CITY CERAMICIST LEN HELPED NEIL ARMSTRONG TAKE ONE ‘GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND’
One of the most iconic moments of the 20th Century, the Moon landings in 1969, were made possible in part by the ceramic genius of a man from Etruria. FLORA BYATT reports...
ON July 24, 1969, the world watched in awe as Apollo 11 made its return journey from the Moon – shortly after Mankind set foot there for the first time.
The spacecraft, carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, landed safely in the Pacific Ocean without burning up – and it was one man from Stoke-on-trent who made it possible.
In the mid-1960s, Charles Leonard Shaw, known as Len, was the world leader in technical ceramics.
At the time NASA was trying to fulfil its vow of landing on the Moon by the end of the 1960s.
But it had a problem. How to create a heat shield that would stand up to re-entry of the Earth’s atmosphere without burning up.
They had approached the British Research Association and it was father-of-two Len, then manager of H&R Johnsons, who was asked for help.
Daughter Julie Shaw, 61, from Oulton, said: “My father worked with them to devise a ceramic re-entry nose cone. He also met twice with the original astronauts and received an award from NASA.”
Len went on to travel the world, created tiles for the White House, and invented the first ever ceramic gas log fire.
He was born in Etruria into poverty – one of eight siblings – and spent time in hospital at an early age due to ill health.
As a small child, Len was run over by a hearse and fractured his skull. At the age of three he fell down a well and damaged his kidneys before being rescued by a passerby. Despite this, he succeeded in army athletics and became a keen golfer.
But it was at 18 his life changed when he met his future wife, Joan
Cotterill, from Penkhull, one Easter Sunday. The pair married at the age of 22.
Julie said: “She was the catalyst for his aspirations. He decided the day he met that he wanted her, and he needed to achieve things to get her. They met in Queen’s Gardens in Newcastle.”
They later bought a house in Whitmore.
At the age of 25, Len applied for a job as junior ceramicist at Johnson Brothers. But he discarded the application before it was rescued by Joan, who encouraged him to send it in. Julie said: “He became the top
ceramicist in the world. He travelled the world designing and overseeing factories.
“He was the authority on technical ceramics. He became a fellow at the Institute of Ceramics and a director of the British Ceramic Research Association. “He became managing director at H&R Johnsons for 11 years after starting from the bottom.”
Len was an ethical person. After overseeing the start-up of a factory in India in the 1970s, he insisted that all his employees be given shoes.
But he was left confused when they wore them around their necks. They told him that the shoes were too precious to wear.
It was in the 1970s that Len launched his side business, Sure Glow Gas Logs, after some experimenting at home.
Julie said: “He created a ceramic log fire that generated heat and glowed without going out.
“He had a temporary patent on it. He had to choose between developing the full patent, which would have cost about £5,000, or sticking with Johnsons. He went to H&R Johnsons, after they wanted to make him managing director. His loyalty to them won.”
The gas log fire created by Len appeared in popular nightclub, The Place, in Hanley. But his success didn’t stop there.
The White House needed retiling, as the original tiles had become worn down.
But encaustic tiles were out of production due to the high death rate of pottery workers who made them. Julie said: “He was responsible for reintroducing encaustic tiles. Dad worked for years to find a way to make the tiles safely in the 1970s. He visited the White House and cut the ribbon for the Lincoln Memorial.”
Despite his success, Julie remembers her father as a devoted family man. He had two children, including her brother Karl Shaw, 65, who is an author.
He also has three grandsons – Julie’s son, Will Collis, 26, and Karl’s sons, Rob and Charlie Shaw, 31, and 28.
She said: “He was deeply devoted as a husband and a father. He didn’t really socialise beyond his family. We were everything to him.”
Sadly, Len was forced to retire aged 58 due to his ill health.
He required surgery on his carotid artery which had become blocked. He did recover, but later began to develop dementia.
Len died on Christmas Eve, 2021 at the Royal Stoke University Hospital at the age of 90.
He had been cared for at his home in Whitmore for many years by Joan, who is now 90.