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Other Films and Videos

Thanks to Phil Rowley of the Facebook site Potteries of Stoke on Trent for identifying many of the films listed below, available on YouTube and initially presented at the Gladstone Museum. List supplemented by suggestions from other individuals. If you have a recommendation, contact the TCC Web Administrator.

Canals Ceramics Excursions & Holidays Mining Overview Techniques Richard Halliday Steel TCC Sponsored Videos

Canals

Potbanks

(length 02:25 start 00:05))
The importance of canals to the pottery industry

Trent Valley, Staffordshire

(1926) (length 00:21)
A very short canal sequence at Etruria near the Wedgwood factory showing Shelton steelworks in the background : again using the Friese-Green colour method.

Ceramics

BBC Video on Transferware from the 1856 Wreck of the Josephine Willis

j willis old pic

Ceramics and the Early American Frontier

Now available for online viewing, a lecture by TCC Board Member Brenda Hornsby Heindl, “Forging an American Identity Through Clay:  Ceramics and the Early American Frontier.  Courtesy of the Frontier Culture Museum, Staunton, VA.

Dining with Dolley at Montpelier

In this special video from Montpelier, the home of the fourth president of the United States, James Madison, and his vivacious wife Dolley, Montpelier’s Visiting Curator of Ceramics, Leslie Lambour Bouterie, highlights the beautiful printed Chinoiserie patterns and interesting forms regularly used for dining, at Montpelier. For more information about this historic site: www.montpelier.org

Firing a Downdraught Beehive Kiln

Excellent 25 minute film on Irish clay pipe manufacture, and in particular, the firing of a downdraught beehive kiln.  Great imagery and music!

Thanks to Terry Woolliscroft for bringing this to our attention.

Gladstone Pottery Museum Walk Through

gladstone pottery walk through gladstone pottery walk through
Click on image to see larger version.

Thank you to Terry Woolliscroft for directing us to this exciting walk through tour of the Gladstone Pottery Museum.  Those of us who have visited will enjoy “returning”, and those who have never visited will profit from this virtual visit, and hopefully will be inspired to visit in person.

Josiah Wedgwood, The Genius

Historian and author AN Wilson explores the life of his great hero, Josiah Wedgwood. As one of the founding fathers of the Industrial Revolution, Wegdwood was a self-made, self-educated creative giant, whose other achievements might be better known if he wasn't so celebrated for his pottery. 

Martha Stewart with TCC member Rita Cohen

Willow china video featuring Martha Stewart with TCC member Rita Cohen.

Moving Minton: Virtual Store Tours

Back in November 2022 the Minton Archive pointed towards the City Archives’ new microsite, Stoke-on-Trent City Archives is Moving, which has been built to provide information and status updates related to the service’s upcoming move to a dedicated space within The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery. As part of that remit the Moving Blog was set up to help the team show some of the ongoing work behind the scenes… and now it’s spawned a blog!

These video blog posts revolve around a series of virtual Store Tours designed to show off some of the strongrooms and secure spaces not usually accessible to the public, and we thought we’d highlight the first two vlogs here as they both include references to the Minton Archive. In the first, a walk round the basement strongrooms of “B” and “C”, our cameo appearance occurs near the middle at the 2:10 mark when some of the Minton Archive’s shelved items, including the Art & Design folio boxes, get a mention. If, during the almost seven years of Folio Friday instalments, you’ve ever wondered where these beautiful items have been resting when out of the limelight, here’s your answer!

Pots with Attitude: British Satire on Ceramics 1750-1820

Patricia Ferguson, Project Curator at the British Museum offers an examination of a uniquely British innovation – cream-coloured earthenware transfer-printed with political propaganda, attacks on the clergy, or the latest royal scandal, that swiftly broadcast current events throughout the United Kingdom and overseas. Mostly made in Staffordshire but printed elsewhere, these designs openly reproduced the graphic satires of London’s leading caricaturists on to mugs, jugs, and plates, which were sold at a fraction of the price of the originals, disseminating their controversial messages to all levels of society. 

Credit to Susan Ferguson for bringing this video to our attention.

