1-152-723 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

Potter at work at the Wedgwood's Etruria factory, Hanley, Staffordshire, c1830. An assistant turns a wheel to operate the belt driving the potter's wheel. By the 1680s the presence of abundant local coal, clay and water in the area of northern Staffordshire around Stoke-on Trent known as the Potteries enabled the region to become the centre of pottery manufacture in Britain. In the 18th century Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) was one of the foremost manufacturers, setting up his first factories at Middleport and Etruria in the 1760s.