Construction and Opening
The Wedgwood Institute was funded entirely by public subscription from 1859 onward, the estimated cost at the time being £4,000, and was constructed between 1863 and 1869. It was named after the potter Josiah Wedgwood, and it stands on the site of the former Brick House pottery works which Wedgwood had rented from 1762 to 1770. Brick House was the second of his pottery works in the town of Burslem, the first being at the Ivy House works. A small part of the old Works was incorporated into the fabric of the new Institute.
The foundation stone of the new Institute was laid by then Chancellor of the Exchequer William Ewart Gladstone on 26th October 1863; the building itself opened 21st April 1869.
The School of Art and Science opened in October 1869; the Free Library opened in 1870; their cost being by the levy of a penny rate (i.e.: a local universal property tax) under the Public Libraries Act.
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