Report - John Tams Crown Works, Stoke-on-Hell - October '11

[Xan_Asmodi]

Visited with Tweek, NickUK and Fishbrain

After Tweek and I did the worst derp of my life, we met up with Fish and NickUK. After a brief stop in the local Lidl to stock up on cookies (which would later make an appearance in another report) and energy drink we headed over to the works

We made our entrance and proceeded to photograph the shit out of the place.

When we visited the place had been closed 5 years, it had gone into receivership once and for all after being in business for 130 in one form or another.

From the BBC News website:

A Stoke-on-Trent pottery firm has made nearly 150 workers redundant after going into receivership.

[...]

The firm [blamed] cheap imported copies, lower labour costs in China and higher fuel bills for the failure.

It made losses of more than £1.5m in the 12 months to the end of January, triple the amount in the previous year.

The receivers said the company had begun a major reorganisation to cut costs.

The relics of its former glory were there to see...

...royalty...

...Disney...

...and, errr... Playboy

Of more interest to me than the detritus left about was the industry itself

It is undoubtedly a shame to see a huge part of Stoke's history left to rot. What actually prompted me to post this was one of the Stoke lads saying this had gone up in flames. Indeed the BBC has a report dated January 2012:

Fire crews were called to the old John Tams factory on the Strand in Longton at 02:55 GMT by three men who had seen smoke coming from the building.

[...]

"We did however discover two separate fires inside the building and following an investigation have established that the fire was started deliberately.

"The fire had the potential to turn into a much bigger fire but luckily we received the early warning and firefighters were able to bring the fire under control quickly.

"The incident has now been left with Staffordshire Police to continue with their investigations."

From more recent reports and what the Stoke boys said, it appears to have been cleared somewhat. Might be worth poking my head back in to see what's changed.

Thanks for looking ​