The popular blue and white willow pattern produced by Middlesbrough Pottery. Customers’ tastes changed: they wanted something more fancy than utilitarian blue and white utility patterns, and in 1879, John Harrison founded the Linthorpe Pottery at his family’s Sun Brickworks at Linthorpe. Unable to compete, the Middlesbrough Pottery closed in 1887. Then, on May 3, 1889, Mr Harrison died suddenly, aged only 45, at his home in Pierremont Crescent, Darlington, and Linthorpe Pottery closed almost immediately. All this came crashing to a halt when Mr Harrison died his “untimely death”, causing the chief beneficiary of his fraud – Linthorpe Pottery – to collapse almost immediately.

Source: The Times February 26, 2024 18:00 UTC