the Toft brothers worked at Tinkersclough, Hanley

The Toft brothers worked at Tinkersclough, Hanley

The Tinkersclough area was located in Hanley in the parish of Stoke-upon-Trent
at the junction of what is now Clough Street and Mount Pleasant.

The Toft family of slipware potters lived and worked here in the latter half of the 17th c.

Some 150 years later, on the location of the Toft works, was built the Dresden Works.

Relevant links:

| Thomas Toft | Tinkersclough | Dresden Works |

Tinkersclough - 1902

The thick black line shows the Potteries loop line railway which ran from the mainline at Etruria, through Tinkersclough to Hanley.

Running from top left down to bottom centre is the Trent and Mersey canal the Caldon branch canal runs from the Etruria Junction (blue circle) and flows through Hanley Park to the right and onwards to Cheddleton flint mill.

The sketch below - "Tinkersclough in the Present Day" (1906) was drawn from the location at the blue circle and looks towards Hanley.
The photograph below - "Tinkersclough - 1949" looks towards Shelton Iron & Steel Works. The red circle on the map shows the location of the photographer -

"Tinkersclough at the present day"

picture: 1906
"Staffordshire Pots and Potters" - GW & FA Rhead

This picture was drawn in 1906 from the the Etruria Basin of the Caldon Canal at Etruria - looking towards Hanley.

The building to the centre right were part of the wharf complex and are now part of the Etruria Industrial Museum which opened in 1991.

In the middle background is the Dresden Works which stands on the location of the Toft family home and works.

- the blue circle on the 1902 map above shows the location of the viewer -

Etruria Junction - the Trent & Mersey & Caldon Canal meet here

photo: 2008

the canal and buildings in the 1906 picture can easily be identified

| Etruria Junction |

Tinkersclough - 1949
photo: The Warrillow Collection - Keele University Collection

- the red circle on the 1902 map above shows the location of the photographer -

The light coloured mound at the front of the photo is slag from the Shelton works deposited at Tinkersclough.

Towards the bottom right the Rose and Crown can be seen alongside the loop line railway bridge.

The back of Wedgwood's Etruria Hall stands almost in the centre, but is not so easy to see in its blackened state.

On the horizon can be seen the spire of Wolstanton Church.

"Toft worked at Tinkersclough, which is now a group of a few hundred houses and a couple of potteries. It was formerly a lane, or "clough," about midway between Shelton, Hanley, and Wedgwood's Etruria, and doubtless a convenient resting-place for travelling gipsies and tinkers; hence, probably, its name.

It is not positively known whether Toft—Thomas Toft; there were two prominent Tofts, Thomas and Ralph—had a factory of his own, or whether he executed orders for his dishes for other potters.

We incline to the opinion that he had a small pottery, and that it is still standing at the corner where the road from Hanley to Etruria Vale crosses the main street of Tinkersclough, once the " clough" itself. We are well acquainted with this locality, our family, for four generations having owned (and still owning) a row of cottages adjoining the pottery we believe to have been occupied by Toft. Forty years ago we remember well the quaint walls around the cottage gardens built of disused saggers, made more solid by being filled with "shraff." All the walls and many out-buildings at Tinkersclough were then built of saggers, and one or two are still standing.....

Fortunately there are many signed examples of both the Tofts in existence. One dish is mentioned by Mr. Solon as having been seen in a cottage in Hanley, inscribed in front with the maker's name in slip, and scratched on the back the inscription :

THOMAS TOFT
TINKERSCLOUGH [NOTE]

In the Willett Collection is a large yellow dish with a bird in dull red slip; this is signed " Ralph Toft," and bears the date 1676."

"Staffordshire Pots and Potters" -1906 - GW & FA Rhead

NOTE: "This is now generally regarded as a fake foisted upon Solan by hoxers." Makowitz W & Haggar R G (1957) Concise Encyclopedia of English Pottery and Porcelain, André Deutsch Ltd, London p 223

Thomas Toft Slipware Plate, manufactured c.1680
Thomas Toft Slipware Plate, manufactured c.1680

Thomas Toft is the best known of the 17th century Staffordshire slipware potters. He made his dishes in Burslem and designs attributed to him include mermaids, unicorns, and pelicans.

He also created dishes featuring King Charles II and his wife Queen Catherine of Braganza, and numerous coats of arms.

A cross-hatched rim was fairly typical of the style and has been copied up until the 20th century. Very little is known about Toft's life.
It is believed he was married in 1663 and was buried in Stoke on December 3 1689.

Slipware is a kind of coarse earthenware decorated with a coloured clay and water mixture of creamlike consistency called slip.

contents: 2009 photos