The Wedgwood Museum

This chapter enables you to find out more about the lives of company bosses, factory workers, artists & designers, and business associates of Josiah Wedgwood & Sons. Look out especially for the in-depth articles on the ordinary factory workers - the Wedgwood Museum has a remarkable collection, including a photographic record of most employees in the late 19th Century.

In their book 'The Factory in a Garden' (1988) - which is based largely on oral history interviews with former employees - Sharon Gater and David Vincent describe a paternalistic factory system in which employers and employees largely enjoyed mutual dependence working together in a cosy jumble of cramped workplaces at Etruria, where vacancies were almost always filled by relatives of existing employees, and where kindly employers enhanced available healthcare for their workforce.