Uk Tourism and tourist information. The uk has been a popular tourist destination for many years. Visitors often bought souvenirs of their visit. Many of these gifts were made by Manorware. Company History
Truscotts, named after one of it's three founders was initially based in Bath. In 1949 the firm then moved to Newton Abbot where they initially manufactured children's toys.
In 1952 the firm moved Sheffield where they took up residence in the listed 16th Century Manor House from where they got the name for their new range of souvenir pottery made of cast plaster which they began to mass produce. (The Manor House has featured in the BBC TV show Restoration).
Early Manor Ware items tend to featureManor Ware pottery was first produced from
an idea by three men in 1948, Derek Truscott, Anthony Brian Gibbs and John Stanley
Cooper, in a small building in Bath. The firm produced small plaster cast models
and grew into one of the largest manufacturers of this type of souvenir in the country.
The
small company moved to Newton Abbot in 1949 and one of their earliest pieces was
'Dolly's Tea Set' which consisted of a set of plates and imitation food, laid out
for presentation purposes on a card.
In 1952 they relocated to a sixteenth century
listed building in Newton Abbot called Manor House, where the mass production of
souvenir pottery began in earnest; and the items produced were christened 'Manor
Ware' after the house. Manor Works was at 63 Wolborough Street. They were sold from
souvenir shops from hundreds of British holiday resorts and exports have been found
from places such as Ireland, Canada and Australia, and some items were exported without
place names on. It is also believed that some places, such as Eire, actually copied
items. Production was running at around 125,000 pieces a year.
In 1960 the firm moved
again to a purpose built factory at Brunel Road, Newton Abbot. The introduction of
mechanisation coupled with stick-
John Cooper was one of the
directors of the firm and was also the main designer and his initials JC can be found
on some of the pieces. There are over 500 known designs and another designer to have
initials on pieces was Stuart Andrew Royston (SAR). John Cooper apparently laid out
the basic design and Stuart Royston completed them.
Jane Lake who worked for the firm
from 1953 to 1956 used to work in the paint room. She was transferred to the dipping
department which involved dipping the pottery in a tank of lacquer, putting each
item on a spike to drain -
embossed and/or hand painted designs,however when the firm moved to a purpose build factory in 1960 they began to employ transfer printing technologies which enabled them to vastly increase production.
Manor Ware continued to sell well until the late 1970s when cheap imports, and the change in peoples holiday habits began to impact the business which went into decline and finally closed in 1987.
This information is based on that provided in an article by Leslie Pinder for the Autumn 2005 issue of Egg Cup World ( the magazine of the 'Egg Cup Collectors' Club of GB') which can be found here.
Marks
Early examples of Manor Ware may have embossed marks. Later examples had printed paper labels.
Manorware made products that were individual to the town or tourist site.
