Jiggering at Gladstone.

Description:Pottery factory interior with a view inside a flatmaking workshop.

The worker is seated at a jiggering bench.

Jiggering was a way of fashioning flat wares using a combination of moulds and profile tools on a rotating wheel.

One side of the ware would be shaped by being pressed onto the mould. The other side would be shaped by the action of the profile tool on the rotating clay.

The moulds can be seen on the shelves behind the workers.

This picture was taken at Gladstone China, Uttoxeter Road, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent in the 1950s.

The factory ceased production in the early 1970s but after restoration re-opened as Gladstone Pottery Museum.

The gentleman sitting at the bench is named Mr. Onions.

Terminology

The terms jolleying and jiggering are often used to describe the same thing.

Jolleying is the older of the two terms and has regularly been used to describe any pottery making using rotating moulds and profile tools.

However, large sections of the pottery industry have made distinctions between the two terms. These seem dependant on whether hollow or flat ware is being made.

Jolleying - where the profile tool forms the using side of the ware, such as the inner suface of a cup.

Jiggering - where the mould forms the using side of the ware, such as the upper surface of plates and saucers.

Taken from the Gladstone Pottery Museum Photographic Collection.

This photograph is part of the collections at Stoke-on-Trent Museums.