The flower pot girls

Photos from the fifties show life in a pottery

STAFFORDSHIRE has long been synonymous with pottery, famously centred on Stoke-ontrent in the north. Fifties

But the southern end of the county has always had plenty of clay – as many a Black Country gardener will know – and these pictures from the archives show a Bilston pottery churning out clay flower pots at quite a rate just over six decades ago.

Maps

The fascinating photographs were all taken on May 5, 1958, by a photographer despatched by the Birmingham Post, and each image is labelled ‘Bilston Pottery’ – can anybody tell us where that was?

There are records of a Bilston Pottery and a Bradley Pottery, which both appear on late 19th century maps, but we’re not convinced they were still in business as late as the 1950s.

However there was a pottery turning out clay flower pots in nearby Darlaston much more recently, by the name of George Ward’s – could this be where the pictures were taken? Adverts for Wards from the 1960s show them as having a Bilston telephone number.

Handmade

Wards eventually moved on to making cheaper, simpler plastic pots, but these pictures show that everything was very much handmade in the late ’50s. Below, a young lad weighs out balls of clay on a scale, from which a potter throws large pots on a traditional wheel.

The pictures also show women workers loading the glazed pots into the kilns, moulding saucers, and cutting fresh clay.

Do you recognise anybody in these photographs, or can you tell us anything more about this Bilston/darlaston flower pot works?

Our contact details are on page 2.

The team measuring and cutting clay for the manufacture of flower pots

Glazed flower pots being readied for the final firing

Right: A worker inspects the controls for the electrical operated kiln at the Bilston Pottery

May 1958 ... A female pottery worker moulding flower pot saucers

A potter seen here throwing a large flower pot, while a youngster weighs out clay