Ford & Sons

Earthenware manufacturer at the Lower Manufactory, Newcastle Street, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England

Thomas Ford had been involved as a pottery manufacturer with a number of partners since at least 1868, (some records give 1865). In 1893 the business of Ford & Riley closed and became Ford & Sons.
The '& Sons' were Thomas Isaac and Sampson Hancock Ford.
In January 1902 Thomas Ford retired and the business was continued by his two sons - the name 'Ford & Sons' was retained.
The business was incorporated as Ford & Sons Ltd in 1908. Notice in the June 1908 Pottery Gazette - "Ford & Sons Ltd - Registered capital, £15,000 in £1 shares. Objects, to take over the business of earthenware manufacturers carried on by T. I. Ford and S. H. Ford, at the Lower Manufactory, Newcastle- st., Burslem, as "Ford & Sons.” The subscribers are Mr. T. I. Ford, Mrs. S. L. Ford, Mrs. M. A. Ford, Messrs. S. H. Ford, J. Robinson, A. J. Copey, and F. W. Hodgkinson."
Notice in the January 1913 Pottery Gazette sumarises the will of S. H. Ford... "Mr. Sampson Hancock Ford, of Blackwood, Horton, Staffs., left estate valued at £13,248 13s. 1d., with net personalty £9,534 13s. 4d. Testator left £500 upon trust for life to his brother-in-law, John Edward Meir, then to his wife Betsy M. Meir, for life, with remainder to the United Methodist Church, called Mount Tabor, at Tunstall ; £500 upon trust for life to his sister-in-law, Sarah Jane Walters, with remainder to his niece, Dorothy Hodgkinson ; 250 shares in Ford & Sons, Ltd., Burslem, to his works manager, Joseph Robinson, in the hope that he will continue to be works manager."
The business was purchased in 1938 by Oswald Shufflebottom. He renamed the business Ford & Sons (Crownford) Ltd.

NOTE: Crownford was a trade name introduced by Ford & Sons and continued by Ford & Sons (Crownford) Ltd
there was a later company called Crownford China Co. Ltd. who neither of the Ford companies had any connection with.

F & Sons
B
England

this Trade Mark with the bee symbol
was used by the predecessor Ford & Riley

F & Sons
Burslem

F & Sons
B

these marks were used from the 1930's by Ford & Sons
it was continued by Ford & Sons (Crownford) Ltd from c.1938

Vase with the mark of F & Sons Ltd of Burslem - however it is possibly a 'pass off' - produced by someone else to appear as having been made by Ford & Sons.

Ford and Sons used the trade name 'Crownford' - and were not recorded as using 'Cranford', also the lettering underneath the crown is not properly alligned

F & Sons Ltd
Cranford Ware
Burslem
England

from:
1907 Staffordshire Sentinel
'Business Reference Guide to The Potteries, Newcastle & District'