china clay

The History Given the geology of the south west, this part of the country has given rise to numerous clay manufacturers over the past three centuries. It was found that the natural clay deposits around St. Austell were some of the largest in the world. The demand for china clay peaked in the...

Firstly, despite being called 'Blackpool' China Clay Quarry & Refinery, it is in fact nowhere near Blackpool. This is in Cornwall. Closed in November 2007 and left derelict since, the site is now in the process of being demolished, so only just caught this in time. Sadly, the main building...

Wenford Dries The Wenford Dries were built in the early part of the 20th century (probably post-1907) by the Stannon China Clay Company, to serve the china clay pit at Stannon on Bodmin Moor some 7.2km to the north east. The choice of the site was heavily influenced by the presence of an...

Having seen the report on the China Clay Dries in Par by @Janedoe I finally managed to drive down to Cornwall to have a look. Although large parts of its innards have been ripped there is still quite a lot to see and I spent a happy four to five hours exploring the site. This time I tried to...

For many years, china clay blasted from the hills above St Austell with water canon was pumped in suspension to Par Docks where it was stored in huge concrete silos before being dried and loaded aboard ships for export around the world . A commercial port in Cornwall is to cease trading and axe...

History There is very little history available online on the china clay works here but I'll do my best. The site was established around the middle of the 19th century to process china clay, quarried from the pits to the south. There were several early pan-kilns in use at the site until the years...

The forboding shell of the Standardized China Clay Company Works treatment plant building is just about all that's visible of Belowda Beacon mine, which got its raw product from the beautifully named Belovely Bottoms. You can choose your way in from a combination of a choice between field of...

History The china clay works at Marsh Mills were begun in the early years of the twentieth century when a large pan-kiln was constructed to dry the china clay which was brought down from the clay pits at Lee Moor by pipeline. A pan-kiln is a primitive form of drying liquid china clay by a...

HISTORY "The Wenford Dries were built in the early part of the 20th century (probably post-1907) to serve the china clay pit at Stannon on Bodmin Moor some 7.2km to the north east. Liquid china clay was carried in a pipeline from the pit to the settling tanks behind the dries. The dries operated...

EXPLORATION After seeing some other forums for this place, I decided to go there myself, on a cold foggy morning, which really helped set the tone, and hide from the workers... I visited this place in hope to find a particular warehouse/factory that is no longer in use, however this aim was not...

HISTORY Built at the beginning of the 20th century to process raw china clay following extraction, Wenford Dries is a huge derelict china clay factory in the quiet countryside of Devon. The building is reported to be the longest Listed building in the UK (over 500m long) and has been derelict...

The history of china clay in Cornwall and Devon China clay is decomposed granite where the feldspar had changed into a fine, white powder known as kaolin. Certain parts of the granite uplands, both in Cornwall and Devon process this substance. Today china clay is only mined in the Hensbarrow...

I couldn’t find a great deal online talking about the history of the site but I did get this: The Clay Factory originally started life as a china clay works at the turn of the 1900’s – the clay was pumped down to the site from Dartmoor for drying and processing before being transported by train...

Great Carclaze China Clay Works Quarry, Cornwall (Imerys) August 2013 Have walked along side this quarry for years but only just decided to go and have a look whats beyond the fence. Great Carclaze China Clay Works: These clay pit have been running from around 1966 onwards, moving from...

The Cornish Alps began to dominate the landscape as every ton of usable china clay that was mined brought with it five tonnes of waste. Railways and tramways were built to transport the material to the coast. By 1910, Cornwall was producing some fifty per cent of the world's china clay...