John Tams was born on Stafford street, Longton in 1837. He started work as an apprentice potter in the early years and eventually went into partnership with William Lowe, manufacturing pottery on the High Street. Longton.
In 1874 John Tams purchased Crown Pottery located on the corner of Commerce Street and the High Street. Originally specialising in imperial measurement ware for hotels and public houses, he later moved onto more commercial earthenware to broaden his market.
In 1903 the factory became “John Tams & sons” and later “John Tams LTD” in 1912 with the building housing 3 bottle kilns none of which have survived.
The factory closed in 2000 and on 11th April 2014 the factory was deliberately set on fire causing a huge amount of damage and leaving sections of it needing urgent demolition.
Living quite local we had been past here loads of time so we had already figured out our route in, the large back section on the building is completely gone so no climbing through windows or dangerous suicide moves needed today. Internally the place has been completely trashed, the floor is littered with paint pots and ceramic transfers not to mention all the various bits of office furniture scattered about.
The midsection of the building is missing parts of the roof and as a result has some serious element damage however, it does provide a heaven for a few hundred pigeons and a lodger who seemed more surprised to see us than we were him and after exchanging mutual muttered “Alrights?” he wandered off leaving us to it.
The large industrial kilns are still fitted into the building with several bits of large machinery also still housed in the remains of the factory. In fact there was quite a large amount of items still left inside, one room the left of the building is filled with thousands of ceramic transfers not including those strewn all over the factory floor.
The upper floor is also accessible but completely stripped and vandalised, as is the showroom towards the front of the building. The office is filled with wage dockets and invoices but also home to the lodger so we left well alone and moved on to another part of the factory.
There’s a distinct chemical smell all around and with several wall mounted signs warning of instant dismissal if red dye is incorrectly disposed of the industrial atmosphere is still thick in the air. A lot of the remaining earthenware and ceramics have gone apart from the odd few littered about.
Looking round I get the feeling that the state of the building is not just down to the 10 plus years of neglect but another case of a building filled with local heritage suffering at the hands of vandals.
UrbexBaby 