William Allen (1834–1907), proprietor of the Benthall Pottery Company, under whose management Salopian Art Pottery was first produced, from 1880 onwards.
Image: Cameron Penn: Staffordshire and Shropshire at the Opening of the Twentieth Century: Contemporary Biographies (Brighton, 1907)
William Allen (1834–1907)
Active at the Benthall Pottery Company: 1862–1907
Born at Broseley on 30 July 1834, William Allen was the eldest son of Beriah Allen (1812–1895) of Dawley and Susanna Allen, née Adams, of Broseley (1811–1877). Beriah and Susanna were married at Broseley on 18 November 1833.
By 1841, Beriah Allen was resident in Benthall, about five miles south of Dawley, where he worked as a brickmaker. Ten years later he was running his own small brickworks and is recorded in the 1851 census as a "brickmaker employing four men".
By the 1861 census Beriah Allen had left Benthall for Wednesfield, near Wolverhampton, south Staffordshire, about 25 miles to the east. It’s not known whether he took over an existing brickworks or established a new one there, but it was clearly on a larger scale than the one he’d had at Benthall as he employed 12 men, 8 women and 4 boys. The census records that Beriah Allen lived in Wednesfield with his wife Susanna and son, William. Following in his father’s footsteps, William was recorded as a “brickmaker".
The following year, 1862, William Allen, aged about 28, bought the Benthall & Haybrook Potteries, after the death of the owner, Edwin Bathurst. Given his connections with both Benthall and the clay industry, this was a clear opportunity for William Allen to move back to his home area and commence in business for himself.
William Allen married Julia Caroline Lopez (1835–1915), the daughter of Isaac Yehiel Lopez (1796–1849), a Liverpool merchant, on 2 May 1865, at Wednesfield. Their marriage certificate records Allen’s profession as “clerk".
In the 1871 census, William Allen was recorded as resident at an "Earthenware Manufactory" on Benthall Lane, Benthall, along with Julia, their daughters Edith and Hilda, and servants Fanny Cope and Mary Garbett. His occupation was given as "potter/manufacturer", employing 30 men, 11 women and 7 boys.
Under William Allen’s management, the Benthall Pottery Company introduced a range of decorative art pottery, from 1880. It was called “Salopian Art Pottery”, after an ancient name for the county of Shropshire (Salopesberia, abbreviated to Salop).
The pottery entry in the Victoria County History of Shropshire (written byJohn Randall in 1901 but not published until 1908) said this of Allen:
… the present proprietor, Mr W. Allen, on coming to the works, made a laudable attempt to raise the character of the productions, availing himself of the educated talent of the South Kensington School of Art, and also of the neighbouring School of Art at Coalbrookdale, which he induced some of his older workmen to attend in the hope of adding to technical skill accurate knowledge of form and design.
By the time of the 1881 census, William and Julia Allen, their three children (two daughters, and a son, William Beriah), together with servant Rose Connor, were resident at "Benthall Pot Works". Allen was described as a "pottery manufacturer", employing 35 men, 16 women and 4 boys.
William Allen was a councillor on Wenlock Town Council for 15 years, and was on the management committee of the Coalbrookdale School of Art. He died at Benthall on 22 November 1907, aged 73, and was buried at Benthall Church. His estate was valued at £2,207 7s 2d (roughly equivalent to a value of £208,600 as at 2014).
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Selected sources
Obituary: Wellington Journal & Shrewsbury News, 30 November 1907
Pottery section: Victoria County History of Shropshire Vol 1, 1908, p434