Daisy Bank Works, Longton

Daisy Bank Works, Longton
in 1952 the works were renamed Gainsborough Works.

In 1777 Samuel Hughes sold an acre and a half of his land (the Gom's Mill estate) to his son-in-law Mark Walklate to build a potworks. Walklate had built a house and works by the following year, but he eventually ran into financial difficulties and in 1786 the house and works, known as Daisy Bank, passed to Hughes.
The Daisy Bank Works was built on what became Spring Garden Road, nearby was the Daisy Bank Brick and Tile Works which had an infamous marl hole that they dug the clay from.
In 1877 Longton Municipal Cemetery was opened alongside the Daisy Bank Pottery Works.
Operators at the works were:
- 1778 - 1786 Mark Walklate
- 1786 - 1804 Samuel Hughes
- 1804 - 1811 Peter & Thomas Hughes (the sons of Samuel)
- 1812 - 1830 John Drewry
- 1830 - 1833 Drewry, Ray & Tideswell
- 1833 - Aug 1846 Ray & Wynne
- 1851 - 1853 Charles Mason & Co.
- 1853 - 1866 Hulse, Nixon & Adderley
- 1869 - 1875 Hulse & Adderley
- 1876 - 1906 W.A. Adderley & Co
- 1906 - 1947 Adderley's Ltd
- 1947 in 1947 the business was taken over by Ridgway Potteries Ltd but ware continued to be produced under the Adderley name. At some time ware was produced under the name 'Adderley Floral China' in Sutherland Road, Longton.
- 1952 the business of Ridgways (Bedford Works) Ltd and Adderleys Ltd were renamed Ridgway & Adderley Ltd.
- 1955 on January 1st merged with Booths & Colclough's Ltd. as Ridgway, Adderley, Booths & Colclough Ltd. which was remaned Ridgway Potteries Ltd from 28th February 1955.
It appears that c.1955 work ceased at the Gainsborough Works (renamed from the Daisy Bank Works) and was transfered to the Paladin Works which was also in Longton and operated by Adderley.
In 2005 the land was used to open a private cemetery and garden of remembrance - next door to Longton Cemetery which is still run by the city council.

Samuel Hughes, who bought the Gom's Mill estate in 1765, sold an acre and a half of the land in 1777 to his son-in-law Mark Walklate for the erection of a potworks. Walklate had built a house and works by the following year, but he eventually ran into financial difficulties and in 1786 the house and works, known as Daisy Bank, passed to Hughes.

In 1804 the estate passed to Hughes's sons, Peter and Thomas, and in 1811 Peter, having bought Thomas's share, sold the whole to Sir John Edensor Heathcote.
The works was in the tenure of John Drewery (or Drury) by 1812 and remained in his family until 1830. It then passed to Ray and Tideswell, who made china and earthenware and in 1833 were succeeded by Ray and Wynne; Richard Ray was working there alone by 1847.

In the early 1840's the works was 'a small factory in good condition, with rooms open, large and ventilated'.

Charles James Mason, having gone bankrupt at Fenton in 1848, started to work again at Daisy Bank in 1851, leasing the works from J. E. Heathcote, and remaining there for three years.

The lease, and later the freehold, of the Daisy Bank Works passed to Hulse, Nixon, and Adderley. On Nixon's death in 1869 the firm became Hulse and Adderley and from 1874, the year after Hulse's death, was run by William Alsager Adderley, who in the early 1880's was making china and earthenware there. The firm of Adderley was still working the Daisy Bank Pottery, in Spring Garden Road, in 1940, but the works is now (1960) occupied as the Gainsborough Works by the sub-standard china department of Ridgway Potteries. The extensive buildings, which include the remains of crate-making shops, date largely from the later 19th century, with considerable additions of the period between the world wars. There were also flint mills on the Gom's Mill estate.

'Longton', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 8, ed. J G Jenkins (London, 1963), pp. 224-246. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/staffs/vol8/pp224-246 [accessed 24 September 2019].

1907 map showing the Daisy Bank Works on Spring Garden Road
opposite is the marl hole of the Daisy Bank Brick & Tile Works
and to the far left is the marl hole of the Longton Hall Brick Works

Adderley's Ltd, china and earthenware
manufacturers at Spring Garden Road, Longton

from..... 1907 Staffordshire Sentinel
'Business Reference Guide to The Potteries, Newcastle & District'

1922 map showing the Daisy Bank Works on Spring Garden Road

the same area in 2012 the site of the former Daisy Bank Works is marked in blue
and the site of the Daisy Bank Brick & Tile Works is marked in purple

Google Maps

Trentham Road and Longton Cemetery, Longton, 1927

Longton Cemetery and Daisy Bank marl hole are easily identified
to the left of centre.

a closer view of Daisy Bank marl hole and the surrounding pottery factories
the Daisy Bank pottery works of Adderley's is at the bottom right of the cemetery

to the immediate left of the marl hole, opposite the cemetery is the Roman Catholic
School of St. Gregory's - it is still in use today (2013)

some of the more obvious streets and factories are highlighted on this photo

yellow rectangle	St. Gregory's R.C. School

white line	Spring Garden Road
yellow line	Willow Row
dark purple line	Edensor Road
red line	Greendock Street
green line	Clayton Street
light blue line	Ayshford Street
dark blue line	The Strand (was Stafford Street)
light purple line	Willow Street

dark blue rectangle	Daisy Bank Works of Adderleys Ltd.
red rectangle	Holdcroft's pottery works
light blue oval	Hewitt & Leadbeater, porcelain
dark blue oval	Tams' Crown Works

related pages

	The Daisy Bank marl pit was bordered by Spring Garden Road to the south and Edensor Road to the west. Nearby were the rather optimistically named Paradise and Orchard Streets surrounded by a myriad of smoking bottle kilns.
	Longton - In 1759 the main road from Derby to Newcastle was built which gave the town of Longton a boost when the pottery industry began to appear in the town. Small numerous pot works gave the new town a distinctive irregular appearance with pot banks lining the main streets jumbled in and around houses of the workers employed in the ceramic industry.