Baker
& Bagnall, Bourne & Baker, Baker & Company Limited
A
History of the Baker Pottery Businesses
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The Bakers of Highfields Story
The Story of the Dods and Bakers and of Highfields,
Fenton House and Hasfield Court. A journey through the history of Cheshire
and Staffordshire, an Anglo-Saxon nobleman who retained his lands after the
Conquest, pottery at Stoke on Trent, an encounter with Elgar, and the history
of an Elizabethan manor house at Audlem |
The family tree of the Bakers of Highfields |
The Family Tree of the Dods, predecessors to the
Bakers of Highfields |
The Bakers of
Fenton House and Hasfield Court
The Family Tree of the pottery Bakers of Stoke on Trent |
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The genealogy of the family of James Hall, linked to
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Baker & Bagnall
Established in 1767 in Fenton, Staffordshire, Baker & Bagnall
was formed when William Baker II partnered with his father-in-law, Thomas
Bagnall. The firm evolved over decades into W. Baker & Co., growing by the
mid nineteenth century into the largest employer in Fenton with nearly 500
workers.
In 1767, William Baker II married Sarah Bagnall, daughter of the
local lord of the manor Thomas Bagnall, and started potting in partnership as
Baker & Bagnall.
William
(II) died in 1784, when his son was only 13, and nine years later, in 1793,
Sarah married again, her new husband being Ralph Bourne, a man of some
consequence, who was also Deputy Lieutenant of the County and a J.P. and who
lived at Hilderstone Hall. Ralph's father, James
Bourne (born 1718) was the third son of John Bourne of Madeley Heath who was a
landowner in Barthomley. James came to Fenton,
presumably to go into the pottery industry, married and had three sons, Ralph, John
and Charles. Ralph Bourne as well as being a potter was a philanthropist. He
had built and endowed, at his own expense, the church at Hilderstone
and, after his marriage to Mrs. Baker extended his generosity to Fenton. He and
William Baker, his step-son, became partners in the
pottery business trading as Bourne and Baker, later taking in Ralph's other
brother, John, the firm then becoming known as Bourne, Baker and Bourne. The factory
was on the North side of City Road, between Manor Street and Fountain Street.
According
to Mankowicz and Haggar's Dictionary they made staple
products exporting them on a considerable scale. Mr. Bellyse Baker told me that
the story passed down on his side of the family was that unglazed red clayware was made and exported to Africa! Whatever the
product, the business flourished and by 1829 they had taken over another
factory opposite to the first. This is the factory mentioned earlier which later
had the iron gates with W. M. B.'s monogram. They also acquired a flint mill
near to the factories. Ward's History of Stoke-on-Trent refers to "the
very extensive earthenware manufactories, which for many years were carried on
by the firm of 'Bourne, Baker and Bourne and raised the proprietors to the
first rank among the eminent and opulent potters who flourished during the
by-gone portion of the present century [i.e. in the nineteenth century]".
Both
William Baker (III) and his step-father Ralph Bourne
built houses near to their factories. Baker's was on
the slightly higher ground at the corner of what is now Glebedale
Road and City Road and Bourne's was a little further along the main road
opposite Victoria Place. Simeon Shaw in his Staffordshire Potteries refers to
them as spacious mansions and says that they were square houses with hipped
roofs. "Bourne's was neat but being only a kind
of business residence was without exterior decoration, his main residence being
Hilderstone Hall. Mr. Baker's was spacious and
commodious surrounded with gardens and pleasure grounds and enjoying a
tolerably extensive prospect". It was called "Fenton House" and
continued to be occupied by various members of the Baker family until almost
the end of the century. The two houses were still there in 1960 but have now
been demolished. Offices are on the site of Bourne's house
and the Elizabeth Findlay Centre occupies part of Baker's site.
(Dodd, F
(1987), The Baker Family and Fenton, Presidential Address in Transactions
1986 to 1987, The North Staffordshire Field Club, page 12 and 13).
Bourne, Baker & Baker
By the late 1820s, Ralph Bourne
and William Baker, in partnership with John Bourne, had acquired an additional
works.
William (III) died in 1833 as did
his partner John Bourne. Ralph Bourne carried on the works with their executors
for a short time but later on he took William (IV) and
John Baker into partnership and the firm traded as Bourne, Baker and Baker.
Two years later, in November 1835,
Ralph Bourne died.
By Ralph Bourne's will, a sum of £2500 was placed in the
hands of trustees (Viscount Sandon and the Rev. R. Bourne Baker) for the
erection of a church in Fenton together with a sum of £1000 for its endowment.
He also gave to John Baker two acres of land upon an implied trust for the site
of the Church and a cemetery. This was the beginning of a remarkable pattern of
benevolence and philanthropy towards Fenton. Both Fenton townships were part of
the large parish of Stoke at this period and they had no church of their own. Henry
Ward was chosen as architect and the church was built roughly on the site of
the present church. The money given was not sufficient to cover the cost and an
additional £3000 was given by Mrs. William Baker (Ralph Bourne's sister). An
East window and organ were also provided by Bourne's family connections, and
the church was dedicated in January 1839. The amounts of money given must be
multiplied by factors well over 100 times to convert to our present values and the
Staffordshire Advertiser's reference, in its obituary notice of Ralph Bourne,
to his various deeds of princely munificence seems entirely justified.
(Dodd, F (1987), The Baker Family and Fenton,
Presidential Address in Transactions 1986 to 1987, The North
Staffordshire Field Club, page 13).
