Coalport Porcelain Works

The Coalport factory was founded by John Rose in 1795 and was one of two major Shropshire pottery works on the banks of the River Severn.

By 1799, it had taken over the Caughley factory, which was famous for its superb blue and white porcelain and its elegant copies of French style.

The business grew so rapidly that it was able to acquire the patents and recipes of the Swansea and Nantgawr manufactories by 1819. Its research chemists succeeded in doing what no one else had done – matching colours that the Sèvres factory produced and whose formulae were considered a closely guarded trade secret.

Coalport and Coalbrookdale attended the Great Exhibition of 1851 with their richly decorated and superbly painted products, which were being exported all over the world. Queen Victoria had commissioned a dinner set painted with Russian orders and decorations for Tsar Nicholas I of Russia.

By 1925 the company had changed hands a few times and fallen into financial difficulties, which led to a takeover by Cauldon Potteries Ltd. In 1926 the factories moved from Shropshire to Stoke-on-Trent and the Coalport name was retained as a brand.

In 1967 Coalport joined a long list of British companies now owned by the Wedgwood Group.