This place should be called the elusive! as with one other factory that i have been around many times but seldom get into many visits and until today with no success! I was expecting not much to have been left especially given the amount of time its stood decaying yet there was enough to keep me going and partly kept the rain off for a couple of hours!

Really enjoyed seeing the tunnel kilns, i’ve not seen that type before so that was a nice change!

History

This place was an Earthenware manufacturer; John Tams and William Lowe were two pottery companies who came from a partnership “Tams & Lowe” which split up in 1874.

In 1903 John Tams took his son Edmund into partnership and traded as John Tams & Son. The business was incorporated in 1912 – trading as John Tams & Son Ltd. John Tams retired in 1917 and the business continued to be run by Edmund Tams and his two sons Philip & Peter.

From the mid 1960’s the business was run by John Tams’ great-grandsons Gerald and Peter Tams.

Gerald Tams led a buyout of the business in 1984 and the company was floated on the Stock Exchange in 1988 and became became John Jams Group PLC which  went into receivership in February 2000, the Tams Group Limited was formed in April 2000.  It was a management buy in of part of the former John Tams Group PLC,

Tams Group Limited  bought the rights to Tams, Royal Grafton and Grafton Living.  Marketing these brands and still manufacturing in Longton, Stoke on Trent – in 2002 was the biggest ceramic employer in Longton and one of the biggest mugs manufacturer in Europe. This continued under the same name until 2006 when the Tams Group went into receivership.