Fig. 585.—Arms of Turner.
In 1772, as I have shown, Mr. Turner succeeded Mr. Gallimore in these works, and set about enlarging them. In 1775 we read, “The porcelain manufactory erected near Bridgnorth, in this county, is now quite completed, and the proprietors have received and completed orders to a very large amount. Lately we saw some of their productions, which in colour and fineness are truly elegant and beautiful, and have the bright and lively white of the so much extolled oriental.” In 1780 he visited France, for the purpose of “picking up knowledge” on the porcelain manufactures of Paris and other places. He is said to have been an excellent draughtsman, and this added to his chemical knowledge—for he had a regular laboratory fitted up at the top of his house—must have been a great advantage to him while in that country of beautiful and chaste designs. On his return from France he brought with him some skilled workmen, and at once entered with increased spirit into the manufacture of porcelain in his own works at Caughley. One of the men whom he had brought over appears to have been a clever architect; and from his design a very tasty and elegant château, which he called “Caughley Place,” and where he resided, was built for Mr. Turner, near the works. This building being of a novel design in England—more especially in the sequestered neighbourhood of Caughley—attracted much attention; and its peculiarities of construction and arrangement are still often talked about by the old inhabitants of the place. This house and Caughley Hall, after Mr. Turner’s death, came into the hands of Lord Forester, and were pulled down in 1820 or 1821; part of the materials being used for making additions to the present works at Coalport. At the present time no vestiges of the house or works remain at Caughley, with the exception of traces of foundations, and here and there a spring flower or two which still make their appearance where once the elegantly laid out gardens existed.
In 1780 Mr. Turner introduced the making of the famous “Willow Pattern”—the first made in England—at Caughley, and about the same time the “Broseley Blue Dragon” pattern. The willow pattern is still commonly known in the trade as “Broseley pattern.”
Fig. 586.
An excellent example of dated Caughley ware is the puzzle-jug in the possession of Mr. Edmund Thursfield, here engraved. It is eight inches in length, and is formed of the usual body of these works. It is decorated with blue sprigs, and bears on its front the name, in an oval border, of “John Geary Cleak of the old Church Brosley 1789.” On the bottom is written in blue, “Mathew the v & 16,” though one would fail to see any allusion in the text here referred to either to the vessel or to its purpose. In Mr. Smith’s possession is a fine Caughley mug; white, with blue flowers of bold character: it bears the words, “Wm. Haslewood, 1791,” and has the mark S on the bottom. This William Haslewood was the representative of an old family of that name in this neighbourhood, and his property passed to the Mr. J. J. Smith already spoken of.
In 1788 Mr. Robert Chamberlain commenced his china works at Worcester, and for some time bought his ware at Caughley, had it sent down by barge to Worcester, and there painted and finished it. The same thing was also done when Grainger’s works were first started at Worcester. The number of hands employed at Caughley must have been somewhat large, as the premises were extensive, and the quantity of goods required by Mr. Turner, for his own trade and for Worcester, was considerable. In 1798 or 1799, in consequence of the increase of the trade of Mr. Rose, who had been apprenticed to Mr. Turner, and afterwards commenced on his own account, by which the Caughley business was much injured, the works were disposed of to Mr. Rose and his partner; Mr. Turner entirely retiring from the concern. The Caughley works were then carried on by Messrs. Rose and Co., in conjunction with their own. The coal at Caughley beginning to work out, and the cost of carrying the unfinished ware from thence down the hill and across the water to Coalport was so great,—the unfinished ware being carried on women’s heads the whole distance,—that Mr. Rose determined to remove the works to Coalport, which he did at different times, gradually drafting off the workmen, until about 1814 or 1815, when they were finally removed, the kilns and rooms taken down, and the materials used for the enlargement of the works at Coalport. The last of the buildings, with the house, were not, however, destroyed until 1821, when the materials were brought to Coalport to build the present burnishing-shops and some workmen’s cottages.
Fig. 587.—The Caughley China Works, taken down in 1815.
The works were built in form of a quadrangle, with an entrance gateway surmounted by an inscribed stone. Of these historical works I am enabled, through the courtesy of my friend Mr. Hubert Smith, to give an engraving from an original drawing in his possession. The entrance building, it will be seen, was three stories in height, the remainder two stories, and the kilns were of large size.