Builder of the New Pottery, exporter of sanitary ware and founder of Glasgow’s “Armitage Pottery”, Robert Hedderwick Penman was one of the most ambitious figures in Armitage’s industrial history. His factory vanished, but “Penman’s Works” remained in local memory long after the man himself had crossed the Atlantic.
When Edward Lewis Williamson Johns inherited the Armitage pottery in 1893, he chose a different path from his father. Rather than expanding production, he championed fashionable and highly decorative sanitary ware. His brief ownership produced some of the pottery’s most striking designs before the business passed from family ownership in 1900.
Bankruptcy did not bring Thomas Bond’s story to an end. Beginning again in 1819, he rebuilt his life as a brickmaker, establishing a successful business in Handsacre that supported his growing family for many years. This concluding article follows Bond’s remarkable recovery after financial ruin, revealing how determination and enterprise enabled one of Armitage’s earliest industrial pioneers to secure a lasting place in the parish’s history.
For decades the origins of Armitage Pottery appeared well understood. Yet newly available documents, forgotten newspaper reports and surviving estate records reveal a more complicated picture. By piecing together the evidence, this article explores who established the pottery, how it developed and why its earliest history has been misunderstood.
Thomas Bond is generally credited with founding Armitage’s first pottery, but his story began long before pottery became his livelihood. Maltster, brickmaker, canal carrier and entrepreneur, he pursued a succession of ambitious ventures while navigating debt, failed partnerships and imprisonment. Drawing on newly available documentary evidence, this article explores the remarkable life of the man whose enterprise marked the beginning of Armitage’s pottery industry.
