Driving through Staffordshire
you see many signs for Wedgewood Pottery. You don’t see so many for other big
Staffordshire companies though – JCB, the Stone Group, Alsthom,
General Electric. Perhaps Wedgewood has special dispensation as its woven in Staffordshire’s
history. Wedgewood is of course a man - Josiah Wedgwood, the undisputed king of
pottery and here I am at his grave. He’s been lying in it (minus one leg) for
over 120 years and I wonder what he’d make the global business now.
He lies behind a churchyard in Stoke-On-Trent
which was probably surrounded by open fields when he was lowered into the soil
in 1795. Now it’s a part of a triangular portion of land hemmed in by busy roads,
shops and pubs. I soon found his grave with railings around it next to a wall
probably from a long-demolished church.
He did well bearing in mind he was the last of
eleven children. By age nine he was already working as a potter at his dad’s
company but the pots were clumsy, of a blackish tinge and lacked finesse.
Perhaps Josiah’s brace of good luck came from a dose of smallpox. This left him
with a weak knee - bad news for a potter who works a pedal all day – so he was
moved into designing pottery. By age 22 he was working for Thomas Whieldon who was the best potter of the day. He learnt
about the science of fire, clay and minerals. By 32 he was experimenting with
new techniques that would lead to his fortune.
Aged 38 he married Sarah who was a third cousin
(they’d go onto have eight children, two dying in childhood.) At this age he
also leased a factory in Burslem with a potter
partner called Thomas Bentley who was known for his sophistication and astute
taste. Just after the factory opened Josiah’s right leg was amputated, the
smallpox he suffered as a child deeming it useless. He and Thomas would run the
company for fifty years. Within a decade their naïve works turned into beautiful
unique pots. Being a businessman Josiah industrialised the manufacture of
pottery and pioneered commercial procedures used today: travelling salesmen,
mass mailshots, money back guarantees, free delivery and glossy catalogues with
BOGOF (buy one get one free) offers. In the 1700s this was unknown. Soon they
were taking orders from the British nobility and abroad. They started
transporting raw materials in on the canal network and opened fashionable
showrooms in Mayfair.
Josiah’s success brought a large family home called
Etruria Hall (now part of a hotel) and he retired having passed the business
onto his sons. He died at home aged 64 probably from jaw cancer. Three days
later he was buried here where I’m stood.
I had a walk around the graveyard and was a
little disappointed at his grave. I was expecting a towering thing as long as a
Rolls Royce and as tall as a giraffe. It’s bland though – a horizontal stone
with railings around it. When you think Staffordshire you think of Wedgwood don’t
you? I just thought it would be much bigger - and definitely not looked on by a
shop called Planet Bollywood for God’s sake.
In the same graveyard lies one of Josiah’s main
rivals - Josiah Spode. They were born within three years of one another and
both died aged 64 leaving big businesses behind in Stoke. They both share the
same cemetery. Did they meet? Did they admire/resent one another? They sound
such busy people I doubt they ever shared the same room. They share the same
soil though.
Oddly the Wedgewood home place where Josiah died
is now part of a hotel complex where singer/actor Adam Faith died. Being a geek
I’ve visited it and the link to his death is here…
http://johnhalley.uk/Death%20-%20Adam%20Faith.htm
To see Josiah
Spode’s grave the link is here...
http://johnhalley.uk/Grave%20-%20Josiah%20Spode.htm
The hotel is on the other side
(taken in the 1960s…)
Not many people have a stature made
in their honour…