tarboat's photos with the keyword: furness vale

The Furness Clough Colliery and associated firebrick works was purchased by Richard Knowles in 1905. The mine produced mainly fireclay but also yielded coal for the kilns. The mine closed in 1963 but the works continued into the 1980s. A significant market at the time of my visit was firebacks exported to Saudi Arabia and several of these can be seen in front of the fork lift outside the kiln.

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...

Having finally located the lost negatives from my adventures in the early 1980s I can begin scanning some of the images hiding amongst them. At that time I would spend a few days holiday with a friend visiting old disused industrial sites, and occasionally working sites where we were often made welcome by the management and allowed to wander through the buildings and yards photographing whatever we wanted. A far cry from today when we would be instantly killed in a terrible disaster if the current excessive safety culture is anything to go by. One location we called at was R.E. Knowles, Furness Vale Colliery and Fireclay Works. The colliery side of the business had finished some years earlier, but the firebrick business was booming and the old coal-fired kilns were hard at work. At the time a significant portion of the business was supplying fire-backs to Saudi Arabia! This is one of the clamp type kilns on the site and another can be seen in the left background. To the right is one of the beehive downdraught kilns also operated here. Today the business continues, but making concrete based refractory items. The kilns are long gone and the yard is a small trading estate.