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News from the Ball Clay Heritage Society June/July 2008 This edition of our news page includes:
Granite tramway and Templer way walk – the final stage.. On Sunday 22nd June 2008, thirteen Members and friends, four youngsters and Paisley the dog tackled the final stage of the granite Tramway/Templer Way walk which we started in the Autumn of 2007 at Haytor. The walk commenced at Pen Inn in Newton Abbot and took us along the south bank of the River Teign estuary to Shaldon. The weather was excellent as it had been on the earlier stages. Although only approximately 4.5 miles long we managed a coffee stop at Coombe Cellars and a lunch stop in the vicinity of Ringmoor. An interesting fact about this stage was that at various points along the way we could see our original start at Haytor Rocks in the distance and only lost sight of it as we boarded the ferry to cross from Shaldon to Teignmouth on the northern shore of the estuary where we boarded the train back to Newton Abbot. Everyone who had completed all or some of the walks expressed their enjoyment and once again our thanks go to Reg. Procter who led all of the walks. Geoff Hughes 24th June 2008
"The Watts Album of 1901-2: Then and Now" by Tony Vincent A remarkable talk was given at the Society's AGM on 11th March 2008 by Tony Vincent, former WBB Chief Geologist. Tony has been scanning and cataloguing photographs in the Society's archive. He was fascinated by a small leather-bound album of photographs that was given to the Society in 2002 when Watts, Blake, Bearne & Co PLC closed its offices at Park House, Newton Abbot - which the firm had occupied since the early 1900's. The photographs had evidently been taken by a member of the Watts family in 1901-2, and in addition to images of Watts family homes and holidays, the album included scenes of clay pits, the Stover Canal and Newton Abbot. The theme of Tony's talk was "Then and Now", and he showed his own photographs of the same scenes taken recently. Tony had done a considerable amount of detective work to identify the subjects of the photos and to understand why they were important to the photographer. Perhaps the most fascinating part of his talk concerned the scenes of Newton Abbot. Tony explained that, at that time, Queen Victoria had recently died, Edward VII was about to be crowned king, the Boer War had just ended and Passmore Edwards was to lay the foundation stone of Newton Abbot Library. This research explained the banners that had been erected over Market Street ("God Save the King", "Thank God for Peace" and "Welcome Mr Passmore Edwards") and why an express train approaching Newton Abbot station from the west had been photographed: by enlarging the image it was possible to just make out part of the fleur de lis emblem of the Prince of Wales (by now an uncrowned King Edward VII) on the front of one of the locomotives pulling the train. Tony was able to identify the locomotives precisely, and explained that the chief engineer of the Great Western Railway, responsible for a design feature that was incorporated into these locomotives and then became standard in steam locomotives that were built thereafter, started his career as an apprentice in the GWR workshops in Newton Abbot! .Please follow the link to find out about the events planned for the remainder of 2008.
Reports on the Templer Way walks: the Granite Tramway and Stover Canal The third stage of the Series of Templer Way walks took place on Sunday, 14th. October 2007 in slightly overcast but otherwise good weather conditions. Fourteen Members took part. This stretch commenced at the Stover Country Park, picking up the Templer Way and following it to Teigngrace and the Stover Canal and followed the canal through to the Jetty Marsh Nature Reserve. Leader Reg. Procter suggested that we may like to continue following the River Teign to its confluence with the River Lemon near Town Quay and then to continue and pick up Aller Brook and follow it, running parallel with the A 380, to complete the walk at Penn Inn. The total distance covered was approximately 4 miles of easy walking along the flat. Of particular interest on this walk was an abundance of, especially, aquatic bird life on the Stover Park lake, magnificent walks through woodland and features along the Stover Canal including old locks and the graving dock where boats were repaired in the dim and distant past. A keen eyed member of the party spotted an Emerald butterfly in the Jetty Marsh Reserve and another, Grey Mullet in the River Teign. We were also advised that it was not unusual for salmon to be seen in the upper stretches of the Teign estuary. At the end of the walk, Geoff. Hughes thanked Reg. Procter for leading us once again and also the drivers who kindly acted as the “shuttle service” for this walk. We will continue our coverage of the Templer Way from Newton Abbot to its termination in Shaldon along the Teign estuary in the Spring of 2008 and details will be circulated when dates have been selected which will, of course, be dependent on times of high tides. This series of walks have been enjoyed by all Members and Guests who have taken part and we hope to see you all in 2008 together with as many additional walkers as possible. The second stage of our series of walks tracing the Granite Tramway and Templer Way took place on Sunday, 30th September 2007 with 15 Members (plus Paisley the dog) in attendance.The walk commenced at the northern end of Chapple Lane (opposite the Edgemoor Hotel) and skirted the edge of the Colehayes Plantation where the remains of the tramway were clearly visible and well preserved. The only remaining stone bridge carrying the tramway over a small stream was still clearly visible and again in good repair. Continuing through Brimley, we passed the “Blue Pool”, a flooded former open cast quarry where lignite was once mined, some of which was used as a fuel in the kilns at the pottery in nearby Bovey Tracey. On past the New Park Plantation, the Templer Way entered the Great Plantation at Belle Vue exiting after approximately 1 mile on the A 382 near to Drumbridges