Edward Corn

 

Corn, Edward (1804 - 1891) farmer, tile manufacturer.

"Richards Tiles Ltd began its career under the name of Edward Corn - that of its founder, the grandfather of the present chairman of the Company [which in 1937 was Edmund Richards Corn]. Born in 1804, Edward Corn was a North Staffordshire man of farmer parentage who had himself set up near Tunstall as a small dairy farmer when he became attracted by the greater financial possibilities of the then thriving pottery industry.

In 1837 he purchased, with the small sum he had contrived to save, the decadent general earthenware manufacturing concern of Hancock and Lithcoe, Burslem, to which he had become apprenticed some years earlier, and established himself in the pottery business in his own name, thereby laying the foundation stone of the firm destined one day to take the leading place in the glazed and floor tile industry of the country. Being a man of ability and energy he soon built up a flourishing business, which, in 1850, had so far increased that it was transferred to larger premises in Navigation Road, Burslem.  

Edward Corn, the founder of the firm From an oil painting

About the time of this transfer Edward Corn retired, leaving the business to his two sons, William and Edward, in whose hands it took the name of "W & E Corn" and became noted for its "White Granite" and "Queen's" ware.  In 1890, still larger premises having become necessary, the Burslem factory was abandoned in favour of Top Bridge Works, Longport. There, on the death of Edward Corn in 1891 (his elder brother having died about 1885) the management of affairs devolved upon his two sons - Alfred Henry Corn and the present (1937) Chairman, Edmund Richards Corn."

From: "A Century of Progress 1837-1937" a publication to commemorate The Centenary of Richards Tiles Ltd.