Maling's Ford A Pottery

The Ford Pottery was established in 1859 on Ford Street by Christopher Maling, son of Robert Maling who set up a pottery at North Hylton (HER ref. 4969) and then at Ouseburn Bridge (HER ref. 4967). The Ford Pottery was 2 acres in size and heavily mechanised, able to produce more in a week than the older works at Ouseburn Bridge had done in a year. Its 13 kilns turned 80 tons of clay a month into 750,000 items. C.T. Maling amassed a fortune from manufacturing jam and marmalade pots for James Keiller of Dundee and Frank Cooper of Oxford, and dishes for potted meats, jars for ointments and medications. Maling captured the market for the production of white pottery with transfer-printed trade labels and was a leader in production of domestic white ware. In 1878 a second, even larger plant was opened up half a mile to the east, known as "Ford B Pottery" (HER ref. 4344). The original works on Ford Street continued to produce jam and marmalade pots, whilst the Ford B Works concentrated on new markets, such as sanitary ware. In the early 20th century a number of factors began to effect the prosperity of the company, not least the death of Christopher Maling and the increasing use of glass, rather than earthenware, for storage jars, particularly for jam. When the miner's dispute of 1926 starved the kilns of coal for many months, the old Ford Street site closed and buildings were cleared out and sold in the following year. Ford Street survives but only a few fragments of buildings testify to the site of the former Maling's Ford A Pottery.