150 years of the Shelton Works

"If industry grows strong through the collective abilities of thousands of me, it is born because of the vision of individuals." anon...

For one industry in the potteries that individual was Granville Levison Gower.
Born at a time when the industrial revolution was in its infancy, he grew up in an atmosphere of great change and development in the iron industry. In 1815 he was elevated to the peerage and created an Earl.
That same year his son was born, named George, who was to take over the running of Shelton on his father's death in 1846. The first Earl leased a tract of land from the Duchy of Lancaster. This land was adjacent to the Trent and Mersey Canal.

His immediate neighbour was another man of vision, Josiah Wedgwood. His factory had been in existence since 1866 and Josiah had not only built a factory, but also a small village to house his employees.
He named the village Etruria after the area in Italy where the clay came from to make the distinctive blue and white china which is so famous today.

Earl Granville built has first three blast furnaces on a site between Cobridge Road and Mill Street (later to become Etruria Road), in the Shelton Parish, which gave the works its name.