MLFHS, Oldham & District Branch, Monthly Meetings and talk

James Caldwell as Executor of Josiah Wedgewood

An illustrated presentation given by J.J. Heath-Caldwell

“James Caldwell of Linley Wood in Staffordshire, 1759-1838 :
Protege of Josiah Wedgwood

Historians of the early pottery industry in Staffordshire know of James Caldwell as the executor of the great potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood. James is also known as the partner of Enoch Wood in the company “Wood and Caldwell” which specialised in making “Staffordshire Figures”.
For the last 200 years very little else has been known about James until recently when his diaries were transcribed and published for free viewing on the internet (www.jjhc.info). This was part of a large archive of material that has been passed down in the Caldwell family but had not previously been made available to historians.
J.J. Heath-Caldwell is a 4x great grandson of James Caldwell and he has uncovered a vast amount of information about James.
James started his teenage years working for Josiah Wedgwood and his early diaries record numerous pottery experiments firing clay tables with different glazes at different heats and different lengths of oven time. From this point on much of what James went on to achieve in life can be attributed to his early connections with Josiah Wedgwood.
James Caldwell became a serial entrepreneur and was very much a “Mr Fix It” in the potteries area. His diaries record numerous meetings and interconnections with all of the local movers and shakers of the time.”

A meeting reminder email will be send out 3 or 4 days before the talk; a zoom meeting link on Wednesday morning 7th of January.
Registration closes at 5:30pm on the 8th.
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All are welcome and we hope you will enjoy the meeting and join us again in the future.

Notes ...
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Please Note : a full 2026 programme is on the Oldham & District Branch/Events/Meetings page, on the MLFHS website.