1833 With the deaths of John Bourne and William Baker, the
partnership was dissolved, and then for a short time the business was carried
on by Ralph Bourne, William Baker the younger, and John Baker. By 1839 William
Baker was running the business alone.
Bourne &
Baker
The business later transitioned through family lines, working
alongside the Bourne family as Bourne & Baker by the late 1890s.
From 1839, William Baker ran the operations independently on City Road
in Fenton, producing printed, sponged, and pearl-white granite ware for global
export.
The firm operated its own adjacent colliery (Glebe Colliery) and
brickworks, supplying its massive bottle kilns with local coal and clay.
William Baker & Company
By 1840 William Baker (IV) alone was running the
business and trading as William Baker & Co. Ward says "that these
manufactories combine every advantageous arrangement, with millwork and
machinery for the exercise of the potters
operations". Jewett says the firm produced an ordinary class of printed,
sponged and pearl-white granite ware suitable for the British, North American,
West Indian, African and Indian markets. This confirms the opinion of the
present members of the Baker family who had always understood that the products
were exported to Canada and Africa. He was a highly successful manufacturer and
made a very large fortune from the pottery. Wedgwoods were said to have offered
to take him into partnership but William is said to have
turned the offer down saying that there was more money in selling chamberpots to Canada! (Dodd, F (1987), The
Baker Family and Fenton, Presidential Address in Transactions 1986
to 1987, The North Staffordshire Field Club, page 14).
The
business was subsequently carried on as William Baker and Company, makers of
printed, sponged, and pearl-white granite ware for export. The
company was incorporated as Baker & Co Ltd in 1893.
William Meath Baker (BAK00310)
became High Sheriff of Gloucestershire and W.M.B. married Hannah Mary Corbet, daughter
of Captain R. J. Corbet of Hyeres, France in 1884 and they had three children,
William George Corbet Baker who became a priest in the Church of Rome, Francis
Ralph Meath and Edward John. His wife died in 1906 and he remarried in 1909,
his second wife being Sybil Agatha Wyrley of Norfolk. The business continued to
trade as William Baker & Co. making the printed, sponged and pearl-white
granite ware for export, mainly to Canada, at the factory on the North side of
City Road. The one opposite had changed to the manufacture of encaustic tiles,
still under Wm. Baker & Co. (Dodd, F (1987), The Baker Family and Fenton,
Presidential Address in Transactions 1986 to 1987, The North
Staffordshire Field Club, page 15).
Although
W.M.B. did not take an active part in the running of the factories, he made fairly regular visits to Fenton when he presumably stayed at
Fenton House and, like his uncle William (IV), he was much involved in the development
of public and private buildings in the town. The transfer of local government
from the Parish to Improvement Commissioners in 1839 had necessitated the
provision of some public buildings. The new Improvement Commissioners had built
a Public Office, a Police house, a Police Station, incorporating cells with
bars on the windows and a meeting room cum court-room
on the first floor. But by 1873, a Local Board of Health had been formed and its business was carried out in the Court Room,
which of course, was also needed for the police Court. This was so inconvenient
that negotiations with W.M.B. were undertaken for the Local Board to use the
Athenaeum which he had inherited. Then in 1887 W.M.B. offered to build a larger
building for the use of the Board - this was to be Fenton Town Hall. It was
agreed that the Board would rent the buildings for ten years and surrender
their lease of the Athenaeum, which was then turned into a School of Art.
(Dodd, F (1987), The Baker Family and Fenton,
Presidential Address in Transactions 1986 to 1987, The North
Staffordshire Field Club, page 15).
W.M.B.
continued to be associated with Fenton up to his death in 1935. In 1933 his
name appears on the list of patrons of the Christmas Fair and Bazaar at the
Church. On the first day the Bazaar was opened by Mrs. Baker his
daughter-in-law. The factory ceased trading in the depression year of 1932 and
the major interest of the family in Fenton was reduced there-after. W.M.B.'s
grandson is the present owner of Hasfield
Court and there are sons to continue the line which started with the architect
William Baker and Jane Dod of Highfields.
(Dodd, F (1987), The Baker Family and Fenton,
Presidential Address in Transactions 1986 to 1987, The North
Staffordshire Field Club, page 20).
The enterprise incorporated as Baker & Co Ltd, continuing into
the twentieth century as a volume producer of semi-porcelain and hotel ware
before closing in 1932.
In the 1851 census William
Baker also described himself as Joint Coal Proprietor because the
partnership rented 18 acres of land on the south side of Fenton House which
belonged to Lane End Chapel. Here they opened a colliery called Glebe Colliery
which supplied coal to the factory and to other pottery manufacturers in the
area. Next to the colliery they opened a brickworks
served by an adjacent clay pit.
The potworks flourished under William
Baker’s management and by the middle of the nineteenth century, with almost 500
employees, was the biggest firm in Fenton.
The goods produced here were of the ordinary
class of printed, songed, and pear-white granite ware
suitable for the British North American, United States, West Indian, African,
and Indian markets. Messrs W.Baker
& Co. started in High Street, Fenton, in 1839. In 1868, they moved to the
Fenton Potteries and continued to 1932 (Jewitt,
L, Ceramic Art of Great Britain 1800-1900).
Bibliography
For photographs of Baker pottery, see the A to Z of Stoke on Trent
Potteries.
See also Baker and
Co in Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History.