Wedgwood

One of the key characters behind the creation of the Trent & Mersey Canal was Josiah Wedgwood.  Josiah was trained as a potter before establishing his own business at Burslem using the money from his new wife’s dowry.  His problem was the road transport of his pottery resulted in a significant wastage through breakage.  Using a canal to carry the raw materials to his pottery and then the finished product to ports and cities seemed an excellent solution.  In the late 1930’s Wedgwood moved their pottery factory to a large piece of land near Barlaston.  This included a village and facilities for their workers.
Since 2009 Wedgwood has been owned by a USA based private equity company.  Our mooring was close enough to walk to the factory and showroom.

The grounds are well laid out.  The path from the canal leads to a rear entrance into the showroom.  The path through the grounds contained a number of cherry trees allowing both Jan and me to do some ‘fruit loading’!

The back way into the showroom passes some old factory machinery.

Trolley used to move the fired pottery from the kilns

This is a type of spindle mould for shaping plates and bowls.
We wandered around the showroom but nothing particularly captured our interest.  The crystal and china looked too modern for our tastes.  We must be getting old!

The route back to Waiouru required us to cross the rail line.  There was a small white cottage beside the level crossing.

In a previous life it might have been a rail employees supplied home.  The plaque above the arched door stated “Railway Cottage”.
At last we’ve finally been able to capture some photo’s of the local fauna.

Did you see it?

Jan managed to take a photo of a Heron out the side hatch before it flew off.

Meanwhile I was able to take a photo of a big fat pigeon sitting in a tree.

Now moored and inside Waiouru hiding from the heat of the day!