 |
Pots
for the butter trade |
|
Source:
"The Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent" John Ward, 1843 |
Pots
for the butter-trade:
"After
the firings were completed, 'they then draw them… for sale, which is chiefly
to the poor crate-men, who carry them at their backs all over the country.'
One
considerable branch of the Trade, at that time of day, seems to have been the Butter-pot,
- a coarse, cylindrical, unglazed vessel, in which the butter, sold at
Uttoxeter market, (and no doubt other neighbouring markets), was bought up by
the London dealers.
..
the passage …. is preceded by an observation, that the London Cheese-mongers
had set up a factorage for butter and cheese, at Uttoxeter; and that they
frequently laid out £500 in those articles on a market day:-
'The
butter they buy by the pot, of a long, cylindrical form, made at Burslem, in
this county, of a certain size so as not to weigh above 6lbs at most, and, and
yet to contain at least, 14lbs of butter, according to an Act of parliament
made about fourteen or sixteen years ago,* for regulating the abuse of this
trade, in the make of the Pots, and false packing of the Butter, which before
was laid good for a little depth at the top, and bad at the bottom, and
sometimes set in rolls, only toughing at the top, and standing hollow below at
a great distance from the sides of the pot. To prevent these little country
moor-landish cheats (than whom no people whatever are esteemed more subtle),
the factors keep a surveyor all the summer, here, who, is he have any ground
to suspect any of the pots, tries them with an instrument of iron made like a
cheese-taster.'
Plot,
p.109.
*
This Act was passed A.D. 1661.
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