Thomas C. Wild & Sons - the St. Mary's Works, Longton

St. Mary's Works, Uttoxeter Road, Longton
(Uttoxeter Road was originaly named High Street)

built in 1862 and Samuel Moore was producing china here.
in 1865 Samuel was joined by his son Bernard (who was 15 years old) and the company renamed 'Moore & Son'. Samuel died in 1867 and Bernard continued to run the works.
In 1870/2 Bernard was joined by his brother Samuel Vincent Moore (who was two year younger than Bernard) and by 1873 they were operating the St. Mary Works as 'Moore Bros'.
In 1905 the partnership was dissolved. Bernard took premises at Wolfe Street, Stoke and specialised in glaze effects - for which he became quite renown. Samuel appears to have taken no further interest in pottery manufacture.
In 1905 St. Mary Works were sold to Thomas C Wild and the St. Mary works were used initially for decoration of the products manufactured at the nearby Albert Works which Thomas Wild also owned.
In 1917 the company was renamed Thomas C Wild & Sons (Ltd) and continued at least into the early 1990's.
1970 - Allied English Potteries (who had previously aquired the works) changed the name of the business to Royal Albert Ltd. and in 1972 Royal Albert Ltd becomes a subsidiary of Royal Doulton Tableware Ltd following the amalgamation of the Royal Doulton and Allied English Potteries Ltd businesses.
In 1976 Stratford Bone China Ltd occupied part of the works.
In 1993 the St. Mary Works became a listed building.
1998 saw the closure of the historic St Mary’s Works and transfer of the production of Royal Albert China to other Doulton factories.
Stratford Bone China Ltd continued at the works and built a factory shop and cafe. In 2005 the business failed.
Currently (2012) the buildings are still owned by Royal Doulton.

Thomas C. Wild & Sons - the St. Mary's Works, Longton
photo: 'Six of the Best' c.1988

St. Mary's Mount Pleasant, 1862

Thomas C. Wild & Sons, St. Mary's Works, Uttoxeter Road, Longton

"St. Mary's Works was opened a year later than Aynsley's Portland Works. A comparison between them illustrates both the conservatism and the slowly evolving styles of pottery architecture.

While St. Mary's appears older at first glance, it shows certain refinements which break with tradition; most obvious are the arched windows, including those of the boardroom, no longer strictly in the Venetian mode.

This building has a superb cornice, and a fine weather-vane mounted upon the pediment. The plaque within the gable states simply 'St Mary's Mount Pleasant 1862'.

Thomas C. Wild began manufacturing china at Longton's Albert Works in 1893. Within a short time Royal Albert became one of the most important names in the English Bone China industry, gaining the Queen's Award to Industry for Export Achievement in 1968.

Mr Wild, a councillor of the old Borough of Longton, became the first Lord Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent in 1928."

Richard Weir

St. Mary's Works, Longton - 2011
St. Mary's Works, Longton - 2011

1888 extension to the works

Pediment on 1888 extension
Pediment on 1888 extension

Royale Stratford factory shop and cafe adjacent to the St. Mary's Works

photo: 2005 - at the time of the closure of Stratford Bone China Co. Ltd.

The location of the St. Mary Works ....

Normacot end of Uttoxeter Road (was the High Street) in 1922
- click map for more details -

Blue = St. Mary Works of Thomas C Wild
Red = Florence Works of Taylor & Kent
Purple = Blyth works of Tams
Green = Avon Art Pottery, Ltd. / Elektra Porcelain Co., Ltd

map from 1947 Pottery Gazette & Glass Trade Review
- 26 marks the St. Mary Works

23 Avon Art Pottery, Ltd. / Elektra Porcelain Co., Ltd.

24 Taylor & Kent

25 Blyth Pottery (Longton), Ltd.

26 Thos. C. Wild & Sons, Ltd.

related pages...

Listed building details for the St. Mary Works

Moore Bros
Bernard Moore and his younger brother Samuel Vincent Moore, manufacturers of china tableware and high quality ornamental pieces at St. Mary's Works, Longton.
By 1881 they were employing 150 people at their pottery works.

Thomas C Wild and Sons Ltd

index page for
Moore family of
potters

also see...

Longton potteries - the most polluted of all the North Staffordshire pottery towns

Longton - Longton was at the end of a lane which ran from Tunstall to a village at the end of the lane, hence Longton was known as Lane End, and colloquially as 'Neck End'.