Holmes Pottery.—These works were built on part of the Holmes Hall Estate—the kitchen garden, in fact—formerly belonging to the Walker family, who owned the large ironworks there, where at one time the notorious Tom Payne worked. The pottery was at first extremely small, but has gradually extended itself until it is now of considerable extent. It was first worked by Messrs. Earnshaw and Greaves, who were succeeded by Messrs. Dickinson and Jackson; it was then continued by Mr. Thomas Jarvis until some few years back, when it passed into the hands of Messrs. John Jackson & Co., the present owners. The goods produced are the commoner class of white and blue printed earthenware. Some years ago an attempt at china manufacture was made here, but was abandoned.
The Don Pottery.
The Don Pottery, closely adjoining the canal at Swinton, on which it has a wharf, was established in a very small way about 1790, and considerably increased in 1800 by John Green, of Newhill. He was one of the Greens of Leeds, of the same family as the proprietors of the Leeds Pottery, and a proprietor in the Swinton Pottery. He is, in fact, stated to have been the manager of the Leeds and the Swinton potteries, and to have sustained considerable losses on the breaking out of the French war. About 1800, or a little later, he purchased a plot of almost waste and swampy land at Swinton, and, with the aid of partners, set about the erection of the present works. At this time a person named Newton, father to the more than octogenarian from whom, some years ago, I picked up many scraps of the information I record, had an enamel kiln at the back of his house at Swinton, where he used to burn such wares as he decorated. To this man, for the first twelve months, Green, of the Don Pottery, brought his pattern pieces to be fired, as he prepared them. In 1807, other members of the family united with John Green, who also had partners named Clarke; the firm trading as “Greens, Clarke, & Co.” In 1831, Mr. Green was proprietor of the Don Pottery.
In 1834 the Don Pottery passed by purchase to Mr. Samuel Barker, of the Mexborough Old Pottery; which latter works he closed in 1844, and confined his operations entirely to the Don manufactory. In 1851 the firm became “Samuel Barker and Son,” under which style it is still continued, the present proprietors being Mr. Henry Barker and Mr. Edward Barker.
From a list of goods prepared by the firm in 1808, it appears that a considerable variety was produced at that time. This list, which is in my own collection, is thus headed:—
“Greens, Clarke, & Co., Don Pottery, near Doncaster, Make, Sell, and Export Wholesale all the various kinds of Earthenware, viz., Cream-colour, Brown, Blue, and Green Shell, Nankin Blue, Printed, Painted, and Enamelled, Egyptian Black, Brown, China, &c., &c. Also Services executed in Borders, Landscapes, Coats of Arms, &c., and ornamented with Gold or Silver.”
Of the ordinary fine earthenware made soon after the opening of the works, some specimens, whose actual date can be satisfactorily ascertained, have come under my notice, and show to what perfection in body and glaze, in manipulation, and in decoration, the manufacture had already arrived. The most remarkable of these early specimens is a jug, commonly called the “Jumper Jug,” which is of great rarity. On either side of the larger jugs is the figure of a very uncouth, coarse, and slovenly-looking man, in red coat, pink waistcoat, striped green and white under-waistcoat, orange-neckerchief, orange breeches, above which his shirt is seen, top boots, and spurs. In his hand he holds his hat, orange, with red ribands, on which is a card bearing the words “Milton for ever.” Beneath the spout, on a scroll, is the following curious verse:—
“The Figure there is no mistaking,
It is the famous Man for—breaking.