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The
Bakers - the
family who 'built' Fenton:
The pottery works of the Baker and Bourne families
The factory occupied by Bourne, Baker and Bourne, stood on the
north side of the turnpike road from Longton to Stoke.
By 1807 the firm had grown
and a second
pottery factory was built on the south side
of
the road.........
...... listed in an
insurance policy dated
13
November
1807: "On
a
set of potworks and
workhouses communicating at Fenton
Culvert
valued at
£1,000. Stock and utensils
therein valued at
£1,600.
The line of the
tramway from the canal in Stoke, through
Fenton to Longton
photo - 2000, taken from
Hitchman Street looking across Fountain Street
The Trent & Mersey or Caldon canals
did not serve Fenton or Longton and so in
1806 the Trent and
Mersey Canal Company had built a tramway from a wharf on the
canal
at Stoke through
Fenton to Longton.
The tramway ran
along the northern edge of the factory and a
branch
line was built
into the
middle of the
factory buildings
which enabled raw
materials and pottery to be carried cheaply to and from the works.
The business
flourished and
was described by
Ward
1843:
"Here are the
very extensive earthen manufactories, which for many years were
carried on by the firm of Bourne, Baker and Bourne and raised the
proprietors to the first rank amongst the eminent and opulent
potters who flourished during the by-gone portion of the present
century.... They combine every advantageous arrangement, with mill
work and machinery for the exercise of the potters' operations."
Ralph Bourne die in
1835 and shortly afterwards the partnership was dissolved and the
works
were
carried
on by William Baker
alone.
The mark of
William Baker
Most of the original factory has been demolished but part of the
entrance and factory frontage have survived in what is now City
Road.
By 1878 the factory on the south side of the road had become
an encaustic tileworks.
By the late 1820s the Baker
and
Bourne families owned
over 100 houses and the Roebuck Inn in Fenton. Most of them were
situated
on
the
north and south sides
of the High Street (now City Road) between Pear Tree Lane (now Manor
Street) and Victoria Place.
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