roundabout on the A 38 Exeter – Plymouth road. This stage terminated in Stover Country Park. The total distance covered was approximately 4 miles in a time of 3 hours including a “coffee stop”. Reg Procter again led this section of the walk in dry, partly bright weather conditions although heavy overnight rain made parts of the walk very damp underfoot especially in the area of the Great Plantation. Reg, together with Geoff Hughes, was thanked by John Pike for organising and leading another successful walk. On Sunday, 9th of September 2007, 17 Members and guests took part in the first of a series of walks tracing the route of the granite tramway, the Templer Way and the Stover Canal all of which have historical connections the South Devon ball clay industry in the past. The walk was led by our own member, Reg Procter in overcast and pleasantly cool conditions and covered a distance of just over 5 miles in 3 hours. The walk commenced to the north of Haytor Rocks to take in the two disused granite quarries on Haytor and then picked up the old Granite Tramway which in parts is remarkably well preserved and it was easy to see some notable features such as points and marshalling sidings. The tramway and Templer Way follow each other through the Yarner Wood Nature Reserve and the walk terminated at the Edgemoor Hotel at 13-30 hours with John Pike thanking Reg and Geoff Hughes (who organized it) for an excellent and most interesting morning which was enjoyed by all who took part. It was also announced that the next 2 walks in the series have had to be put back by one week each to the 30th of September and 14th of November respectively due to unforeseen circumstances. Photographic images of the walks are on record.
Chairman's Annual Report to the Society AGM, 11th March 2008
I would like to start by saying how sorry I am, and I am sure we all are, that Ron Harris and Grahame Dawes have died – Grahame just a few days ago. They each had a very long association with the ball clay industry and also made a significant contribution to our Society, as members of the General Committee and in other ways. Both will be sadly missed. I would like to update you with what the Society has been doing over the last twelve months. The membership of the General Committee has remained unchanged during the year. However Eric Johnson has decided to retire at this AGM, having served on the Committee from the beginning in 2000. Eric has been an invaluable member of the Committee because of his inside knowledge of ECC’s history over the last 50 or so years, but he has assured us that he will more than keep in touch and will continue to make his great knowledge available to us. I would like to thank Eric for all that he has done for the Society over the last eight or nine years, and warn him that he will not escape lightly! The Committee has met twice since the last AGM, although, as always, individual committee members have been involved with quite a lot of activity during the year. Once again I would like to take this opportunity to thank the committee members, and particularly Bryn our secretary, Geoff our events secretary, Bill our Dorset Group leader and John our treasurer for their efforts on behalf of the Society during the year. I am very pleased that all the committee members apart from Eric are willing to stand for re-election. As I mentioned, Geoff has been masterminding our social programme of talks and outings over the last twelve months, and I would like to ask him to report briefly on the events that have taken place. Thank you Chairman. The first event of the year took place immediately following the Annual General Meeting of The Society on 22nd March, 2007 when Roger Harding, the Chairman of the Stover Canal Trust and committee member of the B.C.H.S. gave a most interesting talk on the history of the Stover Canal and the ongoing restoration work which is being carried out by members of the Stover Canal Trust. Following suggestions from Members, a series of walks following the route of the Granite Tramway and the Templar Way were arranged in four stages. Three stages were completed during the year commencing at Haytor and ending at Newton Abbot. The average attendance was 18 persons consisting of members and friends who judged the walks a success. The final stage from Newton Abbot to Shaldon is scheduled to take place in June, 2008. Particular thanks go to Reg. Procter who has led all of the walks. Our final event of the year was an excellent talk by member John Fiske on the subject of “Lignite” A very well illustrated discourse gave a fascinating background to this material, little known outside the Ball Clay industry. Finally, a programme of events for 2008 has already been circulated to the membership. Thank you Geoff. I should mention that amongst the other ideas considered by the Committee and which Geoff has been pursuing are a visit to the WBB Minerals’ Cornwood & Shaugh china clay works, which members of the China Clay History Society will be invited to join, a boat trip on the River Teign, a talk by Gary Stringer and Kevin Bastow of WBB Minerals on the company’s interesting biodiversity work in the Bovey Basin and a talk on the history of the Stover Estate by the bursar of Stover School. The loan of exhibits and one of the Society’s display cases to Teignmouth Museum continued in 2007 for a fifth year, and I believe that they will want to keep the display for a further year in 2008 whilst they continue with their fund raising for the museum extension, to match the £400,000 grant that they have been offered by the Heritage Lottery Fund. In April we mounted a display for the Bovey Tracey Heritage centre to complement the main theme of the year’s exhibition, which was Bovey Pottery and Candy’s. We included the large aerial photograph showing the clay workings in the Bovey Basin, with Teignmouth and Torbay in the distance, and this apparently was one of the most popular items in the whole exhibition. Turning to temporary displays, we prepared a display for the Great Fire of Chudleigh celebrations in May, which several of our Committee members arrived to erect, only to find that the