Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

7i THE POTTERY WORKERS. THE pottery workers of Great Britain at present number 70,000, of whom about 25,000 are women and children. When to these figures are added the much larger number of those engaged in other branches of ceramics, including red bricks and tiles, white-glazed bricks, fire-bricks, and all classes of sanitary goods, the extent of the industry will be more fully realised. father to son and from mother to daughter. For, it may be noted, in pottery work deft- ness of hand and lightness of touch afford admirable opportunity for the employment of women and children. In many processes these are occupied to the entire exclusion of men, and with the most satisfactory results. In order to afford some idea of the general characteristics and condition of the potter’s A BUSY SCENE IX THE GLOST KILN YARDS, BRITANNIA POTTERY, GLASGOW. Two-thirds of the domestic ware produced in this country is sent out from the small group of towns adjoining Hanleyand Stoke, and usually classed as the “ Staffordshire Potteries.” In this district has been centred for many years the best experience and the most able crafts- men of the trade; so that, through the traditions of several generations, the manu- facture has arrived at its present high condition of excellence. As in the case of some textile industries, the best traditions of the craft have been handed down from craft, we cannot do better than venture upon a short visit to one or two typical factories. On entering at the wide iron gates, we are confronted by the timekeeper’s office, at which every worker registers his entrance. Small workshops and lofty machine-rooms seem to fill up the enclosure in apparently irregular confusion. Here and there an assistant is crossing from one shop to another with some piece of ware to be matched. We find that on the ground floor, where we now stand, we are brought into contact with three distinct