J.H. Weatherby's is, it's probably fair to say, one of the classic industrial explores in the UK that seems like it's been around forever. It's somewhere I had always wanted to see, ever since I started, and my previous handful of attempts here had always been foiled one way or another. Eventually though I managed to do it successfully and, despite how battered it is, I was very happy to finally see it.
It's been done a bazillion times before so for anyone who's been living under a rock the potted history is as follows - the company was founded in the Tunstall area of Stoke in 1891, and in 1892 it moved to this location in Hanley. In 1892 the works had 4 kilns and one in the process of being built, by 1900 there were 8 kilns and in 1906 a large entrance range was built to the works with 3 stories and 23 bays. From 1925 to 1961 there were 5 bottle kilns, these were replace by electric kilns following the Clean Air Acts of 1956 and 1968. One of the coal fired kilns was retained, having being last fired in 1965, and in 1989 this became a listed building. It originally manufactured domestic wares such as basins, before moving into tableware and giftware, and moving into manufacturing hotelware which ultimately contributed to the company's closure, as there was intense competition from other manufacturers in this sector. In April 2000 it was announced that the company would be wound up, at it's height it had 200 employees but at the point of closure had only 10. The factory has been derelict ever since, part of the roof at the end of the building collapsed at some point and in 2012 the bottle kiln collapsed due to lack of maintenance.
Even though it's bashed and bruised I really did like it here, it's a real rabbit warren of a place sprawled over quite a large site, with plenty of things to see. I can only see one outcome for the building though and that will be demolition at some point, it really is too far gone - the fact most of the roofs are missing or have no tiles on them any more really sealed it's death.
Thanks for looking
It's been done a bazillion times before so for anyone who's been living under a rock the potted history is as follows - the company was founded in the Tunstall area of Stoke in 1891, and in 1892 it moved to this location in Hanley. In 1892 the works had 4 kilns and one in the process of being built, by 1900 there were 8 kilns and in 1906 a large entrance range was built to the works with 3 stories and 23 bays. From 1925 to 1961 there were 5 bottle kilns, these were replace by electric kilns following the Clean Air Acts of 1956 and 1968. One of the coal fired kilns was retained, having being last fired in 1965, and in 1989 this became a listed building. It originally manufactured domestic wares such as basins, before moving into tableware and giftware, and moving into manufacturing hotelware which ultimately contributed to the company's closure, as there was intense competition from other manufacturers in this sector. In April 2000 it was announced that the company would be wound up, at it's height it had 200 employees but at the point of closure had only 10. The factory has been derelict ever since, part of the roof at the end of the building collapsed at some point and in 2012 the bottle kiln collapsed due to lack of maintenance.
Even though it's bashed and bruised I really did like it here, it's a real rabbit warren of a place sprawled over quite a large site, with plenty of things to see. I can only see one outcome for the building though and that will be demolition at some point, it really is too far gone - the fact most of the roofs are missing or have no tiles on them any more really sealed it's death.
Thanks for looking
