Description:Photograph of a drawing.
Proposed design for the new Wedgwood Factory front at Barlaston, by architectural practice C.S. White and Keith Murray.
Josiah Wedgwood (1730 - 1795) began his apprenticeship as a potter in 1744. He started his own pottery business at Ivy House in Burslem 1759. As Wedgwood experiment with new techniques and glazes, his business expanded and he moved to the Brick House or Bell works in 1762.
In 1766 he began to plan a new factory on the Ridge House estate, which he named 'Etruria' after the ancient Etruscan potters.
The present factory was built 1938 - 1940 on the Barlaston estate, purchased from the Broughton- Adderley family in 1936. The move from Etruria only took place in 1950, due to the intervention of the Second World War.