Swansea’s growth from seaport and market town to principal industrial centre resulted in the appearance of a prosperous middle class within its inhabitants. The combination of prime industrial site and new market demands led to the development of a ceramics industry that was to achieve world-renown.
The Cambrian Pottery founded in the eighteenth century, benefited from an input of ideas based on the successful business strategies of Josiah Wedgwood as well as a stream of extremely talented ceramic artists. By the nineteenth century the pottery was producing porcelain that rivalled that of Sevres and is still very collectable.
Its neighbour in the Strand was the Glamorgan Pottery, which although relatively small in size maintained a range and quality of output over a quarter of a century that few potteries of a comparable size could achieve. Whilst in nearby Landore, Callands Pottery also produced earthenware in the mid-nineteenth century.
Find out more…
Read more about industry in Swansea… The Lower Swansea Valley Project
