Salt-glazing appears to have been introduced about 1680, and it gradually superseded the lead-glazing which till that time was in regular use. The account given of this discovery is, that “at Mr. Joseph Yates’, Stanley, near Bagnall, five miles east of Burslem, in Staffordshire, the servant was preparing, in an earthen vessel, a salt-ley for curing pork, and during her temporary absence the liquid boiled over, and the sides of the pot were quickly red hot from intense heat; yet, when cold, were covered with an excellent glaze. The fact was detailed to Mr. Palmer, potter, of Bagnall, who availed himself of the occurrence, and told other potters. At the small manufactories in Holden Lane (Adams’s), Green Head, and Brownhills (Wedgwood’s), salt-glazed ware was soon afterwards made.” “The ovens employed for the purpose being used only once weekly, and the ware being cheap, were large in diameter, and very high, to contain a sufficient quantity to be baked each time, to cover all contingent expenses. They were constructed with a scaffold round them, on which the firemen could stand, while casting in the salt through holes made in the upper part of the cylinder, above the bags or inner vertical flues; and the saggers were made of completely refractory materials, with holes in their sides, for the vapourised salt to circulate freely among all the vessels in the oven to affect their surfaces.” The ware thus glazed, and made from the common clay, with a mixture of fine sand from Mole Cop, was called “Crouch ware,” and in this all the ordinary articles of domestic use, including jugs, cups, dishes, &c., were made. At this time, it is stated, there were only twenty-two ovens in Burslem and its neighbourhood. “The employment of salt in glazing Crouch ware was a long time practised before the introduction of white clay and flint. The vast volumes of smoke and vapours from the ovens entering the atmosphere, produced that dense white cloud which, from about eight o’clock till twelve on the Saturday morning (the time of ‘firing up,’ as it is called), so completely enveloped the whole interior of the town, as to cause persons often to run against each other, travellers to mistake the road; and strangers have mentioned it as extremely disagreeable, and not unlike the smoke of Etna or Vesuvius.”
In 1685 a white stoneware was made at Shelton by Thomas Miles, and at the same time and place a brown stoneware was also made. These would be the same as the ale-pots and bellarmines were made of.
In 1686, Dr. Plot published his “Staffordshire,” and thus spoke of the butter trade, and butter-pots then made:—[38]
“From which Limestone Hills, and rich pastures and meddows, the great Dairys are maintained in this part of Staffordshire, that supply Uttoxeter Mercat with such vast quantites of good butter and cheese, that the Cheesemongers of London have thought it worth their while to set up a Factorage here for these commodities, which are brought in from this, and the neighbouring county of Derby, in so great plenty, that the Factors many Mercat days (in the season) lay out no less than five hundred pounds a day in these two commodities only. The Butter they buy by the Pot of a long cylendrical form, made at Burslem, in this county, of a certain size, so as not to weigh above six pounds at most, and yet to contain at least 14 pounds of Butter, according to an Act of Parliament made about 14 or 16 years agoe, for regulateing the abuses of this trade in the make of Pots, and false packing of the Butter; which before was sometimes layed good for a little depth at the top, and bad at the bottom; and sometimes set in rolls only touching at the top, and standing hollow below at a great distance from the sides of the pot. To prevent these little Moorlandish cheats (than whom no people whatever are esteemed most subtile) the Factors keep a Surveyor all the Summer here, who if he have ground to suspect any of the Pots, tryes them with an instrument of Iron, made like a Cheese-Taster, only much larger and longer, called an Auger or Butter-boare, with which he makes proof (thrusting it in obliquely) to the bottom of the Pot: so that they weigh none (which would be an endless business) or very seldom; nor do they bore it neither, where they know their customer to be a constant fair dealer. But their Cheese which comes but little, if anything short of that of Cheshire, they sell by weight as at other places.”
In reference to this, the Historian of Uttoxeter says:—
“Butter-pots are mentioned in the parochial records of the town forty years before Dr. Plot wrote; for five pots of butter were sent from Uttoxeter to the garrison of Tutbury Castle, and had been bought at the sum of 12s. As this was seventeen years before the Act of Parliament for the regulation of the sale of butter in pots, it is difficult from this to judge of the exact price of butter per pound at Uttoxeter at that remote period. And yet it may be reasonably inferred that the pots of 1644 were of the size of those manufactured after 1661; for it appears the Act was passed more for the prevention of any irregularity in the size of the pots, and the mode of packing butter in them, than for any actual alteration of the size the pots were understood to be. If so, butter then at Uttoxeter was worth but about twopence a pound, supposing the five pots of butter sent to Tutbury, costing 12s., contained fourteen pounds of butter each. About fifty years before butter was retailed throughout the kingdom at sevenpence per pound; but this was regarded as an enormous price, which, Stowe says, ‘was a judgment for their sins.’ It is highly probable, therefore, that the pots contained fourteen pounds of butter, which consequently was twopence per pound at Uttoxeter when the five pots were bought, especially as it corresponds with the price of cheese at that time in the town, as to which the old parochial accounts have preserved very distinct information, the sum of £7 15s. 10d. having been paid for 8 cwt. 2 qrs. 7 lbs., which was also for the besieged at Tutbury.”
The following extracts from the churchwardens’ accounts of Uttoxeter illustrate this subject:—
| £ | s. | d. | |||
| 1644. | May 7. | For 8 cwt. 2 qrs. 7 lb. of cheese to Tutbury | 7 | 15 | 10 |
| For 5 potts of butter to ditto | 0 | 12 | 0 | ||
| 1645. | June 25. | Bread, beer, cheese, a pott of butter, and a flitch of bacon, for Lieut.-Col. Watson’s men quartered at Blunts Hall | 2 | 5 | 6 |
The butter pots were tall cylindrical vessels, of coarse clay, and very imperfectly baked. They are now of great rarity, but specimens may be seen in the Hanley Museum and in the Museum of Practical Geology. Their form will be seen in Fig. [316]. It is worthy of remark that even yet, as it was in Shaw’s days, Irish or Dutch butter, which is generally imported in casks, and is in most places known as “tub butter,” is, in the potteries, usually called “pot butter.”
