Watkin first worked in the Equipment Department of the National Telephone Company and helped develop the first fully automatic telephone exchange in Staffordshire Potteries that opened in 1904.
Originally, as was the custom, named the Goodfellow House, when it was bought in 1926 by another Potteries manufacturer, Colley Shorter (Arthur Colley Austin Shorter, 1882 to 1963) he renamed it Chetwynd House, and that name remains with it to today.
However, the boom came after the discovery in 1720 by potter John Astbury of Shelton, that by adding heated and ground flint powder to the local reddish clay could create a more palatable white or cream ware.
Staffordshire | Staffordshire University | Hanley, Staffordshire | Tamworth, Staffordshire | High Sheriff of Staffordshire | South Staffordshire Line | Staffordshire Yeomanry | Staffordshire County Cricket Club | Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal | Potteries Loop Line | Longton, Staffordshire | Staffordshire Potteries | South Staffordshire | Shenstone, Staffordshire | Chesterton, Staffordshire | Whittington, Staffordshire | Tunstall, Staffordshire | Trentham, Staffordshire | Tean, Staffordshire | Stourton, Staffordshire | Staffordshire Police | Ranton, Staffordshire | North Staffordshire Railway | Manley Hall, Staffordshire | Madeley, Staffordshire | Haughton, Staffordshire | GNR Derbyshire and Staffordshire Extension | Enville, Staffordshire | Cliffe Vale, Staffordshire | Bradley, Staffordshire |
These include most prehistoric cultures of the Middle East, cultures in many areas of Africa, most pottery-making cultures in the Americas, early Japanese and Korean ware, Mycenean ware, the pottery of Ancient Greece and pre-industrialized potters in some areas of Great Britain, most notably Thomas Toft in the Staffordshire Potteries.