Dish Maker | Pottery industry Jobs
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Dish (Plate) Maker	[ Web Site Index ]

Dish maker - makes dishes by hand - later on semi-mechanism was introduced and dishes (flat ware) was made on a 'jigger' 

"A good plate maker will sometimes make from 400 to 500 plates in a day, generally about 320"

postcards from Wedgwoods

1840 Report:- 

In 1840 the House of Commons set up a commission to inquire into the state of children employed in the mines and  manufactories. Samuel Scriven visited the area of Stoke-on-Trent from December 1840 onwards to collect evidence.

"Some of the processes through which the ware passes, at an early stage of its production, are carried on in apartments considerably heated. The plate-maker, and all those who make flat ware, work in rooms, adjoining which there is another apartment called the stove, as it is heated by a stove to about 130· Fahr. A little boy, without shoes or stockings, is kept constantly running between the plate-maker, from whom he receives the plate or dish newly formed on a mould, and the stove, into which he carries this mould with the moist plate upon it. These moulds, thus charged, are ranged upon shelves to dry, and as soon as they are sufficiently dried the boy liberates the mould and carries it back to receive a new layer of clay."

Examples of "dish makers" from the 1881 census for the Potteries area:-

1881 census:
Dwelling: 17 Wise St
Census Place: Trentham, Stafford, England

1881 census:
Dwelling: New St
Census Place: Wolstanton, Stafford, England

Examples of "plate makers" from the 1881 census for the Potteries area:-

1881 census:
Dwelling: 105 Villiers St
Census Place: Trentham, Stafford, England

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