Earthenware manufacturer at the Bournes Bank, Albion and Hadderidge Potteries, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England.

• William Robinson Midwinter spent 14 years working at the Doulton factory in Nile Street, Burslem.

• In 1910 he started his own company in a small works in Bournes Bank.  

• c.1914 (1918?)  he acquired the Albion Pottery (Navigation Road, Burslem) and in the 1920's the Hadderidge Pottery. 

• William Robinson Midwinter was also in partnership Samuel Winkle, John William Pointon and William Sherwin as earthenware dealers in the companies 'The Crown Potteries Company' and 'The Derby Pottery Company' - this partnership was dissolved in 1916.  

• In 1932 the business was incorporated as W. R. Midwinter Ltd, with William R Midwinter and A. T. Godwin as Directors.

• By the early 1940's the works employed around 700 people. 

• Roy Midwinter (W. R. Midwinter's son) joined the company in 1946 after demobilisation from the Royal Air Force.

• The business became very successful and in 1964 Midwinter acquired the businesses of A. J. Wilkinson and Newport Pottery.

• In the late 1960's Midwinter hit financial difficulties and merged with J & G Meakin in 1968 under 'British Tableware Ltd' 

• The Meakin-Midwinter business was taken over by the Wedgwood Group two years later in 1970. 

• The Midwinter name continued within the Wedgwood Group until 1987 when the Meakin & Midwinter (Holdings) Ltd business was closed.  

plate with stylised poppy design

'Rosslyn' is probably the pattern name

Handpainted Ware
W. R. M.
Burslem
England

  likely dates from the 1920s

The Midwinter factory was started in 1910 by Roy Midwinter's father, William Robinson Midwinter. originally located at the Bournes Bank pottery. the factory quickly outgrew the space and moved to the Albion Pottery in 1914.

The factory's early production was standard tea and dinner ware with the popular patterns of the era, namely Art Deco type images and shapes. The factory followed the fashion for conical holloware and angular handles, producing nothing remarkable.

One area where the factory did excel was in the production of nurseryware, employing the eminent designer William Heath Robinson. He designed a series of nurseryware with unusual patterns and these items are rare and sought after.

The factory prospered until the war when most of the site was given over to Government ministries. Roy Midwinter joined the company in 1946 and set about revolutionising British tableware.

Wikipedia article

The 1950s

"It was in August 1952 that the Board of Trade gave potters the opportunity to explore colour and shape for the first time in ten years. Some were ready for the freedom and launched curvaceous pots in bright colours. 

Roy Midwinter had visited America and returned brimming with ideas which he was able to put into effect once restrictions were lifted. Throughout the 1950s Midwinter was the leading company in contemporary tableware designs on their Stylecraft and Fashion shapes, Jessie Tait made an enormous contribution to Midwinter's surface pattern design. The style trends seen at The Festival of Britain appeared both in shapes and surface patterns -  crystallography, atom structure and 'spiky' architecture, Colours reflected general interior design requirements - primary colours, maroon and grey predominated. There were few straight edges to be seen..."

'Dynamic Design' Stoke-on-Trent City Museum and Art Gallery

Jessie Tait created some of the best known and most innovative ceramic designs of the 1950s. The work she made as chief designer of Midwinter Pottery was characteristic of its time: cheerily and wittily modernist, exuberantly abstract.

Born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire and at the age of 13, she began studies at the Burslem School of Art where she remained for five years. 

After a brief time as assistant designer to Charlotte Rhead, she joined the family firm of W.R. Midwinter in 1946. 

Like much of the pottery industry, Midwinter took time to find its feet in the immediate postwar period. A turning point came when Roy Midwinter, the son of the boss, William, took a research trip to the west coast of America, where he observed the sales success of the new, fluid, modern forms by designers such as Eva Zeisel. Chintzy patterns and fussy florals were on the wane. 

The public wanted something more streamlined, stylish and in keeping with the fresh looks emerging in furniture and fabric design.

Jessie Tait obituary

After Wedgwood absorbed JG Meakin, who had taken over Midwinter, the Midwinter name flourished in the 1970's, with the Stonehenge range. 

However, the Midwinter brand eventually faded away, and one of the last ranges to carry the Midwinter backstamp may have been the Roland Rat and Friends childrens set, after the breakfast TV puppet character. As well as Roland plate there were pieces for Little Reggie and Kevin the Gerbil. 

Date of introduction is unclear, probably when Roland Rat Superstar was at his sneering height, around 1984-5.