.  

• Matters improved for Sampson and by 1829 he was referred to as 'an excellent manufacturer of porcelain'. By 1841 he had three factories producing china. In the 1851 census he was recorded as employing 155 workers (64 men, 42 women, 24 boys, 25 girls). 

• Sampson's son, Samuel, who had been involved in the business for a number of years a joined as a partner in Sampson Bridgwood & Son around 1852. At this time Sampson was 60 and his son Samuel was aged 32. 

• In 1853 the Bridgwoods set about building a new factory - the Anchor Works. Some manufacturing started at the new works in 1854 while production also continued at the Stafford Street Works. By 1860 all work was transfered to the Anchor Works which was now complete.

• In 1876 both Sampson and his son Samuel died. Sampson of old age (he was 84) and Samuel, a few months later, after a long illness. 

• The business was left to Sampson Bridgwood's daughters, Martha and Mary. From 1879 the business was continued by Mary Walker (née Bridgwood) who bought out her sisters share. Mary Walker's son, George Edward Walker, joined the business in 1880 and in 1882 became a full partner along with his mother. They continued to trade as S. Bridgwood & Son. 

• The business ran into financial difficulty and by 1887 production of china ware had stopped. In June 1890 the business was placed into receivership. The complete works was bought at auction by the potter John Aynsley.

• In addition to their existing bone china business, Aynsley continued the Bridgwood business producing earthenware and ironstone. The company was managed in turn by John Aynsley until his death in 1907, by his son John Gerrard Aynsley until his death in 1924 and then by his son Gerrard Aynsley. 

• In 1932 the business was incorporated as Sampson Bridgwater & Son Ltd. The directors were Gerrard Aynsley (managing director), Arthur R Swift, George Sherratt and Eric Powell.  Gerrard Aynsley retained ownership of the Anchor Works.

• Bridgwood remained open during the Second World War under the Wartime Concentration Scheme - they were permitted to produce undecorated domestic ware. They also produced canteen ware for the British armed forces. 

• In 1944 the company purchased the Anchor Works from Gerrard Aynsley. Gerrard was replaced as managing director by Arthur Swift and by 1948 Gerrard Aynsley had retired from any active management of the business.

• Both Arthur Swift and Gerrard Aynsley died in 1959. The 1960 Pottery Gazette Directory listed the managing director as N. N. Peck and assistant MD as C. V. Prince. As well as producing dinner and tea ware production was focused on catering ware for canteens, hospitals and hotels. 

• In 1965 the business was bought by James Broadhurst & Sons - it continued to trade as Sampson Bridgwater & Son Ltd until 1984. 

• In 1984 James Broadhurst & Sons Ltd was renamed Churchill Tableware Ltd and became the holding company for their various businesses. At the same time Sampson Bridgwater was renamed Churchill Hotelware Ltd. and became a subsidiary of Churchill Tableware Ltd. 

"It was here that the late Mr. Sampson Bridgwood made his first start, and after noble struggles against adversity laid the foundation of his ultimate splendid  success."

Anchor Pottery

Sampson Bridgwood & Son, who were extensive manufacturers, first carried on business in the Market Street Works, and next for many years at a manufactory in Stafford Street, originally occupied by G. Forrester, which was purchased by the Commissioners of Longton and pulled down for the erection of the market buildings. 

They then removed to the Anchor Pottery (in about 1853), where they produced both china and earthenware. In china, all the usual tea, breakfast, and dessert services were made - partly for the home, but principally for the United States and Canadian markets. 

In earthenware, white granite was made for the United States, Australian and Canadian trades. The speciality was what was technically called 'Parisian granite' (stamped 'Limoges'), which has a fine hard durable body and excellent glaze.

The nineteenth-century mark used on china was an impressed stamp of the name S. BRIDGWOOD & SON. The Parisian granite bears the impressed stamp, an oval with the word LIMOGES and, in the centre, P.G. (for Parisian granite). It also bears the printed mark of an elaborate shield of arms with mantling, sceptres, etc., and the words PORCELAIN OPAQUE,

Llewellynn Jewitt "The ceramic art of Great Britain from pre-historic times down to the present day...." 1878

the pattern is in the aesthetic style

c.1885 

c.1910+ 

Waring & Gillow on Wikipedia 

mark on the cup

Waring & Gillow
Oxford St
London

mark on the plate

a mug to commemorate the ending 
of the Great War of 1914-18
the armistice was signed on 11 November 1918 and
the Paris Peace Conference began on 18 January 1919

the flags of six key Allied powers are shown (left to right)
Belgium, Italy, United States, 
United Kingdom, France, Japan

In the centre is a dove of peace and the
victor's laurel wreath

... To Peace 

....they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaiah chapter 2 verse 4)

c.1960s

These cups and saucers have the marks of Broadhurst and of Bridgwood
 

1965 the Bridgwood business was bought by James Broadhurst & Sons  
- it continued to trade as Sampson Bridgwater & Son Ltd until 1984. 

mark on the cups 

Made in England
Sampson Bridgwood
Lifelong Ironstone

mark on the saucers

Ironstone China
S.B & S.

shield mark with a phoenix 
and a crown 

S B & S

belt mark with lion holding a pennant - 
this mark is used with and without 
"Don Pottery"

mark incorprating the Royal Arms

1885-1891

1885-1891

1891 +

1910+

1910+

'DAWLISH' is the pattern namek 

1912-32

'Ltd' added from 1933 onward

1950 +

The mark shown indicates that the ware was produced for and supplied to the British Government; it was ultimately property of the Crown/Government, hence the GR-VI Cypher.

This mark is there to distinguish the piece from being normal ‘utilitarian’ ware for public sale during the period surrounding the Second World War. 

Bridgwood (and others) were given government contracts throughout the late 1930s and into the 1940s (WWII) and produced canteen ware - most likely for the armed services.

The year of manufacturer is generally included.

1965-84

c. late 1970s - 1984

Llewellynn Jewitt "The ceramic art of Great Britain from pre-historic times down to the present day...." 1878