day’s events were cancelled because, ironically, of exceptionally heavy rain! However, we once again lent some material for a small ball clay display at the Chudleigh Knighton Fair in July, and in August we mounted a large display in the Stover Canal Society’s marquee during its two Open Days. This was a very successful and well-attended event, and we were very pleased to be able to support the Canal Society and to be given this excellent opportunity to inform the public about the ball clay industry’s heritage. I must say that I am very pleased indeed about the excellent relationship between the two Societies that Roger Harding has helped to promote. Turning now to our collections, our larger artefacts, including the Granite Tramway wagon, are still stored at Abbrook works, but recently WBB Minerals have moved more of the items from outside into the workshop. In December they informed us that No 11 Adit was to be demolished to make way for an extension of the Rixey Park tip and we were given the opportunity to select a few more items for our collection, which they helpfully delivered to Abbrook. Recently, Steve Gilbert alerted us to the opportunity to rescue items from Imerys’ Broadway site before it was transferred to WBB Minerals’ control, and we acquired an Averys bag weighing scale. Having inspected the ‘crab’ and cyder press at Abbrook Farm, we advised WBB Minerals that the crab was in a dangerous condition and advised them that they should immediately support it with scaffolding, after which we could carry out repair and restoration work on it. However the support has not yet been provided, and we remain concerned. Recently the Conservation Development Officer from Exeter Museum has inspected the cyder press and corn crusher that are under cover at Abbrook Farm. The condition of the cyder press is reasonable, but it would be preferable to find a museum in Devon that could better look after both it and the corn crusher, the condition of which is deteriorating. The Conservation Officer has also inspected our archive and photographic collections at Dunderdale Lawn. She advised that the conditions in which they are kept are good – and a lot better than those of many other collections. However, she recommended that we monitor for pests such as moths and wood lice. She also said that the conservation work that Sally Barclay has done on the many leather book bindings is good. Tony Vincent has continued to gradually work through our collection of photographs, scanning and cataloguing them using our Catalist software. This is an enormous but important job, and we would welcome volunteers to help with it. As part of this exercise, Tony has scanned the slides we use in our talks to outside organisations and prepared a PowerPoint presentation for us to use. To help with the scanning of slides we acquired a half share in a special slide scanner, and we are considering arrangements for borrowing a projector. In April I gave a talk on the history of the ball clay industry to the Devon Family History Society in Plymouth, using the old slides and our second backup slide projector which was a bit unsophisticated, to say the least. In November Mike Messenger published a superb revised edition of his book ‘North Devon Clay’, which contains a lot of fresh material including images supplied by the Society. For this purpose we had digitally photographed the two very large black and white photographs of the North Devon clay works in the early 1900’s that are kept in the North Devon board room, together with a third photograph in the same series that was given to the Society by Phil Robinson in 2005. Whilst doing those we also had digitally photographed the valuable 1826 Stover Estate map. Our clayheritage.org website has attracted a number of favourable comments. We try to keep the News section reasonably up to date, and Tony Vincent is continuing to work on the Picture Gallery. We receive a steady trickle of enquiries to our e-mail address mail@clayheritage.org, some asking some rather abstruse questions. Recently we and Richard Harris have provided images for an article on ‘The Lightermen at Hackney’ which is being published in the National Archives’ Ancestors Magazine. The hopes of the Stover Canal Trust and Society were lifted in March last year when, almost seven years after terms were agreed for the transfer of the Canal by Network Rail to Teignbridge District Council, Network Rail paid the promised £30,000 dowry to the Council. We were then led to believe that Network Rail would complete the transfer within a matter of days. Towards the end of the year we were being led to believe that all the relevant departments in Network Rail had definitely approved the transfer, but then in December Network Rail informed the Council that they had changed their minds and wanted to give only a long lease of the Canal to the Council, with the right to terminate the lease if the Canal is required for future improvements to the railway line. This gives rise to some additional problems, and, needless to say, despite promises that Network Rail would produce a draft lease quickly, no draft has yet been forthcoming. Of course the whole question of the road and other infrastructure around and across the Canal has been thrown into the melting pot by the abandonment of the Northern Option, which in turn has significant implications for the flooding issues surrounding the restoration of the Canal. A considerable amount of feasibility work – and fund raising - will have to be carried out as and when the Trust receives its lease of the Canal from the Council. The idea of having an enlarged museum in Newton Abbot in which there would be space for displays on the area’s ball clay heritage is still alive and is being included in the Newton Abbot and District Community Plan that is being published in April. In conclusion I would like to say that I think that the work and activities of our Society continue to be both enjoyable and important – and important especially for the sake of the memory of those who have worked in it. John Pike Chairman 11 March 2008
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