Report - John Tams (Crown Works), Stoke-on-Trent - October 2011

[tweek]

John Tams (Crown Pottery), Stoke-on-Trent - October 2011

Visited with fishbrain, Xan Asmodi and NickUk

Having looked at some other bits in the area we decided to nip into John Tams to see what all the fuss is about. Well, it's unsecure, trashed and leaking.

This one has recently been the subject of some ludicrous gutter journalism.

History

John Tams was born in Stafford Street, Longton in 1837, the son of John Tams and Ann nee Procter. The family had been established in Shelton by about 1620.

John Tams was apprenticed to a working potter. About 1865 he entered into partnership with Lowe, manufacturing in St. Gregory's Pottery, High Street, Longton. The partnership was dissolved about 1873 and in 1874 John Tams bought the Crown pottery, on the corner of Commerce Street and High Street. At first he specialised in the manufacture of imperial measured ware, mugs, jugs, etc., for hotels and public houses. The increasing use of glass and further government regulations forced him to develop new lines of production, including ornamental and general earthenware.

The Pottery finally went under in 2000. Around that time, The Sentinel Newspaper printed the following heart-wrenching tale...

Mrs Tams was still mourning the death of her husband when the loss of the company left her numb. She said, '‘Gerald and I have loved the business as if it was our own flesh and blood. Last Thursday, when the receivers took over, it was just like another death in the family. Something in me died all over again.'

‘I have missed Gerald so dreadfully. It would be wrong to suggest I was getting over his death because I wasn't, but I was getting on with my life, which was the family business.'

'It was something that we'd both shared and nurtured for so long. So in a strange way, my life with Gerald lived on through the company.'

'Now sudden death has struck again to take away another love of my life.'​

Thanks for viewing,
tweek


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