Customs and working Practices of the Victorian Pottery Factory
This resource describes some of the customs and working practices that were common in pottery factories during the Victorian era (1837 to 1901).
'Good from oven'
This was the practice of only paying potters for the items which successfully fired (i.e. that the factory could sell). This applied to the first (biscuit) firing only and most affected the hollow-ware and flat pressers. The factory owners argued that in many cases, defects in workmanship only became obvious after the firing. After discussion the responsibility for a particular defect was assigned to a particular worker.
Whoever was to blame for defective ware had the cost of the faulty goods deducted from his pay. Faults appearing during the glost and enamel firings could not be blamed on the makers.
In addition, makers were never paid for any ware stolen by other workers. Periods between firings could be as much as ten days. Usually a third of a worker’s wages would be held back until the number of seconds and damaged goods had been determined. There is no doubt that numerous Masters abused the ‘good from oven’ system and that potters lost a considerable amount of money because of it.
The fight to remove ‘Good from Oven’ as a trade practice was to result in many disputes, strikes and lockouts throughout the century. It was abolished for all except the sanitaryware makers in 1919.
The yearly bond
Potters, as a matter of course, were subject to a ‘yearly bond,’ until the system was abolished in 1866. This was a system of short term indenture, lasting for a year and renewable every Martinmas. It was a contract between Master and worker. The bond stated that the potter was bound to work for his master and no one else.
It stated that the potter should work such days as the Master needed him to. Failure to do so frequently led to a spell in the ‘House of Correction’. Numerous prosecutions were brought on the basis of ‘Neglect for Work’ Absenteeism, even if only for two days, could involve a fine of 20 shillings (out of a weekly wage of 35 shillings).
In one case in Stafford, a potter who tried to leave his employer was sentenced to two months on the treadmill.
However the yearly bond need not mean that the employer had to give employment to the worker for every day of the working week. In times of recession workers were often employed for only two or three days a week. But the bond still applied. They could not seek work elsewhere to supplement their incomes.
Most prosecutions seem to have been laid by the small manufacturers. The big companies, such as Minton, Wedgwood and Copelands rarely took cases to the Courts.
The yearly bond was removed in 1866.
Sizes
Pottery-making was paid piece work from a very early stage in the pottery industry. The price-per-dozen of any given item was set. Dissatisfaction among the workers occurred due to disagreement over sizes of ware. Plates for example varied in size by up to 2". Twifflers were about 9" in diameter. Muffins were about 7". Employers often paid the standard rate for muffins even if the workers were making the larger twiffler. From 1853 the Chamber of Commerce established a "Committee on Sizes" to try to standardise these.
The increasing dozen
To decrease wages paid to workers, employers tended to increase the number of items that made up a dozen. Therefore workers could be paid ‘per dozen of 12’, per ‘dozen of 18’ or even ‘per dozen of 24’. The size of the dozen usually increased between contract so that the workers had little real say in influencing conditions of this nature.
Deductions and hidden costs
Employers reduced overheads still further by passing a number of costs on to the potters. Workmen were expected to provide their own tools and candles. They had to provide their own firewood for the stove so necessary to keep themselves warm in the winter.
Later they had to pay for gas and ‘hire charges’. The hire charge was a system of payment whereby the use of machinery such as pugs had to be paid for by the workman. When all else failed, the employer could introduce an 'allowance system’. This device simply meant the employer could deduct fixed sums of money from the potter. This was usually 10% but could frequently be as much as 16%.
Sometimes a deduction called a ‘Third’ was instated. This was a temporary stoppage to provide a fund to pay for "good from oven" monies owed to the employer.
If an employee was paid in change, a deduction of 1d in the pound was made.
The truck system
The truck system, infamous in the 1800s, was a system of ‘payment in kind’ that invariably favoured the employers and in most cases was little more than blatant exploitation and trickery; the image on this page is of a 'broadside ballad,' a popular satirical song about the truck system.
Extract from a letter to the Editor of the Potters Examiner May 20th 1844.
" ...The class of individuals to whom I allude are the china-toy manufacturers; a class that have of late become extensive. These masters will sometimes tell their workpeople that they have got very large orders, and that they want them to work as long and as hard as they can. The men, glad to benefit themselves as well as their employers, make worse than slaves of themselves; and then when pay-day comes, the master will often tell them that he shall not pay them the whole of their earnings, for he is expecting a tradesman to call, who deals in cloth and that he intends to pay them in cloth. I have known cases where men have received only one half of their hard earnings on the paynight; the other half having to be left until the cloth man may call.... and I could tell you of two or three cases where workmen have had their wages stopped to the amount of 5s to 10s per week, for months, for cloth they have not seen..."
The truck system became more organised when potteries set up their own shops. Goods were given in lieu of wages. But the rate was rarely, if ever, a fair one. Sometime the provisions were given from bankrupt stock, involving goods that had no real use.
The Chief Constable of Burslem complained of treatment of women under the system in 1843:
"Oh, Sir ‘tis a hard case to witness hungry men and women carrying home pins and broaches at 2s and 2s6d each, when the same may be had at Birmingham at 1s and 6d per dozen and when their little ones meet them at the door crying for bread."
Potter’s Examiner, 23 December 1843.
The outrage that the truck system caused was shared by the large reputable manufacturers. They allied with the pottery workers to fight against the numerous abuses. The blame invariably fell on the shoulders of the small scale factory owners, particularly in the Lane End (Longton) area.
Wage bills
In the early 1800s the commercial banking system was very poorly developed in North Staffordshire. Workers were paid in the form of a ‘wage bill’ which was given to the head of a department (together with a list of workers names and monies owing).
Then the whole of the department, often up to 50 people, would go ‘a changing’ at a favourite public house. The publican would change the bill only on certain conditions (which usually meant that each worker would have to buy a cheese pie and a pint). The publican would hold the change back until each man had consumed three or four pints. He frequently demanded a percentage too. As children were also involved in going ‘a changing’ they soon became involved in drinking.
