If we stood here in 1750, we would have found a small community of people going about their everyday business. On the right, Thomas Cartlich would have been busily making his pots, while next door, probably in the building featured in the drawing, George Norbury of the Packhorse Inn would have been hospitably welcoming weary travellers, as their horses were being tended at his stables. Below were a group of houses occupied by Ralph Cartlich, Richard Cartlich and John Simpson. On the left lived Abner Wedgwood, and just below him was John Hurd's alehouse, then Salathial Ball's house, with Richard Onions' potworks close by.

When I think of this typical environment in which the old potters used to live and work it always brings to mind the old butter-pot trade, which was then considered big business: frequently, on market-days, £500 could be spent by local farmers purchasing such pots. A butter-pot was a coarse, unglazed, cylindrical vessel in which butter was placed and sold at the neighbouring markets. According to an Act of Parliament of the 1670s, these pots should not weigh more than six pounds and contain at least 141b. of butter. From such simple beginnings grew the staple industry of the Potteries."