The Prince’s Regeneration Trust, a charity founded by Prince Charles, has saved the UK’s last Victorian pottery manufacturer, Middleport Pottery, in a £7.5m deal, which will see the Trust lease back the company to the owners, providing it retains its 150-year-old technique.

Middleport Pottery, which makes the internationally acclaimed ‘Burleigh’ pottery, had been at serious risk of closure which would have seen the loss of jobs and the degeneration of substantial buildings of historical significance.

However, the Trust has stepped in to save the site and will undertake a £7.5m regeneration project. The Trust will renovate the Grade II listed buildings and will lease approximately half of the site back to Denby Pottery, the pottery company currently based at Middleport, which bought Burleigh pottery last year.

The majority of all the remaining buildings at Middleport will be developed, modernised and let to craft and associated businesses.

A Trust spokesman said it is hoped this will stimulate regeneration in the area by increasing employment opportunities and attracting new business.

It is expected that English Heritage, the Regional Growth Fund, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the European Regional Development Fund will fund the project subject to final approval. In addition, the Trust received several substantial private donations and significant support from its lawyers Pinsent Masons.  

Garry Biggs, managing director of Denby Potteries Limited, said: “My colleagues and I greatly welcome this investment to regenerate the historic Middleport Pottery building. This investment will not only ensure that its unique skills, still in use on the site, are preserved for future generations; it also enables us to continue the business turnaround since Denby bough Burleigh pottery last year.”