Castleford.
Castleford, which has its stations on the “North-Eastern” and on the “Lancashire and Yorkshire,” and is in direct communication with the Midland and Great Northern Railways, lies about twelve miles from Leeds. It is, in great measure, supported by its glasshouses, its chemical works, and its potteries, which are still in full operation. Common brown ware had, I believe, been made for a considerable period, on the spot, the goods produced, of course, being pancheons and the ordinary classes of coarse vessels. The Castleford Pottery was established, towards the close of the last century, by David Dunderdale, for the manufacture of the finer kinds of earthenware, more especially Queen’s or cream-coloured ware, which was then being made so largely at Leeds and other places, as well as in Staffordshire. Mr. Dunderdale took into partnership a Mr. Plowes, and in 1803, the firm of D. Dunderdale & Co., which appears stamped on the goods, consisted of these two persons. The partnership was not of long duration, and after considerable dissension, was dissolved, Mr. Plowes removing to Ferrybridge, where he joined the proprietors of the pot-works there, his son removing to London, and Mr. Dunderdale continuing the Castleford Works alone. The next partner was Mr. Thomas Edward Upton, a relative of Mr. Dunderdale’s, and these two shortly afterwards took into partnership John Bramley (or Bramler) and Thomas Russell, who was not a practical potter, but was an hotel proprietor at Harrogate. At this time the proprietary was thus divided:—Dunderdale one half of the concern, Russell a fourth, and Upton and Bramley an eighth each. Considerable additions were made to the works at this time, and the change in the proprietary was commemorated by a grand feast, and by bonfires, and all kinds of extravagant rejoicings.
In 1820 the manufactory was closed, and in 1821 a part of the works was taken by some of the workmen—George Asquith, William and Daniel Byford, Richard Gill, James Sharp, and David Hingham. They were succeeded by Taylor, Harrison, & Co., Harrison having been an apprentice of David Dunderdale’s; and the place was for several years carried on by the latter and the son of the former, under the style of Taylor and Harrison. It is now closed as an earthenware manufactory (Messrs. Taylor and Harrison having given up the trade), and is carried on for stoneware alone. At these works, an offshoot, as I have shown, of the old pottery, the commoner descriptions of goods only are made.
At the close of the year 1825, I believe, the old works were taken by Asquith, Wood, & Co. They were joined in partnership by Thomas Nicholson, who had served his apprenticeship with Hartley, Greens, & Co., of the Leeds Pottery, and carried on the business as Asquith, Wood, and Nicholson, and afterwards as Wood and Nicholson alone. In 1854 another change took place, by which Mr. Nicholson, one of the old firm, retained the works, and took into partnership Thomas Hartley, the style of the firm being Thomas Nicholson & Co. A few years ago Mr. Nicholson retired from the concern, and it was then carried on by Thomas Hartley alone, and afterwards with partners, under the old name of Nicholson & Co. In December, 1871, Mr. Hartley died, and the Castleford Pottery was then, and still is, carried on by his co-partners, Hugh McDowall Clokie, and John Masterman, under the style of “Clokie and Masterman.”
The Castleford Works, under David Dunderdale & Co., did a large trade with Spain, the Baltic, and other “foreign parts,” principally in cream-coloured ware, and it is said that during the war the losses were so great, both in earthenware and in specie, as to cripple the works, and lead to their being closed. So great was the export trade of the firm, that they owned vessels of heavy burthen, which were kept trading with the Spanish and other ports. It is related that just before the peace of Amiens, one of Dunderdale’s ships was closely and hotly chased, but succeeded in outstripping her would-be captors. This was celebrated at Castleford, and the circumstance was remembered as “Dunkirk Races,” and is still talked of with pride by one or two of the old people with whom I have conversed.
Figs. 861 to 863.
Figs. 864 and 865.
As I have said, the staple production of the Castleford Pottery in Dunderdale’s time was the “Queen’s” or “cream-coloured ware,” which was made of an excellent quality, and of a good colour. In appearance it assimilated pretty closely to the cream ware made at the Herculaneum Works, and was not so fine or so perfect in glaze as that made at Leeds. In this ware dinner, dessert, and other services, as well as open-work baskets, vases, candlesticks, and a large variety of other articles, were made, both plain and painted, or enamelled, and decorated with transfer printing. In the accompanying engraving are shown some examples. Fig. [862] is one of a set of four central covered dishes painted in sepia with a border of vine leaves, grapes, and tendrils, of precisely the same design as appears on examples of Wedgwood’s make, and of Herculaneum, and other places. This set of dishes, when placed together for use, forms a circle of twenty-two inches in diameter. The sauce-boat (Fig. [863]) is a part of the same service. The small oval sauce tureen (Fig. [861]) and ladle show that double-twisted handles were made at Castleford as well as at Leeds, at Swinton, and other places. Open-work baskets, stands, plates, dishes, &c., were produced in great variety, and of designs in many instances closely resembling those of Leeds and other places. The accompanying engraving (Fig. [864]) exhibits one of these. In what would now be called Parian, the Castleford Works in their early days produced some remarkably good and effective pieces. One of these, a hot-milk jug with its cover, shown on Fig. [865] is beautifully decorated with foliated and other borders, and with groups of figures in relief. Mugs, and other articles of the same material, were also produced. Examples of this kind of ware may be seen in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, and in many private collections.
Black or Egyptian ware of fine quality was made at Castleford in its palmy days, and is now of some degree of rarity. In my friend C. Roach Smith’s possession is a part of a service of this material, in which the hot-milk jug is of precisely the same pattern as the one engraved above. In fine white earthenware a large variety of goods was made by Dunderdale & Co., who produced a remarkably hard and compact body, and a glaze of considerable merit. In the late Mr. Pulleine’s possession, among other examples, was an oval fruit-dish, painted inside with a broad, bold, but not elegant border in red, and in the centre, in an oval, a landscape, with water, buildings, trees, figures, &c., in the same colour on a red tinted ground.
The marks used at these works appear to have been very few, and are easily recognised. They are—
D D & Co*
CASTLEFORD
or
D·D & Co
CASTLEFORD
POTTERY
impressed in the ware. The mark of the later proprietors when trading as “T. Nicholson & Co.,” was a circular garter, surmounted by a crown, and on the ribbon the initials of the firm—“T. N. & Co.”; in the centre the name of the pattern. The mark of the present firm is their initials within a border.
At the present day the Castleford Pottery, as carried on by Clokie and Masterman, manufactures all the ordinary kinds of earthenware, including white, printed, sponged, and the very commonest kinds of painted varieties; the principal patterns of services being “Willow,” “Wild Rose,” “Albion,” “Gem,” “Eton College,” “Verona,” etc., which are produced in blue, green, brown, and other colours. The body is firm and good, and the glaze of the usual quality. The old glory of the works has, however, long departed, and nothing artistic or beautiful is now to be seen in the place where once so many choice articles might be found. There is in connection with the pottery a flint mill, where flint, stone, glaze and colour are ground, and the clay is prepared by hydraulic pressure.
The Eagle Pottery was established in 1854 by a company of workmen, under the style of “John Roberts & Co.,” and afterwards taken by Messrs. Pratt & Co., who sold the concern to Mr. H. McDowall, who continued to trade under the original style. Since the death of Mr. McDowall the buildings have been converted into a glass bottle manufactory. Only the most common classes of earthenware were produced.