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News from the Ball Clay Heritage Society April/May 2010 This edition of our news page includes:
Society Talks and OutingsPlease click on the 'Find out More' tab for information about the 2010 Programme
REPORTS ON RECENT TALKS AND OUTINGSVisit to British Ceramic Tile On 25th June 2009, 15 Members of The Society were entertained to a most interesting morning visit to this Company which is now the largest producer of wall tiles in the United Kingdom. Our host was Mr. Steve Balkwill of BCT who commenced with an introductory illustrated overview of the recently greatly expanded production facility at the Heathfield site and the overall strategy which has been adopted by the Company to cover design, technical innovation, R&D, sales/marketing and management employee relations. The Company currently employs 320 and works a 4 shift system operation around the clock 360 days per annum, 7 days per week. There are two half factory shutdowns a year (one every 6 months) primarily for kiln maintenance as well as for other planned routine maintenance. This high, continuous running mode maximises on outputs at minimum cost. Each shift operates with just 27 staff. The production facility is extremely impressive and uses the latest technology available for body preparation, spray drying, pressing, glazing, decoration, firing, inspection, packaging and warehousing. Current production is running at 20,000 m² per day and with the planned introduction of one more glost kiln, output will rise to 30,000 m² per day or approximately 10 million m² per annum. Following the factory tour, visitors took a light lunch kindly provided by BCT and our grateful thanks go to Steve Balkwill and his colleagues for arranging such an excellent visit.
Guided tour of St. Michael’s Church, Kingsteignton and its surrounds by Richard Harris
On 27th May 2009, despite the threat of rain and Man Utd playing in the European Cup Final, 8 members accompanied me (Richard Harris) for a tour around the “old village” of Kingsteignton and the parish church. On approaching the Church via the Butts footpath from Greenhill Way, the group were greeted by the sound of the church bells ringing out due to an early scheduled ringing practice (the bellringers didn’t want to miss the match!). I was immediately able to relate to the group how two bells, numbers 3 & 4, had links with the Watts and Whidbourne families. The Church was locked when we arrived so a brief tour of the churchyard showed where Lewis Bearne of WBB was buried, quite close to two lightermen, George Scott and Henry Joslin, who carried the clay his company dug down the Teign Estuary. Ian Avery soon arrived to let us into the mainly 15th century church where we were able to view several memorials to the Watts and Whiteway families. The bench ends of the church pews also contain memorials to people associated with the clay industry such as William Tregale of the Zitherixon Medieval Boat fame and William Cook, clay haulier. We stopped off at the war memorial to view the names of several former clay workers, such as Harry Walters who received the MM before being killed in 1916, before making our way along Sandpath Road and Berry Lane to see where former lightermen and clay workers lived. As we came out into Fore Street we gained another soul who seemed to have just visited one of the town’s hostelries. As features such as The Church School, Liberal Club and Fountain and their links to the industry were explained, approving comments such as “verry instressing” emanated from our new friend who seemed captivated by the whole experience. However, after we got back to the Homemaker car-park and the sites of the Hackney Canal clay cellars and Hexter’s brickworks had been discussed, our friend disappeared into the distance towards Newton. Despite Bryn’s and Geoff’s best efforts he did not sign up as a member. I got back home to see the last 10 minutes of the match and quickly realised I’d had a much better evening than watching Man Utd!
