More on Redcliff Backs

1726 Deed of Settlement The following is from a deed of settlement dated May 1726 (from J C Whitting):  'Also all those several messuages, lands and tenements with all their appurtenances, situated, lying and being in the parish Redcliff in, or within, the suburbs of the said City of Bristol, bounded with the Lane leading from Redcliff Pitt to Redcliff Backs on the north side, with the burial ground of the people called Quakers on the East Side, with the ground called Addercliffe on the south side, and with the river Avon on the west side, together with all the new buildings and houses lately erected and built thereon.  And also the Pot House, Glasshouse, Limekiln, and the little house in the lane leading from Redcliff Pitt to Redcliff Backs, adjoining to the wall very near to the door in the east side going into the said burial ground, with all other the dwelling houses there.  All which said promises last mentioned are now in the tenure or occupations of Thomas Frank, Thomas Webb, Thomas Cave and William Nelmes and others as undertenents thereof to him the said Abraham Lloyd.' What is left of the Quaker burial ground is the small park, off Redcliff Hill and opposite St. Mary Redcliff, Addercliffe is the open space between the park and the river (formerly Redcliff Wharf), and the lane is presumably Jones Lane.  The road Redcliff Way now covers most of this area. Whitting also quoted a fanciful occupancy of the glasshouse creating an amalgam of four glasshouses!  There were three Redcliff Backs glasshouses; the first ran from at least 1679 to 1700 and eventually the site became Frank's pottery; the second is the one referred to above and ran from 1716 to 1802; there was also a third, which was quite small, and ran from at least 1742 to 1753.  There were also various glasshouses in Redcliff Street, the earliest being there by 1661, and the final closing in 1761 The second Redcliff Backs glasshouse is the one that J C Whitting said was the site of Lund's porcelain factory.  This mistake came from the use of the word "Lowris" in Pococke's letter, which Pountney thought referred to "Lowdin".  W J Pountney found property which had been in the hands of a member of the Lowden family, although this property had nothing to do with glassmaking.  In the version of the letter published by Toppin we find the word was actually "Lounds", rendering the research meaningless.  Whitting wrongly thought a Lowdin had once worked the Redcliff Backs glasshouse and continued with Pountney's theme, also suggesting possible connections with the Frank family and even William Cookworthy.  He found a Joseph Willson (the man from Limehouse) in Bristol at the time, but admitted that this person was a distiller not a potter (he aslo mentions a will of a separate Joseph Willson who was a marriner).  It has since been shown that Joseph Wilson (note the different spelling), the former proprietor of Limehouse, was in Staffordshire at the time.  Note also that ownership of the glasshouse by Crosse and Berrow (1750-59) does not agree with the likely time that the porcelain was produced (1749-52). W J Pountney stated that Lund had a brass works near the Hooper's glasshouse, in Cheese Lane, St Philip's.  This is mentioned in his book and he elaborates on it in his notes (BRO 14790).  The deeds of the Hooper's glasshouse show that he had owned a portion of the glasshouse, in the passage.  A deed of 30th December 1762 states that Francis Rogers eldest son of Crosby Rogers, deceased, sells to William King of St Philip and Jacob, glassmaker, a messuage, tenement and stable, in the tenure of Samuel Cock, victualler, together with the stock and also "all the workhouse sometime since erected and built by Benjamin Lund, merchant, on the said premises or part thereof for the making of brass".  It is possible that this property could also have been the site of the porcelain factory.

Report of 1767 A visitor to the Redcliff Backs pottery published the following account (in a Swedish newspaper) on 23rd and 30th May 1767:  'We also saw the Porcelain or Faience factory, in which the only Swede established here, of the name of Lundberg, a good man, has an interest, but also is in charge as a master.  There are forty-two persons at work here, whose different tasks we watched.  The work is very extensive and repays description.  The clay of which this porcelain is made, and which is quite up to our blue and white Stockholm clays in fineness, is obtained partly here near Bristol, at Dondery (Dundry?) and Stacent; partly fetched from Ireland.  The clay which is found here is altogether too fat, and no work could be done with it alone; they have to mix it with the lean Irish clay.  These clays are sieved, wetted, and kneaded together.  Before the piece of clay can be put on the turning-machine it must be worked on like a piece of dough.  First the dough-lump is shaped on a stool into whatever form it is to assume, jug, can, bowl, basin, punch-bowl, or whatever is desired. it is subsequently sent to another workman to be shaped more neatly, and is finally fired for the first time.  Every piece is set in a sort of case made of sheets of clay, which are fastened together with little nails also made of clay.  These often burst, but are tied together again with sail-thread. Little "positures" as well as tea-cups, etc., can be put in the containers alongside the larger vessels, and so be fired at the same time.  Great quantities of wood are expended in this. Coal is unserviceable.  All the wood comes from Wales, and is sold here at a much higher price than in London.  On this stone are placed all manner of colours, which takes place in the drawing-room.  This work goes slowly.  Afterwards it is glazed, N.B. after the first firing has taken place, the plate is dipped in a sort of substance which looks like white lime: as soon as this has run over it, it becomes immediately dry again.  The vessels which are to be brown, are similarly dipped in a lime-substance composed of reddle, etc.  The fine, beautiful porcelain, which is made at a place called Uster, is made of a clay which is brought from Tingmouth (presumably Teignmouth in Devon).  The clay, as well as the hill where it is dug, is called "Sopiwek". This porcelain is burned four, six or as many as eight times.  The clay is as fine as soap, and in it is embedded a quantity of mica, which is taken likewise and crushed to pieces.  A tea-service costs a shilling.  The substance for the glaze is composed of "fratt' which is made of one part of soda and three parts sand, tin-ash of one part tin and three parts lead, cobalt, salt, arsenicum alb (arsenic).  All this is mixed together and burned to a flux, then crushed and ground, mixed with water, and applied to the glazing of the porcelain.' The factory was clearly making delftware and presumably brown stoneware ("the vessels which are to be brown").  Note that the delftware "becomes immediately dry again".  The "beautiful porcelain" would appear to be salt-glazed stoneware.  The use of mica (aluminium silicate)  indicates stoneware rather than creamware.  To this was added a white tin glaze, and the number of firings indicate enamel decoration.  It was presumably not made at the factory (made at a place called "Uster"), Richard Frank acting as a wholesaler.