W Brownfield & Son

Location and period of operation:

Manufacturers of earthenware and porcelain (the latter from 1871) at Cobridge.

"& Son" added from 1871.

Initials used on ware for identification:

W & B, WB or W B & S often in addition to the name of the pattern.

The impressed mark is the Staffordshire knot enclosing the initials WB. The name BROWNFIELD was also employed impressed into the body.

Links for Brownfield:

1886 advert for Brownfield

More info on Brownfield

Brownfield worked the Cobridge Works with other potters, then on his own until 1871 and finally with his eldest son William Etches Brownfield.

Biography of William Brownfield:

BROWNFlELD, William (1812-73), pottery manufacturer, Hanley.

WB was born in Hanley on 13 February1812, the son of Ralph Brownfield, earthenware manufacturer and Sarah nee Meigh. After working as a commercial traveller for his father's firm WB joined Robinson and Wood, using a works in Douglas Street and Arthur Street (in 1981 the Alexandra Pottery). 

The firm, employing 500 people, made earthenware, blue-printed and iron-stone ware and hand-painted wares. W B exhibited at the major international exhibitions from1862. In1871 a new china works was built in Crane Street and a former Minton artist Ludwig (Louis) Jahn (q.v.) was engaged as art director. From 1846 WB also operated New Hall Mills in Brook (now Century) Street, Hanley. WB was a Liberal and supported J. C. Ricardo's candidacy in the parliamentary election for Stoke upon Trent in 1841. 

He was also a member of Bethesda Methodist New Connexion church. He served as a market trustee and commissioner for Hanley and was chief bailiff in 1844. He favoured Hanley's incorporation as a borough and 1858 became Hanley's mayor in succession to John Ridgway. He was a borough and county magistrate and later a deputy lieutenant. He was a director of the Staffordshire Potteries Waterworks Company and of the North Staffordshire Railway. 

He gave £500 towards the building of a working men's reading room in the Mechanic Institute in 1859 and in the same year presented the drinking fountain in Fountain Square to the town. WB lived in Market (now Huntbach) Street, Hanley, until his marriage to Elle Etches, daughter of a Derby cheese factor, on 14 January 1847. The family lived subsequently at Chatterley House, Old Hall Street, Hanley, where their seven children were born. They moved to Barlaston Hall, Barlaston, about1869. 

WB died there on 1 July l873. A red marble obelisk in Hanley cemetery commemorates him.

Sources: Daily Sentinel 17 July '1873; R. and E. Hampson, 'Srownfield, Victorian Potters', in Northern Ceramic Society Journal, 4, (1980-1); Jewitt.People of the Potteries.