tarboat's photos with the keyword: fireclay

Glazed fireclay bath by Trotter, Haines & Corbett, Stourbridge. There can't be many of these left. The works was started in 1850 at Brettell Lane, Brierley Hill adjacent to the later Harrison & Pearson works. Around the turn of the twentieth century the Harrison & Pearson acquired a controlling interest in Trotter, Haines & Corbett Ltd. In the early 1930s Trotter Haines & Corbett, Harris & Pearson, Samuel Evers & Sons, Canal Works and Amblecote Works were all absorbed into the E. J, J, Pearson Company, creating at that time the largest refractories group in the Country.

A Stockport-bound train leaves the station at Furness Vale and is about to cross Hall's Bridge which once crossed the tramroad carrying clay from the canal and railway sidings to, and bricks from, the works of The Furness Vale Silica and Firebrick Company Ltd. This continuous cable operated tramroad was on the line of the earlier tramroad that had brought coal from the Diglee Mine that was operating in 1811 and was later in the ownership of Levi and Elijah Hall by 1874. It is after these proprietors that the bridge was named. For details of the mining operations and tramway see: www.pittdixon.go-plus.net/upfc-furness-basin/upfc-furness...

Photographs of the Macclesfield Canal showing working boats are scarce and I have been seeking a view of a boat associated with the fireclay traffic for some time. The best I have managed so far is this newspaper photograph from 1934 which was taken from Sugar Lane bridge in Adlington looking toward the Clarence Mill in Bollington. If you look closely at the canal near to the chimney it appears that there is a boat there, probably bringing in coal for the boilers. Nearer to the camera is a boat at the wharf for the Clarence fireclay mine operated by John Hall & Son (Dukinfield) Limited which supplied their works in Dukinfield with up to six 18 ton boatloads of clay per week. Clay, and a small amount of coal, was brought from the mine off in the fields to the left in tubs and tipped down chutes into the boat. The boat is most likely to be named "Benefactor" as this was a regular on this run at the time. The mine closed in 1938.

Incline from the adit level up to the processing works of the Birkhill Fireclay Mine. P. & M. Hurll Ltd., a fire-brick manufacturer based at Glenboig (North Lanarkshire) acquired the Birkhill estate in 1916 and drove a series of adits on both sides of the River Avon in the 1930s. Peak production was in the 1950s and the pillar and stall workings eventually extended for around 6 miles underground in the 1970s just before the company went into liquidation in 1980.

P. & M. Hurll Ltd., a fire-brick manufacturer based at Glenboig (North Lanarkshire) acquired the Birkhill estate in 1916 and drove a series of adits on both sides of the River Avon in the 1930s. Peak production was in the 1950s and the pillar and stall workings eventually extended for around 6 miles underground in the 1970s just before the company went into liquidation in 1980. This bridge carried the rails from the adit of Mine No.3 on the west bank to the incline on the east bank that lead up to the processing works. In 1987 the workings were opened as a tourist attraction, but this has been closed for some time now with little sign of an imminent reopening. Sadly the processing works was demolished a short while ago.

There are several disused adits at Birkhill where high silica fireclay was extracted until 1981. One mine has been used as a museum until recently whilst the processing works stands derelict close to the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway. Seen here is the top of the incline from the works with the tensioning system for the continuous rope haulage underneath the staging.

Not mushrooms; rather these are vertical rollers to take the haulage cable around a bend on the tubway below the incline to the processing works at Birkhill Fireclay Mine.

Birkhill No.1 Mine was started in 1932 by firebrick manufacturer P & M Hurll Ltd. Two further mines followed in the vicinity and production of fireclay peaked in the 1950s. The mines closed in 1981 and the No.3 mine bacame a museum although it is now closed (temporarily?).

This abandoned adit was used for the extraction of ganister and fireclay for use in the refractory industry. It has collapsed a short way into the hillside.

A single prop holds up the bulging brick lining in this disused fireclay adit.

This beautiful arched adit served for tramming out coal and fireclay from a small mine. The use of brick arching on stone walls is fascinating. View On Black

John Hall Ltd. of Dukinfield mined coal, fireclay and shale from 1911 to 1937 at a mine in the fields close to the Clarence Mill in Bollington. The shale which when fired turned red was used to make chimney pots, tiles and drain pipes. This is the entrance to the adit which led to a shaft situated higher up the hill and allowed the loaded tubs to be brought out to the canal wharf hauled by a horse. The adit entrance and shaft are actually just in Adlington.