Coalport History  |
 The Coalport China Museum stands on the site of the former Coalport China Works. The China Works occupied this site from 1796 to 1926, producing fine bone china. The Works opened as a Museum in 1976, to preserve the buildings and history of the site.
Until the late 18th Century Coalport as a place did not exist; there was nothing here but riverside meadows. Then in 1788 William Reynolds, a local entrepreneur and businessman, began to drive a canal through the meadows to connect the Shropshire canal, which served the East Shropshire coalfield, with the River Severn. The Hay Incline Plane was constructed to link the Shropshire canal at the top of what is now Blists Hill with the lower section of canal through Coalport.
 By 1793 the canal and the incline plane were fully operational. The canal made Coalport an important transport hub in the local area, new industries were established in the former riverside meadows, and housing soon followed. The new settlement came to be called ‘Coalport’ after the coal that was transferred from canal to river vessels at this junction.
The most important industry to be attracted to the new settlement of Coalport was the china manufacturing enterprise of John Rose. John Rose began his career as an apprentice at the Caughley Porcelain Manufactory on the opposite bank of the Severn. In 1793 he established his own porcelain manufactory at Jackfield, in partnership with local businessman Edward Blakeway; this moved to Coalport two years later and was located besides the canal, on the site of the present day YHA. By 1799 John Rose’s business at Coalport was flourishing and he was able to purchase his former employer’s failing porcelain works at Caughley.
 John Rose was not the only manufacturer of porcelain at Coalport in the early 19th Century. His younger brother Thomas Rose established a china works at Coalport in 1800, in partnership with William Reynolds (replaced after his death in 1803 by Robert Anstice) and William Horton. This was located on the opposite side of the canal from John Rose’s Works, on the site of the present day Museum. For a number of years the two china manufactories existed side by side, producing many similar patterns and shapes. However in 1814 John Rose bought out his younger brother’s business and merged the two companies. The Works at Caughley were abandoned and production was focused on Coalport.
The China Works of John Rose & Co received another boost in 1820, when John Rose acquired equipment and personnel from the porcelain factories of Swansea and Nantgarw in South Wales. Improvements were made to the body of the china and the factory began to acquire a reputation for high quality decoration. A number of highly skilled painters, such as Birbeck, Aston and Kelshall, were employed, in addition to a large workforce of more routine painters, enamellers, and gilders. By the time of his death in 1841, John Rose had built a financially sound and artistically first-rate company, which was one of the leading producers of British porcelain at the time.
 The factory continued to prosper under the ownership of William Pugh and William Frederick Rose, who inherited the business after the death of John Rose. The international exhibitions which took place between 1851 and 1872 gave Coalport designers the chance to show their excellence, and provided a spur for technical improvements. By the mid 19th Century the standard of factory decoration had reached a peak. Among an array of talented artists, William Cook specialized in flower painting, John Randall was famous for his bird painting, whilst Robert Abraham produced outstanding cherubs. The factory’s output at this period was dominated by the influence of the French Sèvres factory, and in particular the development of vivid Sèvres-style ground colours. The pink Rose-du-Barry colour was perfected by Coalport just in time for display at the Great Exhibition of 1851.
Despite the success of its ambitious ornamental wares, from the late 1860s the Coalport factory began to experience financial difficulties. This was perhaps because a concentration on the production of fine ornamental china had led to a decline in the quality of the everyday tablewares produced by the factory. By the time of the death of William Pugh in 1875 the factory had substantial debts, and it was taken into receivership in 1876.
 In 1881 the Coalport factory was purchased by Peter Schuyler Bruff of Ipswich. Production of ornamental wares and tablewares continued in much the same style as before, until in 1889 Charles Bruff, the son of Peter Schuyler Bruff, took over the management of the factory and set about restoring it to its former glory. Charles Bruff converted the business to a private company with a new name – Coalport China Company (John Rose & Co) Ltd, and for the first time employed an art director, Thomas Bott, to improve the quality of the porcelain and the range of decoration.
Under the direction of Bruff and Bott the Coalport factory once again rose to pre-eminence in the china industry. A wide range of vases and other decorative wares were produced, frequently featuring a dark cobalt blue ground with ornate gilding and high quality painted panels. Standard tablewares and teawares were decorated with a range of simple but effective patterns which drew on the factory’s extensive back catalogue of designs.
 Unfortunately this revival was not enough to enable the Coalport factory to withstand the general depression in the pottery industry which followed the First World War. The decline of the important American market, the economic slump of the early 1920s and the increasing geographical isolation of the factory’s location at Coalport all led to heavy financial losses in the 1920s. Charles Bruff was obliged to sell the Works to Cauldon Potteries in 1925. The following year, 1926, the factory at Coalport was closed and production was transferred to Stoke-on-Trent. After several changes of ownership Coalport China became part of the Wedgwood group in 1967, where it continues to flourish to this day.
The vacant factory site at Coalport was used by other industries during the mid 20th Century, but by the 1970s it was virtually derelict. Luckily the significance of the site was recognized and in 1976 it was opened to the public as one of the Ironbridge Gorge Museums. Today we are proud to be able to continue to tell our visitors the story of this important local industry and world famous china company.
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