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John Cole,
Cole Pottery founder (1807‑1897)

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This page is about John Cole who started the Cole Pottery in Tottenham – also known as the White Hart Lane Potteries. It describes John Cole’s early life, working life and married life including his children and how their futures, too, were linked to pottery.

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by the webmaster from family recollections and research

According to information passed down the family, the person who started the Cole Pottery in Tottenham was John Cole (1807-1897). At that time, the pottery was called The White Hart Lane Potteries, as that was the road where its entrance was. The name stuck for years, overlapping with Cole Pottery or Cole Potteries.

How John Cole started the Cole Pottery

Starting a pottery requires a great deal of money and that was doubtless provided from the inheritance from his father, Daniel Cole.

But starting a pottery also requires business acumen and skill which John must have had in abundance. I therefore find it sad that I have been able to find out so little about him. I am hoping that someone reading this may be able to help. In particular, I would love a photo or portrait.

Although no photographs of John are known to have survived, portraits of all the owner/directors of the White Hart Lane Pottery once hung in the Pottery office. Do you know what happened to them?

Memorabilia

Fortunately, one piece of memorabilia does exist: John's spectacles, which are in the family of the descendants of his son, John Thomas Cole. The spectacles are shown in the following photograph. The inscribed date of 1894 indicates that they were probably a present to mark his diamond wedding anniversary.

Spectacles belonging to John Cole

Spectacles belonging to John Cole

The spectacles look expensive in the norms of the time. I wonder what sort, if any, eye test was done before prescribing them or if he had to choose what suited him best from a selection. Remember this was 1894.

Early life of John Cole

According to the IGI, John was born on 14 October 1807 to Daniel and Ann Cole in Islington and was baptised at the local church of St Pancras on 17 April 1808. The birth location of Islington is confirmed by census records. However, anecdotal evidence within the family suggests that John's place of birth was Tanners End, a suburb of Edmonton, a few miles away in North London – but this could be based on a misunderstanding. Certainly, John's father, Daniel, was recorded as living at Tanners End at some stage. Whatever, John must have spent his early years in Islington and then the Tile Kilns.

Married life

On 20 January 1834, at All Hallows Church, Tottenham, John married Mary Colley, daughter of James Sharp Colley, a potter at the Tile Kilns.

Children of John Cole

John and Mary had five sons and six daughters. It is to John's credit that, by the standards of the time, all were well educated, particularly as there was no free schooling at the time. That money was in the family was self-evident.

In summary, the following is a list of Daniel's and Ann's children with key known events in their lives.

The working life of John Cole

The birth certificates of John's children, together with census data, show that he moved around the London area. He worked as a stable-keeper, tile kiln labourer and burner of pottery, and then back to the Tile Kilns as a potter. By the time of the 1871 census he had founded a pottery as he was documented as the proprietor of what later came to be known as the Pettit Pottery at Walthamstow. However, he gifted or sold it to his Pettit nephews, sons of Mary’s dead sister, and moved on.

At the time of the 1881 census, when John was 73, he was living at 7 Prospect Place, Tottenham, a flowerpot maker, with Mary, aged 68. By the time of the 1891 census, though, John and Mary were in the pottery house Tentdale at the White Hart Lane Pottery - later known as the Cole Pottery in Tottenham. John was listed as a retired potter, aged 83, with the family of his son E.G.Cole who was the formal owner.

Deaths of John and Mary Cole

Looking for family graves

Looking for family graves in Tottenham Cemetery. E.G's. is on the left and John and family are on the right.

John's wife, Mary, died on 4th February 1896 aged 82, and John survived her until the following year, when he died on 29 October 1897, aged 90. They were living at the pottery house Tentdale at the time. They were both buried in the same plot in Tottenham Cemetery, which had been bought by their son E.G.Cole.


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