The
Etruria Works was a ceramics factory opened by
Josiah WedgwoodJosiah Wedgwood was an English potter, credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery. A prominent abolitionist, Wedgwood is remembered for his "Am I Not A Man And A Brother?" anti-slavery medallion. He was a member of the Darwin-Wedgwood family...
in 1769 in a district of
Stoke-on-TrentStoke-on-Trent is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme and Kidsgrove, Stoke forms the The Potteries Urban Area...
,
StaffordshireStaffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, England, which he named
EtruriaEtruria is a suburb of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England.-Home of Wedgwood:Etruria was the fourth and penultimate site for the Wedgwood pottery business. Josiah Wedgwood, who was previously based in Burslem, opened his new works in 1769. It was named after the Italian district of Etruria,...
. Wedgwood had previously based his business in the nearby town of
BurslemThe town of Burslem, known as the Mother Town, is one of the six towns that amalgamated to form the current city of Stoke-on-Trent, in the ceremonial county of Staffordshire, in the Midlands of England.-Topography:...
at the Ivy House Works and the Brick House Works (demolished - the
Wedgwood InstituteThe Wedgwood Institute is a large red-brick building that stands in Queen Street, in the town of Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. It is sometimes called the Wedgwood Memorial Institute, but it is not to be confused with the Wedgwood Memorial College in Barlaston...
is built on its site).
In 1767 Wedgwood paid about three thousand pounds for his new site, which was then known as the Ridgehouse Estate.
The
Etruria Works was a ceramics factory opened by
Josiah WedgwoodJosiah Wedgwood was an English potter, credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery. A prominent abolitionist, Wedgwood is remembered for his "Am I Not A Man And A Brother?" anti-slavery medallion. He was a member of the Darwin-Wedgwood family...
in 1769 in a district of
Stoke-on-TrentStoke-on-Trent is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme and Kidsgrove, Stoke forms the The Potteries Urban Area...
,
StaffordshireStaffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, England, which he named
EtruriaEtruria is a suburb of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England.-Home of Wedgwood:Etruria was the fourth and penultimate site for the Wedgwood pottery business. Josiah Wedgwood, who was previously based in Burslem, opened his new works in 1769. It was named after the Italian district of Etruria,...
. Wedgwood had previously based his business in the nearby town of
BurslemThe town of Burslem, known as the Mother Town, is one of the six towns that amalgamated to form the current city of Stoke-on-Trent, in the ceremonial county of Staffordshire, in the Midlands of England.-Topography:...
at the Ivy House Works and the Brick House Works (demolished - the
Wedgwood InstituteThe Wedgwood Institute is a large red-brick building that stands in Queen Street, in the town of Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. It is sometimes called the Wedgwood Memorial Institute, but it is not to be confused with the Wedgwood Memorial College in Barlaston...
is built on its site).
In 1767 Wedgwood paid about three thousand pounds for his new site, which was then known as the Ridgehouse Estate. It lay directly in the path of the
Trent and Mersey CanalThe Trent and Mersey Canal is a 93.5 miles long canal in the East Midlands, West Midlands, and North West of England. It is mostly a "narrow canal" but east of Burton upon Trent, it is a wide canal .-History:As its name implies, the Trent and Mersey...
of which Wedgwood was a promoter. On one side of the canal Wedgwood built a large house,
Etruria HallEtruria Hall in Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England was the home of the potter Josiah Wedgwood. It was built between 1768–1771 by Joseph Pickford....
and on the other side a factory. His architect was
Joseph PickfordJoseph Pickford was an English architect, one of the leading provincial architects in the reign of George III.Pickford's initial training was undertaken under the sculptor Joseph Pickford , at his Hyde Park, London premises...
.
The motto of the Etruria works was
Artes Etruriae Renascuntur. This may be translated from the Latin as "The Arts of Etruria are reborn".
Wedgwood was interested in the ancient pottery collected by Sir
William HamiltonSir William Hamilton, KB was a Scottish diplomat, antiquarian, archaeologist and vulcanologist.Hamilton was the fourth son of Lord Archibald Hamilton, governor of Jamaica. He was commissioned into the 3rd Foot Guards in 1747 and was promoted Lieutenant in 1753...
in Italy.. The modeller
John FlaxmanJohn Flaxman , was an English sculptor and draughtsman.-Early life:He was born in York. His father was also named John, after an ancestor who, according to family tradition, had fought for Parliament at the Battle of Naseby, and afterwards settled as a carrier or farmer in Buckinghamshire...
was able to adapt these classical designs for the eighteenth-century market.
The products of Wedgwood's factory were greatly admired in Britain and abroad. Some of Flaxman's designs are still in production today.
Little remains of the factory today, although one surviving structure is now protected as a
listed building
. The site was affected by mining subsidence, and most of the factory was demolished after the Wedgwood company moved production to
BarlastonBarlaston is a village and civil parish in the borough of Stafford in the county of Staffordshire, England. It is roughly halfway between the city of Stoke-on-Trent and the small town of Stone. According to the 2001 census the population of the parish was 2,659.-History:The old parish church of...
some miles south on the Trent and Mersey Canal. Part of the site is now occupied by the local newspaper
The SentinelThe Sentinel is a daily regional newspaper circulating in the North Staffordshire and South Cheshire area. It is currently owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust under the Northcliffe Media publishing group and based at Sentinel House, Etruria Stoke-on-Trent.The publication, which became a...
.