Unusually, Caughley is not mentioned in the
Domesday Book of 1086. Mining of limestone, coal, and ironstone, with associated iron production, was underway already in the sixteenth century;
Thomas Munslow had established an ironworks there by around 1523. A pottery was established around 1750, creating slip-coated and coarse wares. Ambrose Gallimore (from the Staffordshire potteries) made traditional course and slip-coated wares. He was joined in 1772 by
Thomas Turner (potter), who had trained at the
Worcester porcelain works. This became the Salopian China Manufactory, making
porcelain by 1775, flanked by coal mines to the south-west of Inett Farm to the east of what was then the Caughley hamlet of Darley. Caughley came to prominence as an industrial centre, employing the noted porcelain engraver
Robert Hancock and supplying the Salopian China Warehouse, which opened in London in 1783. By 1793, the factory had around one hundred workers. The lease, factory, and stock at Caughley was acquired in 1799 by the Coalport porcelain makers Edward Blakeway, Richard Rose, and John Rose. Porcelain production continued Caughley though much of it was decorated at Coalport till the works finally closed in 1814.
Shrewsbury Art Gallery held an exhibition of Caughley Porcelains, about 400 pieces from various lenders to mark the factory's bi-centinary in 1975. Catalogue forward by J. C. Charleston, Keeper of Ceramics,
Victoria & Albert Museum. == References ==