The potteries contains a lot of Factories, one of the most famous factories in Stoke-on-Trent is Wedgwood's.  Wedgwood's is situated in the county of Staffordshire in central England, on the Trent river.  Stoke on Trent is the center of the British ceramic industry and is commonly known as the potteries.  Famous potters Josiah Wedgwood, Josiah Spode and Thomas Minton founded potteries here in the 18th century.  The industry's growth was aided by the opening of the Trent and Mersey canal in 1777.

Wedgwood was born in Burslem, Stafforshire, in July 12, 1730, into a family with a long tradition as potters. At the age of 9, after the death of his father, he worked in his family's pottery.

  1730-1795

In 1754 Josiah Wedgwood went into partnership with Thomas Whieldon. Later, Wedgwood ended the partnership and started his own business at Burslem. Wedgwood loved experimenting and invented what became known as green glaze. In 1763 he patented a beautiful cream-coloured pottery. As this was very popular with Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, it became known as Queen's Ware.

Wedgwood now turned his attention to developing what was known as Egyptian Black objects. This included inkstands, saltcellars, candlesticks, life-sized busts and vases. These black basalts were sometimes decorated with encaustic colours, silvering, gilding or bronzing.

In 1762 Wedgwood met Thomas Bentley in Liverpool. The two became close friends and in 1768 became partners in a company producing ornamental vases. These were very popular and in 1771 Wedgwood built a new factory called Etruria where he employed famous artists such as John Flaxman to design his vases.

At Etruria Wedgwood greatly increased the output of his workers by introducing what later became known as "division of labour". This involved subdividing all the skills of the potter (mixing, shaping, firing and glazing) and allocating each job to a specialist worker.

Wedgwood was quick to realise the importance of canal transport. In 1766 he joined with the Duke of Bridgewater and James Brindley to start building the Trent & Mersey Canal. When the canal was completed in 1777 Wedgwood was able to bring Cornish clay to his Etruria factory. Wedgwood also used the canal to transport the finished goods by barge to Liverpool or Hull.

Wedgwood’s work