Pottery Ladies - UK TV Documentary - Clarice Cliff

(length 25:53 start 03:00 stop 13:00)

Report from Stoke on preservation of kilns

Year:  1971   Duration:  0:02:54   Genre: Television News

Description: Shots of dilapidated pottery kilns at Stoke on Trent. Sue Jay talks to the Director of Spode, Robert Copeland and Councillor Colin Prosser about hopes to preseve the kilns and turn them into a working industrial museum.

Robert Copeland on Spode

With the passing of Robert Copeland in September of 2010, the Transferware Collectors Club's production of the DVD Robert Copeland on Spode, completed just two years earlier in September of 2008, becomes a particularly important way to retain Robert's insightful comments on the Pottery Industry and the key roll Spode played in the development of underglaze printed wares and England's own version of fine porcelain: bone china.  Interviewed by ceramics scholar Deborah Skinner and captured on DVD at Chester University, England,  Robert discusses a variety of key topics related to the Spode family of potters, their products, and the times in which they prospered. Read more.

Spode Factory Virtual Tour of the Mold Archives

Under the direction of Professor Neil Brownsword, Staffordshire University and in cooperation with the Spode Museum Trust, the ceramic molds stored in four rooms located at the historic Spode factory site were digitized and are now available online for you to enjoy.

Stoke-On-Trent, Etruria Industrial Museum – Flint Processing

Presented by Bernard Lovatt

Thanks to Phil Rowley of the Gladstone Museum in Stoke-On-Trent for bringing this one of four videos related to flint, an important element of pottery production. The videos were produced by SoT Heritage Network.  A number of our members will recall visiting the Cheddleton Flint Mill as part of our 2004 meeting at Stoke.

Look for these other Stoke-On-Trent videos: 

  • The History of Flint in the Pottery Industry - An Overview, Presented by Phil Rowley
  • James Kent Ceramic Materials – Flint Calcining Kilns, Presented by Mark Beresford
  • The Legacy of Flint in the Potteries, Presented by Andy Perkin
Stoke-On-Trent, James Kent Ceramic Materials – Flint Calcining Kilns

Presented by Mark Beresford

Thanks to Phil Rowley of the Gladstone Museum in Stoke-On-Trent for bringing this one of four videos related to flint, an important element of pottery production. The videos were produced by SoT Heritage Network.  A number of our members will recall visiting the Cheddleton Flint Mill as part of our 2004 meeting at Stoke.

Look for these other Stoke-On-Trent videos: 

  • The History of Flint in the Pottery Industry - An Overview, Presented by Phil Rowley
  • Etruria Industrial Museum – Flint Processing, Presented by Bernard Lovatt
  • The Legacy of Flint in the Potteries, Presented by Andy Perkin
Stoke-On-Trent, The History of Flint in the Pottery Industry - An Overview

Presented by Phil Rowley

Thanks to Phil Rowley of the Gladstone Museum in Stoke-On-Trent for bringing this one of four videos related to flint, an important element of pottery production. The videos were produced by SoT Heritage Network.  A number of our members will recall visiting the Cheddleton Flint Mill as part of our 2004 meeting at Stoke.

Look for these other Stoke-On-Trent videos: 

  • Etruria Industrial Museum – Flint Processing, Presented by Bernard Lovatt
  • James Kent Ceramic Materials – Flint Calcining Kilns, Presented by Mark Beresford
  • The Legacy of Flint in the Potteries, Presented by Andy Perkin
     
Stoke-On-Trent, The Legacy of Flint in the Potteries

Presented by Andy Perkin

Thanks to Phil Rowley of the Gladstone Museum in Stoke-On-Trent for bringing this one of four videos related to flint, an important element of pottery production. The videos were produced by SoT Heritage Network.  A number of our members will recall visiting the Cheddleton Flint Mill as part of our 2004 meeting at Stoke.

Look for these other Stoke-On-Trent videos: 

  • The History of Flint in the Pottery Industry - An Overview, Presented by Phil Rowley
  • Etruria Industrial Museum – Flint Processing, Presented by Bernard Lovatt
  • James Kent Ceramic Materials – Flint Calcining Kilns, Presented by Mark Beresford
The Prince’s Regeneration Trust Supports Middleport Pottery, the Last Working English Pottery Using 19th Century Methods


His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales visited Middleport Pottery on the 25th October 2011. The Prince's Regeneration Trust have embarked on an ambitious and long-term project which will see the conservation and regeneration of the entire site.

