SEKERS, DAVID — The Potteries

Oxford : Shire 2009 NEW revised edition. 56 p., /w & color illustrations , map, ibibliogr., index SOFTCOVER: (Orig. paperback. AS NEW) While generations of collectors have studied the wares of the Potteries, the circumstances, skills and location of their production have been too often overlooked. The story of the Potteries deserves better, for no British industry was ever so concentrated, so polluting, and then so transformed. No industrial skyline was ever more memorable than the forest of bottle ovens which for almost two centuries dominated Stoke-on-Trent. In this book, David Sekers, formerly Director of the Gladstone Pottery Museum, shows how the Potteries became such a remarkable place, and how the individual villages of Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Fenton and Longton grew into specialised centres of production. The traditional manufacturing skills of the potters are illustrated in sequence, ending with the climax of the coal firing of bottle ovens, the cause of so much pollution. The living and working conditions of the potters, their clothing and occupational health risks are all part of the history of the Potteries and are highlighted here.