Leek Lane, St Paul’s parish.
Summary of operating dates and proprietors
| 1809-1810 | Daniel Organ. |
| c1812-1834 | John Hassall & Company. |
The pottery appears to have closed.
It is not known when Daniel Organ established the Leek Lane Pottery. It was presumably operating by November 1808 when he took an apprentice and between 1809 and 1811 he was described in the street directories as a manufacturer of brown stone ware, melting pots, etc. in Leek Lane.
However by September 1810 he had been declared bankrupt and Felix Farley’s Journal carried the advertisement: ‘To potters, chymists, distillers, spirit merchants, and the public at large. To be sold by auction by W. Vigor. On Tuesday the 25th of September, and following days, at ten o’clock, on the premises, in Leek Lane, St Paul’s, Bristol. All the stock in trade of Daniel Organ, potter, a bankrupt, together with the implements, etc used in and about the same trade; consisting of crucibles from an established maker, and every description of brown stone bottles, barrels, jars, jugs, pitchers, pots, etc usually manufactured by a potter, as also a large quantity of clay. The whole to be sold without reserve in suitable and convenient lots for the accommodation of the buyers. There being a quantity of ware marked with the customers’ names, the same may be taken immediately, with a reduction of 25 per cent from the wholesale price, and a considerable abatement will be made on every other part of the ware. The premises are to be let on lease, and are very convenient for carrying on the above business, should any one be disposed to take thereto, and to the stock’.
In March 1812 the same newspaper advertised to let ‘Extensive premises, situate in Leek-lane, in the parish of St Paul’s, lately used as a brown stone manufactory, and fitted up with kilns, etc, etc, compleat – These premises may be altered so as to suit any large manufactory or business requiring room …’.
The Leek Lane Pottery was rented by John Hassall, trading as John Hassall & Company, who was recorded in the street directories from 1813 to 1834 as a brown stone potter or stone ware manufacturer in Leek Lane. In 1834 he was operating in Leek Lane and Thrissell Street and in 1835 in Thrissell Street only. There is no further known documentary reference to the Leek Lane Pottery and it appears to have closed by 1835.
Wares produced
Stonewares, including bottles, barrels, jars, jugs, pitchers and ‘melting pots’, which were probably the crucibles used in glass furnaces.