Stoke-on-Trent - Potworks of the week


contents: 2009 photos


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The Boundary Works, King Street, Foley, Stoke-on-Trent

 

The Boundary (or California) Works, King Street, Foley, Stoke-on-TrentThe Boundary (or California) Works, King Street, Foley, Stoke-on-TrentThe Boundary (or California) Works, King Street, Foley, Stoke-on-TrentThe Boundary (or California) Works, King Street, Foley, Stoke-on-TrentThe Boundary (or California) Works, King Street, Foley, Stoke-on-Trent
The Boundary (or California) Works, King Street, Foley, Stoke-on-Trent
a five-bay centre raised to two and a half stories with Archway, Venetian window, tripartite window, gable.

 


The entrance with archway,
Venetian window, tripartite window and gable with the 1819 date

 

 

The Venetian window, very much loved by the Staffordshire Pottery factory owners
The Venetian window, very much loved by the Staffordshire Pottery factory owners

 

 

The Boundary Works

Of the Boundary or California Works along King Street (formerly Church Street), only the front range of which survives complete.

In 1818 the Duke of Sutherland leased a plot of land on the south side of Church Street in Longton to Jacob Marsh, for a term of ninety-nine years at an annual rent of £3.48 From a long line of potters, Marsh had moved from Burslem to set up his business in Lane Delph in 1806, since which time he had obviously been sufficiently successful to embark on building his own new factory designed specifically to his requirements. Within a year of taking the lease of this land just inside the boundary of Longton, he had built the appropriately named Boundary Works, which first he and then his son were to occupy for almost twenty years.

Marsh's factory was designed on a courtyard plan. Its most noticeable feature was its extended, oblong shape which allowed the maximum street frontage, and thereby maximum space for the presentational aspect of the works.

The brick and tile facade was symmetrical, with eight bays either side of a larger central bay which formed the main entrance to the works. The outer six bays on each side were of two storeys, while the middle section rose to three storeys with a tapered roof and central gable. The central bay had a key-stoned arch, Venetian window above and Diocletian window underneath the gable.

The other stone-lintelled and silled windows were evenly spaced, and each storey was marked by stone string-coursing; matching dormer windows were provided on the third storey. There was brick dentilling under the eaves along the entire length of the frontage, and a date stone above the central lunar window as a final touch.

Behind this front range the works were less symmetrical or orderly, though they did surround a courtyard. The layout of the factory was arranged in standard fashion, with the manufacturing process beginning at the rear of the site and ending at the front, with cross-movement in between. The marl house was situated appropriately nearest to the marl bank, with the slip house next to it.

source: "Potworks - The Industrial Architecture of the Staffordshire Potteries"


 


 

A view of the full seventeen bays of the Boundary Works
A view of the full seventeen bays of the Boundary Works

 


contents: 2009 photos