Wade Pottery: Ireland (United Kingdom)

Portadown, Ireland

In 1946 after WW2, Sir George Wade, Chairman of the British Electrical Ceramic Manufacturers Association, was asked by the government to increase production by creating new jobs in ‘depressed’ regions of the country. It was decided to locate the new manufactory in Armstrong’s old Victorian mill in Portadown, Co Armagh with 150,000 square feet of floor space and plentiful workers.  George Wade & Sons Ltd began producing die pressed insulators on Saturday, 8th of February, 1947.  On 2nd January, 1950 the business became a private limited company, Wade (Ulster) Ltd and some sixteen years later there was another name change, this time to Wade (Ireland) Ltd.  In 1990 it became Seagoe Ceramics Ltd, a direct subsidiary of the conglomerate, Beauford Plc., and finally, in 1998 the name became VZS Seagoe Advanced Ceramics with headquarters in Fife.   Unfortunately, over fifty years of ceramic production in Portadown came to an end in August 2002 when VZS closed its Ulster plant to concentrate  production in Scotland. Wade's logo was the Wade Owl over the Ulster Hand.

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