Archenfield Archaeology Ltd

Royal Worcester Porcelain

company history

Worcester was blessed with three porcelain works that were established in the following order - Flight and Barr (Dr Wall) (1751), Chamberlain’s (c1786) and Grainger’s (1801). They were dotted around the outskirts of the city with Dr Wall taking a site by the River Severn whilst Chamberlain’s and Grainger’s had the good sense to anticipate the impending arrival of the Birmingham & Worcester Canal by choosing sites close to its proposed course . However they had to wait until 1815 before their hopes were satisfied. All three were ultimately to find their way onto the site which is the subject of this project. 

Around 1751 Dr (John) Wall took over the stock and secrets of Lund’s Bristol Porcelain Factory making soft-paste porcelain using Cornish soapstone (steatite). Around 1755 Wall took on William Davis as manager who introduced transfer printing; a process which made porcelain more widely available. By 1783 both Wall and Davis were dead and the works was taken over by Thomas Flight for his sons Joseph and John. In 1793 Martin Barr became a partner and the works continued with family connections until 1840 under various combinations of these families:

·         1783 to 1804 – Flight and Barr (Martin Barr joins Flights)

·         1804 to 1813 – Barr, Flight and Barr (Royal China Manufactory)

·         1813 to 1840 – Flight, Barr and Barr (Royal Porcelain Works)

In 1840 they amalgamated with Chamberlain’s and in 1847 moved wholly onto the Diglis site.

No doubt the riverside site was proving inconvenient for Flight and Barr and the move to a site adjacent to the Birmingham & Worcester Canal was logical after it opened in 1815. Thus from 1840 the site was set for expansion.

In 1801, towards the north-east of the city, Thomas Grainger (son-in-law of Robert Chamberlain) founded the New China Works in St Martin’s Gate which traded as Grainger Wood and Company. In 1812 Thomas Grainger died and his son took over the works continuing under the name of Granger, Lee and Company until 1839, when they reverted to ‘George Grainger and Company’ until 1860. During this period they became famous for their reticulated porcelain, Parian Ware, and semi-porcelain, and exhibited at the Great Exhibition. From 1860 to 1889 Grainger and Company produced soft-paste porcelain and bone china, but in 1889 they were bought by Royal Worcester Porcelain. Production continued at St Martin’s Gate until 1902 when there was a total transfer to Diglis.

Birmingham Archaeology has recently excavated well preserved remains of the Grainger works at what is now the Lowesmoor Trading Estate, where a major development is proposed.

Meanwhile on the Diglis site there were major changes taking place after the Flight and Barr final move onto the site in 1847. Robert Chamberlain had founded the works c1786 and the canal had arrived by 1815. The firm was still known as Chamberlain and Company until 1852 when William H Kerr and Richard Binns (now styled Kerr and Binns) firmly established themselves so that by 1862 a joint stock company was formed under the title of ‘Royal Worcester Porcelain Company’ - a title it maintained until 1976 with some slight variations (1865 to 1880 The Royal Porcelain Works Worcester, see reworked plan of 1863, Figure 20). During the regime of Kerr and Binns, Parian Ware and model figures were introduced, and a blue based decorated Limoges Ware. As we have seen the final amalgamation took place in 1889 with Grainger’s move. Another acquisition was the nearby Hadley works which Royal Worcester bought on 30th June 1905. 

Between 1912 and 1953 Charles William Dyson Perrins was prominent. A museum of Worcester wares was established in the former school which fronts onto Severn Street (the disused school in the present car park was an Infants’ School). In 1976 the firm became Royal Worcester Spode Limited.                                     

Communications played a vital part in bringing in flint and clays. In 1751 the Severn was a major industrial thoroughfare and its direct links with Bristol were an incentive to the establishment of the first Worcester works. Chamberlain’s were conveniently placed with the opening of Birmingham & Worcester Canal: it was no accident that Grainger’s were established almost concurrently with the opening of the canal and lay reasonably within reach of the basin which lay to the north-east of Worcester. The arrival of the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway in 1854 and the Worcester & Hereford Railway in 1860 played no obvious part in the communications fortunes of the works. Thus they were wed to the B&W Canal.