The plaque is located on the tow path in front of the canal side milepost on the Trent and Mersey Canal at Etruria. The milepost is dedicated to Josiah Wedgwood.
The milepost is dedicated to Josiah Wedgwood and was replaced by the Trent and Mersey Canal Society.
The plaque reads as follows;
'TRENT & MERSEY
CANAL SOCIETY
THIS MILEPOST IS DEDICATED TO
JOSIAH WEDGWOOD FRS. 1730 - 1795
FATHER OF ENGLISH POTTERS AND
PIONEER OF THE TRENT AND MERSEY CANAL
UNVEILED BY SIR ARTHUR BRYAN
H.M.LORD LIEUTENANT
OF STAFFORDSHIRE, CHAIRMAN OF
JOSIAH WEDGWOOD & SONS LIMITED
ON THURSDAY 19TH SEPTEMBER 1985
REPLACED BY THE
TRENT AND MERSEY CANAL SOCIETY'
The canal used the established systems of mileposts to identify distances from the beginning and end of the route from Preston Brook to Shardlow. All the posts have Shardlow on the left.
These mile posts are in a uniform company design: a circular post with moulded head and embossed convex faces painted black and white.
The original posts have a plate on the shaft stating “R&D Stone 1819”, which is thought to refer to the Stone foundry of Rangeley and Dixon.
The replica ones have the mark T & MCS 1977, which were installed by the Trent and Mersey Canal Society two hundred years after the canal opened. (
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Josiah Wedgwood (12 July 1730 – 3 January 1795)
Josiah Wedgwood was an English potter and entrepreneur. He founded the Wedgwood company. He is credited with the industrialisation of the manufacture of pottery; "it was by intensifying the division of labour that Wedgwood brought about the reduction of cost which enabled his pottery to find markets in all parts of Britain, and also of Europe and America." The renewed classical enthusiasms of the late 1760s and early 1770s were of major importance to his sales promotion. His expensive goods were in much demand from the nobility, while he used emulation effects to market cheaper sets to the rest of society. Every new invention that Wedgwood produced – green glaze, creamware, black basalt and jasper – was quickly copied. Having once achieved perfection in production, he achieved perfection in sales and distribution. His showrooms in London gave the public the chance to see his complete range of tableware. SOURCE: (
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"Sir Arthur Bryan
Arthur Bryan had joined Wedgwood in 1947 and after working in production and administration at Barlaston was appointed as assistant to the manager of the company’s important London operations. In 1953 he was appointed London manager and was instrumental in the formation of a retail division Wedgwood Shops Ltd operating Wedgwood outlets within other retail stores. In 1959 he was appointed general sales manager, and after a period managing Wedgwood’s North American operations he was appointed managing director in 1966 (1963?). In 1967 he succeeded Josiah V as the Chairman of the company, also acting as joint managing director with Peter Wells.
Bryan reinforced Wedgwood’s industry dominance through a policy of aggressive expansion, however, in the mid-1980s an unwelcome bid by the large conglomerate known as the London International Group (the owner of Royal Worcester and Spode at the time) forced Bryan to negotiate a merger with Waterford Crystal owned by the Irish industrialist Tony O’Reilly. Bryan became First President of the merged Waterford Wedgwood in 1987, a position he resigned, perhaps in disappointment, after only two years.
Arthur Bryan was appointed the Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire in 1968, a position he held until 1993. He received a knighthood in 1976. Sir Arthur Bryan died in February 2011 at the age of 87." SOURCE: (
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