The first member of the Pike Family digging for clay in Purbeck is said to have been Joseph Pike - a clay merchant from Chudleigh in Devon around 1760. He did not settle in Purbeck and eventually handed his Purbeck operations over to his son William Pike who was born in 1762.

William Pike signed a contract with Josiah Wedgwood in 1771 for 1100 tons a year. William Pike also became a very good friend of Jacob Warburton of New Hall pottery. Towards the end of his life, Jacob Warburton rented property close to where William Pike lived at Bucknowle House.

William Pike had 4 sons, William Joseph, John William, Henry and Warburton born in the years 1813, 1814, 1816 and 1818. William & John became clay merchants and formed the firm Pike Brothers. Warburton went into the legal profession and became a special pleader in the Inner Temple.

John William Pike married a much younger Mary Mary Mayer (daughter of Thomas Meyer of Longport Pottery). She died after giving birth to her seventh child in 1866. John William died just 3 years later leaving 4 sons and 3 daughters in the care of his brothers. None of the children became involved in the clay firm. The boys all went to Rugby School and on to Brasenose College Oxford. One of the girls went to Girton College Cambridge. John William Pike built and lived at Westport House in Wareham.

William Joseph was a keen supporter of railways - Click here for further information. William Joseph Pike of Wareham married married Anna Lewis (daughter of the Rev. L Lewis) at the Unitarian Chapel in Cheltenham. They lived in North Street Wareham. They had nine children (4 sons and 5 daughters). One son was drowned in Studland Bay at the age of 7. The other 3 became Clay Merchants at some time during their careers. One was to become a JP for Wareham and a friend of Thomas Hardy. Another son explorer the Scandinavian Artic, and gave London Zoo a couple of Polar Bear cubs. He married in Switzerland to a Swiss born daughter of British parents and eventually returned to Purbeck to live in Furzebrook House and become a clay merchant.  

The last Pike to be a director of the company was Leonard Gaskell Pike who was the son of William Joseph and John William's brother Warburton Pike. He died in1939 aged 85. He too took up the legal profession before joining the family business. He went to Cambridge and rowed for them in the 1876,77,78 races against Oxford. The 1877 race was the only dead heat in the history of the Varsity matches.

William Joseph Pike and John William Pike as the first Pike Bothers were good employers. Below is an copy of a newspaper cutting about the Great Exhibition of 1851

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Corfe Castle
Visit of Purbeck Men to the Exhibition --- On Tuesday week a number of the men employed in the Clay Works of Messrs. W. and J. Pike were treated by their employers with a trip to the Great Exhibition, Messrs. Pike paying the railway fare for upwards of eighty. Their appearance in the gallery of the Crystal Palace was somewhat novel, many of them wearing white smock frocks. After the Exhibition they visited the Thames Tunnel, British Museum, Westminster Abbey, and the principle objects of attraction in London. Messrs. Pike having kindly provided a guide to escort them to the various places. All honour to Messrs Pike for their generosity, the more especially as it is we believe the only instance of such generosity being accorded by any employer of labour in the Isle of Purbeck.

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The Pike brothers are buried with their families in St. Peters Church Knowle graveyard. To see their graves click here