Crown Works (John Tams) - Stoke On Trent - May 2011

[hiddenshadow]

John Tams Pottery - Stoke - May 2011

Visited with NickUK

I've been advised on several occasions to confront the M6 South and go to Stoke, so this one time, we did just that, it was May 2011 to be precise. We must have seen 10 or 15 derelict factories and works on the way here, so a return trip is a must...

The Crown Works on the corner of Commerce St was founded by John Goodwin in 1841 who occupied the site until 1851. John Tams founded his company in 1874, after splitting from his business partner William Lowe formerly of ‘Tams & Lowe’ and purchased the ‘Crown Works’ in 1875. In 1903 the company became John Tams & Sons, and ‘John Tams Ltd’ in 1912. The Factory originally had 3 bottle kilns, no of which survive today.

‘John Tams’ went into receivership in 2000, but was bought out by the management who formed ‘Tams Group Ltd’, who purchaced the rights to Royal Grafton and Grafton Limited and in 2002 across a total of 4 factories was the biggest ceramic employer in Longton, and one of the biggest mugs manufacturer in Europe. In 2006 the group went into receivership and the Crown Works finally closed, ending over 160years of ceramic manufacturing on the site.

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Cheers :thumb

[jST]

Nice one - Tammy Tam Tams is a top little mooch, very fooked in parts but lots left to look at.

[homosapien1918]

looks like an interesting explore. It always amazes me how much stuff is left, it's like they just turn of the lights on a Friday at 4:30 and never go back.

[Nicola]

That does look good! :thumb

[coops]

Very nice some great stuff left in there ...Thanks for sharing :thumb