Seacombe.
Mr. Goodwin, a potter of Lane End, in Staffordshire, in 1851, established a pottery at Seacombe, on the opposite shore of the Mersey from Liverpool. He brought his workmen from Staffordshire, and fired his first oven in June, 1852. Of this pottery, now closed, Mr. Mayer thus wrote in 1855: “The ware manufactured here at present consists principally of earthenware and stoneware, chiefly of blue and colour printed ware, and, lately, parian has been made of a good quality. Here has been introduced one of the throwing tables for making hollow ware, cups, bowls, &c., by machinery, with the aid of which four boys who are quite unacquainted with the art can, in a day or two’s practice, produce as much work as by the old process of hand throwing could formerly be made by five men in the same space of time. The success of the undertaking may be considered fairly established, and a very large and increasing trade is now carried on with the east and west coast of South America, Turkey, California, and India. So admirably arranged are the buildings on this work that all the different parts work together. The ware after being fired is carried direct from the ovens into the bisque warehouse which adjoins them, and on the other side the coal is conveyed along a railway and deposited close to the mouths of the kilns. The whole may be looked upon as a model for all future buildings and arrangements for pot works. Indeed, so perfect is it that it has been visited by several manufacturers from France and Germany, who, by permission of Mr. Goodwin, have taken plans of it as a guide for new works to be erected in those countries.”