Bone china contains animal bones
Ever wondered how bone china got its name? Bone china contains 50% animal bone. That’s ordinary animal bone, delivered fresh and bloody from the local butchers to the Coalport China Works. The bones were scrubbed clean (mind the maggots), burnt, then ground up and mixed with Cornish china clay and Cornish stone to form bone china. Next time you drink from a bone china cup, try not to remember what its made from.

China workers suffered from the dreaded "Potters" Rot’
Lead, one of the most toxic substances known to man, was used to create the wonderful colours and decoration on Coalport china in the 19th Century. Painters and glaze-dippers at the Works absorbed the lead into their bloodstream through the skin or through licking the tips of paintbrushes. Eventually they ran the risk of developing lead poisoning, which was so prevalent in the pottery industry it was known as ‘Potters’ Rot’. It could result in paralysis or even death. Its perhaps not surprising that one of the workshops at the Works was known as the Cemetery Building.

China workers smuggled beer into the Works
Workers at the Coalport China Works liked to drink on the job. They were so keen on a nice cold drop of beer to wet their whistle during the working day that they would smuggle bottles of beer into the Works through the windows of workshops facing the riverbanks. Not surprisingly the management weren’t amused – any worker caught bringing beer into the Works was fined half a crown, half a potter’s weekly wage. But the workers had good reasons for their drinking habits, they believed beer drinking could help prevent lead poisoning.

Children as young as 10 years old worked at Coalport
Find it hard to get up for school in the morning? Children as young as 10 years old had to get up at 5am to go to work at the Coalport China Works. And it was hard work too. The typical working day in the 19th century was 12 hours long, from 6am to 6pm, and children were employed to do the most menial and arduous tasks. Young boys might spend all day turning the flywheel which operated the jigger and jolley, a sophisticated version of the potter’s wheel, or carrying heavy loads between the workshops.

Workers had to dodge the rats if they wanted to visit the loo
The toilets at the Works were so horrible that young girls working at Coalport in the early 20th Century would only visit them in pairs. They were afraid of the rats which infested the unhygienic facilities. The health and comfort of the workers was clearly not a priority for the management of the China Works. The former workshops of the factory may seem charming today, but many were poorly designed and badly ventilated, creating a build-up of clay dust in the atmosphere which put workers at risk from pneumoconiosis, a dust disease of the lungs which could prove fatal.

Twenty-eight workers lost their lives when the Coalport ferry capsized
On a dark and stormy night in October 1799 forty-one Coalport workers were crossing the River Severn on the Coalport ferry to return to their homes on the opposite bank after a hard day’s work. The river was in flood, and the ferryman, new to his job and drunk into the bargain, allowed the craft to swing around in mid-stream. In the middle of the swollen river the ferry was drawn under by the rope which ran from its mast to the bed of the river. Twenty-eight workers were drowned. So fast was the river flowing that many bodies were found the next morning a great distance away, and some were never found.

The Coalport China Works really stank
Some of the smells at the China Works were really disgusting. The worst smell was the stench from the animal bones which had to be burnt to make bone china. The manager cleverly lived upwind of the Works, to avoid the dreadful stink of the burning bones. The workers, stuck in their overcrowded unhygienic workshops, also had to put up with the terrible smell of the ‘spirit of tar’ used to clean copper plates for the printing process. Even the bone china clay smelt when it went off.

Allegations of theft from the Works were rife
Wages at the China Works were often low. An apprentice might earn as little as 3s 2d a week, although the highly skilled painters at the factory could take home up to £6 a week. Not surprisingly some workers looked for other means to supplement their meagre income, and allegations of theft from the factory were rife. It was said that workers took china home in their lunch pails and that female employees smuggled items out of the factory under their petticoats. However these stories have never been proved.

Husbands took their wives’ stockings into work
Workers employed to stack saggars full of china in the kilns to be fired found a novel use for their wives’s old stockings – they stuffed them into their caps to provide extra padding when they carried the heavy saggars on their heads. And they needed all the extra protection the stockings could give them. The saggars were fireclay boxes which were packed full of the delicate china to protect it in the kiln. A full saggar could weigh up to 25 kg, that’s the same as 25 full bags of sugar.

The heat in the kilns reached a whopping 1250ºc
Fine bone china needs to be fired at an incredibly hot 1250ºc. Perfect conditions for producing a beautiful vase or elegant plate but harsh conditions for the fireman and his assistants who had to endure the high temperatures around the kiln. Exposure to the contrasts in temperature between the cold workshops and hot kilns led some workers to become ill. When the kilns were emptied the saggars were still so hot that they caused workers’ fingers to bleed.