Twyfords in the 1920s and 1930s

(length 04:37 start 00:40)

Wedgewood Pottery (1966)

(length 02:22)

Wedgwood Etruria Pottery, Staffordshire (1926)

(length 01:18)
This film made before genuine colour film was available using William Friese-Greene's technique with the image being passed through colour filters onto black and white film stock : alternating frames were then stained red or green and, when projected, gave a reasonable colour effect.

Wedgwood Pottery (1966)

(length 02:45)

Wonderful North Carolina Jug

north carolina jug full north carolina jug enlarged north carolina jug mark

View Antiques Roadshow video of a rare Liverpool jug "A North View of Govr. Wallace’s Shell Castle & Harbour North Carolina”.  Valued by the Roadshow appraiser at $8,000-$12,000, with only one other documented example known. Thanks to TCC members Cerelle Bolon and Loren Zeller.

Worcester porcelain’s King George III Mug

Museum of Royal Worcester showstopper piece with accompanying short film giving insights. Worcester porcelain’s King George III Mug is one of the earliest examples of transfer-printing.

 

Excursions and Holidays

Alton Towers

(1966) (length 02:20)

Stoke Garden Festival 1986

 

(length 02:04)

 

Trentham Gardens Issue Title Up And Over

(1942) (length 01:22)
 

Mining

Bevin Boys

 

(1944-1945) (length 03:32)

 

Coal Fields of North Staffordshire

(length 25:07 start 01:00 stop 11:00)

Overview

1959 Stoke on Trent Skyline, Smoking Chimneys, Industrial

(length 02:07)

Bound By Clay: Celebrating Women’s Contribution to Ceramics in Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire

Bound by Clay: celebrating women's contribution to ceramics, in Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire. Heritage Lottery Funded Stoke & North Staffs Women's Network, filmed by Inspired Film

Five Towns Extracts

(length 02:04)

A 1950s (?) film about the 'five' towns.

Hometown

Stoke (1959) (length 01:01)

Panorama of Stoke-on-Trent, ca. 1952

An excellent short panorama showing factories, smoking pottery kilns, and housing ca. 1952. Less than two minutes. Courtesy Phil Rowley and Facebook site Pottery of Stoke on Trent.

Stoke museums - Midlands Today 02/07/2022

News Video about how the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire is planning major budget cuts to The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery and to Gladstone Pottery Museum. 

Stoke on Trent - Past in pictures

(length 02:02)

The Fifties in the U.K. Film 90521

(length 01:51) - silent film

The fifties in the UK - black and white archive of postwar Britain - streets in the Potteries and other parts of the country.

The Potteies in the 1960s

Excellent 26 minute film with footage of the potteries, interviews with owners and workers, and much more.

Pottery and Transfer-Printing Techniques

Big Pots Thrown at Arrington Reay

David Lawson and Ian Lowes throw two huge garden pots at super fast speed with great music at the factory of Errington Reay, Barton Mill, near Hexham, Northumberland, England. Ian uses the original fork lift to move the pots to the drying area. The original founders, Errington and Reay, established their pottery at Bardon Mill in 1878. The pots are thrown, and when dry, fired in a coal fired downdraught kiln and salt glazed.

Demonstration of Copper Plate Engraving and Printing

An excellent seven minute video demonstrating the process of engraving a copper plate, and then printing from the plate. Presented by the Rhode Island School of Design.

English Puzzle Jugs! How were they made?

In this video Michelle Erickson recreates an 18th-century puzzle jug from the V&As collection.
Michelle Erickson was Ceramics Resident: World Class Maker at the V&A, July – September 2012.

How to Make a Toilet

Vitreous China Manufacture; training film from Twyford Bathrooms, 2007.

Slip Casting at the Emma Bridgewater Factory
The Potters’ Fire - The Art & Craft of 19th Century Salt Glazed Pottery

Join master potter Mark Presher as he ushers us into the past, bringing to life the fine craftsmanship of the nineteenth century potter.

Richard Halliday YouTube Transferware Channel

Transfer Printing Demonstration at Spode - Blue & White Transferware

Steel

Shelton Steelworks in the 1930s

Date: unknown

Length: 00:01:33

This is the only old film of Shelton Bar I have managed to locate.