Burleigh Pottery

Earthenware is a common ceramic material, which is used extensively for pottery tableware and decorative objects. Although body formulations vary tremendously between countries, and even between individual makers, a generic composition is 25% ball clay, 28% kaolin, 32% quartz, and 15% feldspar. Earthenware is one of the oldest materials used in pottery. While red earthenware made from red clays is very familiar and recognizable, white and buff colored earthenware clays are also commercially available and commonly used.

Earthenware is commonly bisque (or "biscuit") fired to temperatures in the range of 1000 and 1150 degrees Celsius (1800 and 2100 degrees Fahrenheit, and glost fired from 950 to 1050 degrees Celsius (1750 to 1925 degrees Fahrenheit). However examples of the the reverse, low biscuit firing and high glost, can also be found: this can be popular with some studio potters where bisque temperatures may be 900 to 1050 degrees Celsius (1650 to 1920 degrees Fahrenheit ) with glost temperatures in the range of 1040 to 1150 degrees Celsius (1900 to 2100 degrees Fahrenheit). The exact temperature will be influenced by the raw materials used and the desired characteristics of the finished ware. The higher firing temperatures are likely to cause earthenware to bloat. After firing the body is porous and opaque with colours ranging from white to red depending on the raw materials used.

Earthenware may sometimes be as thin as bone china and other porcelains, though it is not translucent and is more easily chipped. Earthenware is also less strong, less tough, and more porous than stoneware - but its low cost and easier working compensate for these deficiencies. Due to its higher porosity, earthenware must usually be glazed in order to be watertight.

Middleport is a residential and industrial district of the town of Burslem in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, England. Middleport lies to the west of Burslem, between Burslem town centre and the Newcastle-under-Lyme district of Porthill. To the north is Tunstall and to the south Cobridge and Etruria. Middleport blurs into Longport and both are often referred to under the common name of 'Middleport'.

Middleport is primarily residential, with distinctive Victorian terraced houses. However, it also a working industrial district and contains several potteries: ranging from Burleigh Pottery, the oldest working Victorian pottery; to the art-driven Lorna Bailey; to Steelite, a modern mass-production ceramics producer.

The Trent and Mersey Canal and a key path of the National Cycle Network run through Middleport. The line of the canal through the City of Stoke-on-Trent is a linear conservation area. Middleport contains one of the nation's richest stretches of canalside industrial heritage. Since 1990 the canal area has benefited from around Groundwork funding, and Townscape Heritage funding. Clarice Cliff's Newport Pottery, where she produced some of her most famous work, was adjacent to the canal and an artist-designed 12-foot steel markerpost identifies the location.