Wakefield.
A pottery existed on Wakefield Moor in the latter part of the seventeenth century, where vessels were made from clay found on the spot. This clay Houghton, in 1693, calls “The potters’ pale yellow clay of Wakefield Moor.”
Potovens.
The village of Potovens lies about two miles from Wakefield, and, as its name implies, takes its origin from some old potteries established at this place. Ralph Thoresby in his Diary (1702) says, under date of March 16th, “From Wakefield then by Allerthorpe (Alverthorpe) and Silkhouse to the Pott-Ovens (Little London, in the dialect of the poor people), where I stayed a little to observe not only the manner of their forming their earthenware—which brought to mind the words of the prophet, ‘As clay in the hands of the potter, so are we in the Lord’s’—but to observe the manner of building the furnaces, their size and materials, which are small, and upon the surface of the ground, confirming me in my former apprehensions that those remains at Hawcaster-rigg (Philosoph. Trans. No. 222) are really the ruins of a Roman pottery.” These works were carried on, about the time, or in the time, when Thoresby wrote, by one Caleb Glover. In his will, dated 29th of January, 1728, recorded in the Rolls Office, February 6th, 1729, this Caleb Glover “of Pott-Ovens, pott-maker,” bequeaths to his wife all his chattels excepting his “working tools and oven house,” and to his son Daniel Glover he leaves all his “working tools belonging to the trade of a pot-maker, and the pot oven.” He was succeeded at his death, in 1728–9, by this son Daniel Glover, who continued the works. No manufactory of the kind now exists at this place, and the name of the village itself is somewhat ambiguous, for it is occasionally known as Wrenthorp.
Yearsley.
The earliest, and, indeed, only potters of whom anything is known at this place, are members of the Wedgwood family, as recounted in my “Life of Josiah Wedgwood” (p. 583), where these works were first brought into notice. One branch of the Wedgwoods of Staffordshire settled at Yearsley, in the Yorkshire Wolds, at an early date, and commenced pot-making, which was carried on successfully for some generations. In 1682 John Wedgwood, of Yearsley, was “buried in woollen,” as were also in 1692 William Wedgwood, and in 1690 Isabell, who was wife of one of these. John, the son of this John Wedgwood, who died in 1707, was, I have reason to believe, the John Wedgwood whose name appears on the puzzle jug here engraved, with the date 1691. It is in the Museum of Practical Geology, in the Catalogue of which museum is an engraving of the opposite side from Fig. [888]. It is of brown ware body, coated with green lead glaze, and has, round the body, the name “John Wedg Wood 1691. incised in writing letters.
Fig. 888.
The ware made by the Yorkshire Wedgwoods was the common hard brown ware, made from the clays of the district, and consisted, of course, mainly of pitchers, pancheons, porringers, and other vessels of homely kind. From researches I have made, I have succeeded in tracing out, with tolerable accuracy, a pedigree, of the Yorkshire Wedgwoods for seven or eight generations, ranging from the middle of the seventeenth century down to the present time, when their descendants are still living in the district, not as potters, but in other equally useful walks of life.
So well known were the Wedgwoods of this district, that one member of the family has been immortalised in song, thus:—