Cardigan.
The Cardigan Potteries.—These pottery works were established in 1875 by Mr. J. H. Miles and Mr. William Woodward, and were at first intended simply for the production of common coarse red earthenware goods for domestic and horticultural purposes. The clay of this district having been found to be of a superior character and capable of being turned to good account for better classes of goods, the firm turned their attention to its development, and have succeeded in producing not only articles of an artistic character, but architectural decorations of more than average excellence. The productions of Messrs. Woodward and Co. are vases, jugs, flower stands, and other ornamental articles, and these are decorated and glazed in a manner peculiarly their own, and which gives to them a distinctive character over those of other manufactories. In some, quaint and well-designed patterns are impressed in the clay, and the whole being surface coloured and highly glazed have a rich and peculiar appearance. The firm trade under the names of “The Cardigan Potteries,” “Woodward and Co.,” and their works are called the “Patent Brick, Tile, and Pottery Works” and “Cardigan Potteries.” The goods are principally for the Welsh coast and for England, but the trade is rapidly developing itself, and by the addition of other branches, especially in blue clay goods, will become an important feature in Welsh manufactures. Glazed and unglazed bricks and tiles, coloured tiles for interior mural decoration, and paving tiles of various kinds, form also a staple branch of trade of the Cardigan Works.
The marks used by the firm are the words “Cardigan Potteries” and “Woodward and Co.,” impressed in the ware, and a design of a brick bearing the words Woodward and Co., Cardigan.