Burleigh Pottery

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Teapot, 1896, Burgess & Leigh V&A Museum no. C.277&A-1983

Burleigh Pottery is the current name of a pottery (earthenware manufacturer) in Middleport, Staffordshire built next to the Trent and Mersey Canal. The nineteenth-century pottery is a listed building. [1]The factory was established in 1851 at the Central Pottery in Burslem as Hulme and Booth. The pottery was taken over in 1862 by William Leigh and Frederick Rathbone Burgess, and traded from that date as Burgess & Leigh. The trademark "Burleigh", used from the 1930s, is a combination of the two names.

The works moved first in 1868 to the Hill Pottery in Burslem and then in 1889 to the present factory at Middleport, regarded at the time of its construction as a model pottery.

Leigh and Burgess died in 1889 and 1895 respectively, and were succeeded by their sons, Edmund Leigh and Richard Burgess. On Richard's death in 1912, the business passed entirely into the ownership of the Leigh family. In 1919 it became private limited company, Burgess & Leigh Limited.

The years between the wars are often regarded as the company's "golden age", with a number of extremely talented designers and artists such as Harold Bennett, Charles Wilkes and Ernest Baily. Perhaps the best known was Charlotte Rhead, who worked here between 1926 and 1931, noted particularly for her work in tube-lining. By 1939, the factory was employing over 500 people.

The business took great pains, from as early as 1897, to build up a thriving export network, concentrating primarily on the Empire (later Commonwealth) and American markets, but focussing later also on Europe.

After a run of financial difficulty the company was sold in 1999 to the Dorling family, and now trades as Burgess Dorling & Leigh. The company specialises in traditionally shaped and patterned domestic earthenware of high quality.