The British fine pottery industry is disappearing rapidly as two historic pottery firms today joined Wedgwood and called in administrators.

Fifty-five jobs have been lost so far at Jesse Shirley and Son, the world's oldest maker of bone ash, and at Hudson & Middleton, a bone-china mug maker that was founded in 1875 and acquired by the Shirley family in 1982.

Staffordshire-based Jesse Shirley could not survive after the fall of Waterford Wedgwood. The Irish pottery giant, which went into administration in December, left the business with bad debts of £120,000 and meant Jesse Shirley and Hudson & Middleton together lost 30% of their turnover.

Richard Philpott, administrator at KPMG, said: “The current climate is an extremely difficult time for the fine-china industry as a whole. However, the administration of Wedgwood, together with the tightening of trade credit, led to the businesses' recent cashflow difficulties. The directors had no option but to call in the administrators.”