Saving canalside pottery

Published: Wednesday, 17 February 2010

MANY boaters cruising through Stoke on the Trent & Mersey Canal will have noticedĀ  Middleport Pottery, by the side of the waterway, which is now in danger of closure.

Like many others in the five towns it has been hit by cheap imports, in fact the 'teapot' factory just up the road is now closed, Alan Tilbury informs us.

However the charity the Prince's Regeneration Trust, headed by theĀ  Prince of Wales, is involved in attempting to save the working pottery, producers of the distinctive blue Burleigh earthenware.

Grant from English Heritage

Creditors are considering a rescue plan which it is hoped could save the works from closure, by the help of a substantial grant from English Heritage, that has made an undisclosed offer to rescue the business and its Grade II listed building.

Under the proposed plan the building will be restored, converted into a visitor attraction and the pottery will continue to operate as a business on the site.

At the height of its output in the late thirties, owners Burgess & Leigh, employed 500 workers.