Pottery factories in WW2

[Chris Doran]

There would hae been increased need for ceramic insulating components for electrical and electronic equipment -- both "more of the same" for things produced pre-war, and new shapes for inventions like radar.

[bykerlads]

So the pottery factories might well have been considered to be essential to the war effort.
Thanks for the comments, folks.

[MollyC]

"Yes the women in general tended to do the painting and that sort of work where the men did the more heavy lifting kind of stuff like the slip house or saggers etc."

It wouldn't surprise me if women took on heavier work, if there was a shortage of men and less painting needed.  They certainly did in the steel industry.

[MeirSoul]

"Yes the women in general tended to do the painting and that sort of work where the men did the more heavy lifting kind of stuff like the slip house or saggers etc."

It wouldn't surprise me if women took on heavier work, if there was a shortage of men and less painting needed.  They certainly did in the steel industry.

It would certainly make sense. My other geandmother worked at Swynnerton ammunition factory during ww2 which was also a back breaking job from all accounts

[bykerlads]

I'd that deduce that the lady I'm looking into indeed remained in the potteries during WW2, but in one of the heavier jobs previously done by men and then resuming her work as "pottery artist at Spode", as her obituary notice proudly informs us.

Here in West Yorkshire my mother in law spent the whole war working nights on a turret lathe at David Browns engineering, she had previously worked like her sisters in a woollen cloth mill. Her 2 sisters jumped at the chances brought by the war and left home to train as nurses.
The mother of a friend of mine had a nice job as a secretary which, as a single young womwn she would have had to give up and do a heavier job to help the war effort. In order to keep her office job she married in haste and, on her own admission, later regretted it.

[MollyC]

"Women of Steel" remembered outside City Hall, Sheffield

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.380426,-1.472645,3a,37.5y,358.94h,76.52t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sGCHyRTumnPVaDu3z5DzkKQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DGCHyRTumnPVaDu3z5DzkKQ%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D20.962011%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu

[- also, swing to the left - gold paint on Jessica Ennis' pillar box at the corner of Holly Street]

[bykerlads]

Yes, the role of women in wartime is still not fully appreciated.
The Ladies Bridge ie Waterloo Bridge in London springs to mind. Between 60 and 70% of the workers who built it during the war were women. At least they are remembered daily in the commentary given on the Thames boat trips.
The fire brigade memorial near St Pauls has a list of fire brigade women who lost their lives in the blitz.

Another interesting fact often (possibly deliberately) not mentioned is that, in order to enable women to work in the war effort, nurseries were set up for their children. And often infant schools would take children of only 3 or 4 for the same reason, camp beds and blankets being provided for daytime naps.

I wonder if the potteries had wartime nurseries?