Skinner Burn Pottery

Bourne states that a pottery was carried on "without the Closegate" for some years before 1736. At this time it was in the hands of Joseph Blenkinsop and Ralph Harle. In 1748 the pottery was advertised to let. Mr Blenkinsop was still residing in a house without the Closegate in 1749. In 1758 the pottery was entirely destroyed by fire. In 1787 there are two notices of a pottery called the Skinner Burn Pottery, Forth Banks, worked by George Spearman & Co. Three years later this pottery had passed into the hands of Addison Falconer and Co. was recorded at Skinnerburn. This is presumably the origins of the name Pottery Lane. A Pottery is shown on Oliver's map of 1831 next to the Plate Glass Works (HER 4881). It is marked as 'Newcastle Pottery' on the 1879 OS 25" edition. There was also a pottery manufacturer called James Wallace in Forth Banks in 1837. His business had been started by Thomas Wallace in 1827 at Carr Hill. Wallace, James and Company had an office at 86 Blenheim Street in 1838. The pottery had been largely demolished by 1896 and subsequently built upon.