Royal Worcester

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Royal Worcester manufactures bone china and in particular porcelain.

Founded in Worcester, England in 1751, the factory was established on the banks of the River Severn by a group of local businessmen, with the guidance of Dr John Wall, an eminent physician. Dr. Wall along with another of the group, apothecary William Davis, developed their method for producing porcelain. Dr. Wall secured the sum of £4500 from the partners to establish the factory in Worcester and those original partnership deeds are still housed in the Museum of Worcester Porcelain.

The Worcester factory always prided itself on its quality Worcester Porcelain. It received a royal warrant in 1789, and is still currently by appointment to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

At its height, the firm employed nearly 1,000 people, but after merger with Spode, and heavy competition from overseas, the production was gradually switched to factories in Stoke and abroad. 100 staff were made redundant in 2003 and another 100 went in 2005. The last 15 pocelain painters left the Severn Street factory on Friday 29 September 2006, together with 100 other workers ^[1]. The 200 employees who remain with Royal Worcester will be retrained so the company can focus on the production of ornamental, giftware and prestige ranges.

[edit] Worcester Porcelain Museum

The factories former site includes a visitor centre and the independent Worcester Porcelain Museum (formerly known as the Dyson Perrins Museum).

The Museum houses the world’s largest collection of Worcester Porcelain. The collections date back to 1751 and the Victorian gallery, the ceramic collections, archives and records of factory production, form the primary resource for the study of Worcester porcelain and its history.

However, the old factory is part of the company's business plan provisionally part of a new redevelopment in Worcester.