Maling pottery was produced in the north east of England for just over two centuries. The name of the pottery derives from the French surname of Malin. The family were Protestant Huguenots who fled their native land in the sixteenth century to escape the threat of religious persecution. They settled in England and prospered in a variety of business enterprises including coal, shipping and timber. Somewhere over the centuries the name was anglicized by the addition of a final "g".
The pottery was founded at North Hylton, Sunderland in 1762,[1] and transferred to Newcastle upon Tyne in 1817.[2]
Increasing business allowed the Maling family to build two further potteries, each bigger than its predecessor. The last of these occupied a fourteen acre site,[3] and was claimed by Maling to be the biggest pottery in Britain.