Old Town Road, Hanley
Lost and forgotten roads of Stoke-on-Trent

| index for forgotten roads |


previous: Golden Cup Inn and the Spiritualist church
 

 
Old Town Road, Hanley

Dominating Old Town Road is the Falcon Pottery Works of Weatherby.

J H Weatherby & Sons

The company was founded in Tunstall in 1891, in the following year they moved to the larger Falcon Pottery at Hanley.
They first made domestic ware such as basins and ewers, later moving into tableware and giftware.

The marks include the initials J H W & Sons or the name 'Weatherby'.


Printed mark used 1891 only when Weatherby were at Tunstall

Printed marks 1936+
Including the trade names 
"Falcon Ware" 
"Royal Crownford"
"Durability"

 

"One of the last remaining family-owned pottery firms is to close after more than a century.
J H Weatherby and Sons in Hanley is currently being run down and is will soon cease trading after 109 years.
Its chairman, Christopher Weatherby, the great-great grandson of company founder John Henry Weatherby, today blamed cut-throat competition in the hotelware business for the firm's decline.
At its height the company employed 200, but the figure was down to 50 at the turn of the year and now stands at 10."

Sentinel newspaper April 2000


After the closure of J.H.Weatherby in 2000 Jonathan Weatherby took over producing for JONROTH, working with a very limited staff at the Falcon Pottery.    ..... operating as a decorator under the name of Jonathan Weatherby At Falcon Pottery. 


Pot Bank. 1906, with use of site established by 1891.
Pot Bank. 1906, with use of site established by 1891.
photo:  2001

Brick with plain tiled roofs. Extensive workshop ranges loosely grouped around yard. Entrance range of 3 storeys and 23 bays, with entrance arch to the yard towards the left of elevation, with cast-iron lintel and mosaic lettering: "Falcon Pottery".

The works extends back from Old Town Street, with 8 bays in the side elevation of the frontage range, and a further 3-storeyed range of 12 bays beyond, a later addition.


The Bottle Kiln at Weatherby's Falcon Works
The Bottle Kiln at Weatherby's Falcon Works

A squat bottle kiln in courtyard, a circular hovel over downdraught oven, adjoining an earlier range of buildings. The remains of one of the few surviving muffle kilns in the City are also housed on this site.

photo:  2001


Kiln at J H Weatherby & Sons

photo: © Chris Oldham 2007



J H Weatherby & Sons Gates
J H Weatherby & Sons Gates

photo: © Chris Oldham 2007


From the upper window of the slowly decaying Weatherby factory can be seen one of the saddest sights in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and a monument to the apathy and neglect of the city’s built heritage the 'Ragged Glory' of the Church of St. John the Evangelist.....

 

St. John's, Hanley
St. John's, Hanley
photo taken through Weatherby's window
Eileen Hallam - 2002

 

but that's for another "lost road" story.......


previous: Golden Cup Inn and the Spiritualist church