Burleigh rescue sparks fresh hope for Stoke-on-Trent's pottery manufacturers
Christopher Bailey's rescue of Burleigh has safeguarded 62 jobs and helped secure its future – but what does the deal mean for the wider ceramics industry here in Stoke?
It’s pots what make us who we are here in Stoke, so when Burleigh looked vulnerable after parent company Denby Pottery entered administration this March, we were worried. The news came little more than a year after we lost Royal Stafford, which went into liquidation in February 2025. Just two months later, Moorcroft followed, although it was later rescued by founder William Moorcroft’s grandson, Will. Then, last September, Wedgwood paused production at its Barlaston factory for 90 days due to weak demand. By that point, it was becoming increasingly difficult to view these setbacks as isolated incidents. Instead, they appeared to reflect the mounting pressures facing Stoke-on-Trent’s ceramics industry, from soaring energy costs and changing consumer habits to fierce competition from cheaper imports.
That’s why the news earlier this month that former Burberry chief executive Christopher Bailey, who has described the pottery manufacturer as one of Britain's great craft brands, was met with such a positive response. The deal has not only secured jobs and safeguarded production at Middleport Pottery but also provided a much-needed boost to confidence across the wider ceramics community.
The acquisition came just weeks after the Government announced a £120 million support package for the ceramics sector, offering fresh hope for an industry that remains at the heart of Stoke-on-Trent’s identity.
Skills passed hand to hand, person to person
MP for Stoke-on-Trent North and Kidsgrove David Williams said he felt relief as much as delight on hearing the news of the Burleigh acquisition. He told The Knot, “That’s 62 skilled jobs and 62 families here in Stoke who’d had a worrying few months, and now they wake up with a future. Burleigh has been made down at Middleport since the 1880s – losing it would have been a quiet tragedy for this city. I’m just glad the people who actually make the pots get to keep making them.”
The Burleigh tissue printers or paintresses aren’t trained in a fortnight; it takes years, and if you break that chain even once and it’s gone for good, he said. “They are skills you can’t download or automate but are passed hand to hand, person to person, often within the same families, over decades. That craft lives in Stoke and nowhere else, and the smartest thing you can do with skills like these is make sure there’s a young person learning them off the people who have them now.”
“When someone of Christopher Bailey’s standing chooses to put his money behind it, the message to the rest of the sector is that there’s real value in what we make here – not nostalgia, value. People in Tunstall and Burslem have watched too many bottle kilns go cold over the years. This is one that stays lit.”
Williams understands that people have every right to still worry, acknowledging that we’ve all seen what can happen when a famous name goes under. But this is the opposite of that story, he stressed. “Nobody’s buying up our heritage to stick it behind glass; someone’s investing in it as a working business with years ahead of it. Our past is worth being proud of, but Burleigh’s real worth is that it still makes things, today, employing local people. That’s what gives me confidence: not the history, the fact there’s a live business here worth backing.”
“People in Tunstall and Burslem have watched too many bottle kilns go cold over the years. This is one that stays lit.” – MP David Williams
CEO of Re-Form Heritage Andrew Emery, said Christopher Bailey's acquisition of Burleigh is “hugely welcome news” for Re-Form Heritage, the owners of Middleport Pottery, and helps secure a strong future for production of the Burleigh brand in its original historic factory.
He told The Knot, “It’s well over a decade since The Princes Regeneration Trust, forerunner to Re-Form Heritage, began the journey of bringing Middleport Pottery back from the brink of closure, acquiring the site in 2011 and undertaking sensitive restoration and leasing back Burleigh to then owners, Denby.
“With new investors and renewed commitment to Middleport from Christopher and his team, this helps to secure the longer term future for the site and enables us to continue to provide a home for a wide range of creative businesses, two educational organisations, an award-winning heritage visitor attraction and a packed programme of family-friendly events. Burleigh is central to the heritage of the Middleport site and a core part of the story.”
