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From 1941, the trade with America also became the occasion of an unofficial propaganda drive by Wedgwood employees, who took to pasting personal messages of encouragement on pieces sent out from Barlaston. Some of the messages expressed in simple terms the desire for victory, but more adventurous workers launched into poetry, as in the following anonymous example:

Our factory’s in a garden
On our pots we paint the flowers
We concentrate on export
Til victory won is ours.

The idea was brought to the attention of the Ministry of Information which was moved to give its official backing: ‘This may seem a small thing to do, but well done, it could have far reaching effects in bringing the ordinary people of Britain close to the ordinary people of America.’ For their part, the ordinary people of America sent messages back to the Wedgwood employees and, which was greatly appreciated, food parcels, organised by Hansleigh Wedgwood at the Company’s New York office. When these arrived at Barlaston, they were taken to the canteen and shared out amongst the workforce.
The American trade exemplified the potent mixture of company loyalty ad British patriotism which carried the firm through such difficult times. It was now that the directors’ careful preparation of their employees for the coming changes reaped its reward. The process of what Ted Lawton called ‘clever consultation’ ensured that by the time the first pots were produced at Barlaston, everyone was fully committed to the enterprise. ‘Mr Josiah had built up such a wonderful picture,’ recalls Arthur Moore, ‘I was very excited at the prospect of moving to Barlaston.’ It was not just the prospect of better working and living conditions for the employees themselves, Josiah had managed to instil in his workers a sense of missionary purpose, of the significance of the venture for the area as a whole. ‘They were breaking new ground,’ recalled Ted Lawton, ‘they were leading the way and they felt part of a tremendous experiment.’ This sense of collective endeavour on behalf of a larger objective fired the ‘enthusiasm of the workforce from end to end, the directors at the top and everybody else. We were all determined that it must not fail, for that would put the clock back on working conditions in North Staffordshire for generations.’
Once war broke out this determination was swept into the wider effort to defeat Hitler. From the outset, Josiah had stressed the importance of the project to the maintenance of a healthy democracy and now the employees at Barlaston sat down to work surrounded by Government posters exhorting them to pull together for national survival. Slogans such as ‘It all depends on me’ were attached to the walls, stuck on machines, and printed on wage packets, which in addition carried weekly messages such as Ernest Bevins’ pronouncement that ‘The speedy and final triumph in this war depends not only upon the Government, but on every manager, scientist and worker in every workshop, building, dock, transport concern and laboratory in the country.’ The good of the individual, of the company, and of the Nation, became indistinguishable. In ways which Josiah could never have anticipated, the remaining Wedgwood workers felt that it was ‘their show.’
Thus traditional lines of demarcation eroded and workers toiled in conditions which were often far worse than anything they had endured at Etruria. The slip house at Barlaston could only be worked at nights, as the boilers initially could not raise sufficient steam to make enough electricity to run anything other than the tunnel ovens during the day time. In winter there was no heating and when the bombers came over, the presses hung with icicles, had to be emptied by torchlight. Apart from these inconveniences, direct enemy action caused surprisingly little difficulty. As the company had anticipated, the bombers headed for the crowded industrial and communications centre of Etruria, using Barlaston as a landmark rather than a target. At Etruria factory, Tom Wedgwood organised a team of fire watchers, who took turns to stay on the premises through the night, sleeping when they could on workshop benches. Although a large number of incendiary bombs fell on the neighbouring Shelton Bar steel works, Wedgwood escaped virtually unscathed. One of the few direct hits landed on a pug of clay, firing it into a solid mass but doing no further damage. Barlaston had its own Home Guard, which posed for its photograph, but had played no direct part in the defeat of Hitler.
To read the rest of this story go to 'The Factory in a Garden' part 4

This story was submitted to the People's War website by a volunteer of the Stoke CSV Action Desk on behalf of Sharon Gater, David Vincent and Keele University and was added with their permission. The authors fully understand the site's terms and conditions.

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