The Clay Industries, Including the Fictile & Ceramic Arts on the Banks of the Severn: with notices of the early use of Shropshire clays, the history of pottery, porcelain, &c. in the district — John Shaqi
The Clay Industries, Including the Fictile & Ceramic Arts on the Banks of the Severn: with notices of the early use of Shropshire clays, the history of pottery, porcelain, &c. in the districtRandall, John
History
The Clay Industries, Including the Fictile & Ceramic Arts on the Banks of the Severn: with notices of the early use of Shropshire clays, the history of pottery, porcelain, &c. in the district
Randall, John
Ceramics -- Great Britain -- History; Clay industries -- Great Britain -- History; Porcelain, English
was raised to carry on the war, and by which we have been saved the
burden—so far—of a permanent debt; also of making other suggestions,
which have been likewise adopted. He also invented a most ingenious
almanack applicable to all time.
Coalport men were usually great politicians; Hunt, Hethrington, Richard
Carlile, Sir Francis Burdett, and Cobbett, had their disciples and
admirers; and such was the eagerness to get the Register, with its
familiar gridiron on the cover, that a man has been despatched to
Birmingham for it from one of the rooms, his shopmates undertaking to do
his work for him whilst he was away.
The works themselves are ill designed and badly constructed, the greater
portion of them having been put up at the latter end of the past and
beginning of the present centuries, whilst other portions were added from
time to time, with no regard to ventilation or other requirements of
health. Consequently there are the most curious ins and outs, dropsical
looking roofs, bulging walls, and drooping floors, which have to be
propped underneath, to support half a century’s accumulations of china,
accumulations amounting to hundreds and hundreds of tons in weight. In
entering some of these unhealthy _ateliers_ and passages strangers have
to look well to their craniums. Some work-rooms have very stifling
atmospheres, charged with clay or flint; the biscuit room notably so. We
have said that a good understanding prevailed generally between masters
and workmen. There was one notable exception, the great “strike” as it
was called, which occurred somewhere in November, 1833; a memorable event
in the history of the works, so much so that in speaking of occurrences
it is usual to the present time to ask in case of doubt if it happened
before or subsequent to the strike. The men had their “Pitcher,” a well
conducted sick society; and a “Travelling Society,” for assisting those
in search of employment, with branches in all centres of the trade.
Trades unions, however, were just then coming to the front. The
Combination Laws had been repealed eleven years previously; otherwise,
such was the temper of the Shropshire magistrates, and the feeling
generally in relation to the trades unions, that had they existed on the
statute book not a few would have had to have experienced the penal
consequences of their acts. With the men who still adhered to the
masters the works continued to be carried on to a limited extent; after
much suffering and privation some of the hands returned, whilst some
obtained employment elsewhere. The course taken by Mr. John Rose, in
resisting the men was warmly approved of by his neighbours, who
subscribed for a handsome silver cup, which is now in the possession of
Mr. Charles Pugh, who married Miss Martha Rose, daughter of Mr. Thomas,
and niece of Mr. John Rose. It is a large and massive piece of plate. A
vine stem entwines around the foot and forms the handles, a vine border
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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