The Lark is my morning alarmer;
So you jolly Dogs now,
Here’s “God bless the Plow,”
Long Life and content to the Farmer.
On taking to these works, Messrs. Worthington, Humble, and Holland engaged as their foreman and manager, Mr. Ralph Mansfield, of Burslem. This person served them for some years, and afterwards commenced a small pottery on his own account at Bevington Bush, where he made only the commoner kinds of earthenware. These works ceased at his death. Besides Mansfield the foreman, the new Company engaged about forty “hands,” men, women, and children, in Staffordshire, and brought them to Liverpool to work in different branches of their art. As Wedgwood had chosen to call his new colony “Etruria,” the enterprising company determined on christening their colony “Herculaneum,” which name they at once adopted, and stamped it on their wares. The buildings acquired from Richard Abbey were considerably enlarged, the arrangements remodelled, new ovens and workshops erected, houses for the workmen built, and then workpeople were brought from Staffordshire. The story of the removal of this band of artisans is thus pleasantly told by my friend Mr. Mayer: “After enlarging and remodelling the works, and the little group of emigrants, who were chiefly from Staffordshire, being ready to start, their employers gave them a dinner at the Legs of Man public-house at Burslem, to which a few of their friends were invited. There they spent the parting night in jollity and mirth; and at a late hour, in conformity with an old Mercian custom, still prevalent in some parts of Staffordshire, the parting cup was called for, and each pledged the other to a loving remembrance when absent, and a safe journey and a hearty goodwill. Next morning at an early hour they started on their journey, headed by a band of music, and flags bearing appropriate inscriptions, amongst which was one, ‘Success to the Jolly Potters,’ a motto still met with on the signs of the public-houses in the Staffordshire pot districts. When reaching the Grand Trunk Canal, which runs near to the town of Burslem, after bidding farewell to all their relatives and friends, they got into the boats prepared for them, and were towed away amid the shouts of hundreds of spectators. Now, however, came the time for thought. They had left their old homes, the hearths of their forefathers, and were going to a strange place. Still the hopes of bettering themselves were strongest in their thoughts, and they arrived in Runcorn in good spirits, having amused themselves in various ways during their canal passage, by singing their peculiar local songs, which, as ‘craft’ songs, perhaps stand unrivalled in any employment for richness of material, elegance of thought, and expression of passion and sentiment, and it is to be regretted that many of them are daily becoming lost. Amongst other amusements was one that created much merriment—drawing lots for the houses they were to live in, which had been built for them by their employers; and as they had not seen them, nor knew anything about them, the only preference to be striven for was whether it should be No. 1, 2, 3, &c.
“At Runcorn they stayed all night, as the weather was bad and the river very rough, after one of those storm-days frequent in the Mersey, when the waters are lashed by the wind into such fury, that few boats dare venture out, and many who had never seen salt water before, were afraid to trust themselves upon it in a flat. Next morning, November 11, 1796, the wind had subsided. They embarked on board the flat, and at once, with a fair wind, got into the middle of the Mersey, where it becomes more like an inland sea surrounded by lofty mountain ranges. This much surprised the voyagers, alike by its picturesque beauty and the vast extent of water. They had a pleasant voyage down the river, and arriving at their destination, were met on their landing by a band of music, and marched into the works amidst the cheers of a large crowd of people, who had assembled to greet them. Thus commenced the peopling of the little colony called Herculaneum, where a few years ago, on visiting the old nurse of my father, who had accompanied her son there, I heard the same peculiar dialect of language as is spoken in their mother district in Staffordshire, which to those not brought up in that locality, is almost unintelligible.”
From this it will be seen that the little colony was peopled in the middle of November, 1796. The works were opened on the 8th of December, on which occasion an entertainment was given to the workpeople, as will be seen from the following interesting paragraph from Gore’s General Advertiser of December 13th, 1796:—
“On Saturday last, the new pottery (formerly the copper works)[5] near this town was opened, and a plentiful entertainment given by Mr. Worthington, the proprietor, to upwards of sixty persons employed in the manufactory, who were preceded by a military band, from the works along the docks and through Castle Street. Two colours were displayed on the occasion, one representing a distant view of the manufactory. We have the pleasure to say, that these works are very likely to succeed, from their extent and situation, and will be of infinite advantage to the merchants of Liverpool.”
The first productions of the Herculaneum works were confined to blue-printed ware, in which dinner, toilet, tea, and coffee services, punch-bowls, mugs, and jugs, were the principal articles made; and cream-coloured ware, which was then so fashionable. At a later date, terra-cotta vases and other articles were produced, as were also biscuit vases, figures, &c.
Of the cream-coloured ware, or Queen’s ware, the examples which have come under my notice are of remarkably fine quality, and are as well and carefully potted as those of any other manufactory, scarcely even excepting Wedgwood’s own. In colour they are of a somewhat darker shade than Wedgwood’s and Mayer’s, and not of so yellow a cast as the Leeds ware. The collector will find some good examples of this ware in the Mayer Museum at Liverpool, which will serve for comparison with other makes. The Herculaneum works also produced some remarkably good jugs with bas-relief figures, foliage, &c, of extremely fine and hard body. These pieces, which rival Turner’s celebrated jugs, are marked with the name HERCULANEUM in small capitals, impressed.