Description:The front entrance to A J Wilkinson's Pottery in Irwell Street (formerly West Street). West Street was at the bottom of Prospect Street, close to the Trent & Mersey Canal, off Newport Lane. West Street, the house and the pottery have all been cleared for housing.
Above the central window is a date tablet "Erected 1864" and over the door on the left a clock. The letters AS are in the lintel over the door. This house was built by Anthony Shaw in 1864 when he built the Mersey Pottery Works, alongside the Newport Pottery in Middleport. The works, then called the Royal Staffordshire Pottery, was taken over by A J Wilkinson in the 1890s. Clarice Cliff worked at Wilkinson's in 1916 before moving to the neighbouring Newport Pottery.