Next meeting: 7.00pm on Thursday 1 July 2010 at Dunderdale Lawn. Regular meetings are held in the afternoons of the first and third Wednesdays of the month at Dunderdale Lawn, Penshurst Road, Newton Abbot (tel. 01626-354404) when members can discuss their historical research and work on the Society's archive material, photographs etc. that are stored at Dunderdale lawn. Please phone in advance to advise attendance. Chairman's Annual Report to the Society AGM, 25th March 2010 Welcome to the 11th AGM of the Ball Clay Heritage Society since its formation (10 years ago!) in February 2000. As the Society was formed on leap year’s day – February 29th 2000 – it was not possible to celebrate the 10th anniversary on the right day! 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. The Committee has met twice, 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 and John our treasurer for their efforts on behalf of the Society during the year. I am very pleased that all the committee members are willing to stand for re-election. As usual, 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 and what he is planning for this year. [See Reports and News above] The social activities of the Society are I think valued by many of our members and provide opportunities to learn more about areas of interest that are connected with the ball clay industry in one way or another – although sometimes quite loosely! To keep in touch with our members and to inform them of our activities we have revived the production of a twice-yearly Newsletter, as indicated at the last AGM. Thanks to the efforts of our editor Tony Vincent and Geoff Hughes and Bryn Evans, issues 6 and 7 were published in May 2009 and February 2010. We would very much like to have your feedback on the Newsletters and any suggestions for future contents. The website at www.clayheritage.org is unchanged from last year but continues to receive favourable comments for its design and the wealth of information that it contains. We hope to develop the photo gallery this year. We receive a steady trickle of e-mails prompted by visits to the site. (Whilst writing this report I have received enquiries on the telephone about siderite in ball clay and about Coadestone!) Together with our archive, our large collection of photographs is a very valuable historical resource. The project to digitise and catalogue our photographs continues to make steady progress thanks to the efforts of Tony Vincent and Lu La Buzz, a student at Plymouth University. They have been working mainly on South Devon mobile plant and quarry scenes. Our archive and photographic material covers Watts, Blake, Bearne’s china clay works at Cornwood and Shaugh as well as the ball clay works. We made available our china clay photographs to Brian Brazier and Martin Harris for the publication that they are preparing about Shaugh. In return they have digitised all our china clay prints and slides and have started to digitise our large collection of ball clay slides. Tony Vincent’s work on our ball clay photographs has led to the Committee approving a project to digitise maps and aerial photographs of the Bovey Basin. The project involves acquiring software that will enable these maps to be treated as ‘layers’ that will make it possible to see how the same piece of terrain has changed over time, starting with the tithe maps of the 1830’s showing the original field names and boundaries, and following on with estate auction and conveyance plans showing land ownerships, wartime and post-war aerial photographs showing the development of pits, and detailed mines and quarries plans created by the companies showing surface and underground workings. In addition to preserving and making accessible much important historical information, the resource that will be created will help to contextualise the views of photographs of pits that have long since completely changed in appearance. Tony is currently assessing software called ‘Mapmaker’, and if it is suitable we will purchase it and pay for training at a cost of about £750. The most significant project that has been undertaken over the last 12 months has been the oral history project that was foreshadowed at the last AGM. Prior to last year we had recordings of only about five people who had worked in the ball clay industry – all of whom have since passed away. Thanks to the work of our oral historian, Kirsten Lavine, we now have recordings of 34 more people, and she has transcribed all these and the earlier recordings. In one of the most recent recordings a former North Devon Clay worker described how he cut clay in cubes – or balls – in the 1930’s. He is probably the last person alive who did this. There are still a few more people whom we would like to record. Currently the transcripts are in draft, the intention being that after corrections have been made they will be distributed to the individuals who were recorded so that they can make any changes that they feel appropriate. We will not publish any individual’s material in a way that can be linked to the individual without his or her permission, but we are now considering the possibility of producing a booklet, similar in size to “The Ball Clays of Devon & Dorset” which would be a more personal view of the history of the industry in recent decades. Any suggestions from members would be gratefully received by the committee. The cost of the project so far has been about £4,000, which has been paid for out of the Society’s funds, which have of course been provided for purposes such as this.. Although expensive, we feel that the recordings are a vital contribution to the preservation of the history of the ball clay industry. If we embarked on a publication we would probably seek separate grant funding for it. I represent the Society (and our ‘sister’ society the Stover Canal Society) on the Teignbridge Museums Group which gives us useful contacts with museums in the area, several of which have had displays on the history of the ball clay industry. One of these is Teignmouth & Shaldon Museum which is now being extended and remodelled at a cost of £1 million with a view to reopening in about 12 months’ time. We are talking to the gallery designer about the story line and materials that they can use in the planned Maritime Trade section of the new galleries, the object being to explain the very important historical and contemporary link between the ball clay industry and the port of Teignmouth. They may be interested in using some of our oral history recordings, which we are considering extending to include people who were involved in the trade at the port. We work closely with the Newton Abbot Town & GWR Museum, and through my involvement with the Newton Abbot Community Interest Company we continue to advocate the establishment of a civic and cultural ‘hub’ in the centre of Newton Abbot that would include a significantly larger museum containing space to display some of our ball clay artefacts and archive and photographic material. The planning of the town centre will reach a critical phase in the coming months with consultations to take place on the Town Centre Regeneration Plan and Local Development Framework, and it would be a considerable help if members could participate in the consultations and add their voices to this proposal. In the meantime, we have been pleased to lend our ‘archaeological’ artefacts, including our wonderful Bronze Age spear head, for the splendid ‘Sights and Sounds of Newton Abbot’ exhibition that is currently being held at the Museum, and which I recommend all members to visit – and which I think we will hear more about shortly! We have been approached by the District Council to help with ambitious proposals for new displays in the visitor centre at Decoy Park. This is an ideal place to educate the public about the history of the ball clay industry, but I fear that the project may become the victim of cuts in expenditure. Ten years to the month since Railtrack agreed terms for the transfer of the freehold of the Stover Canal to the District Council so that it could be leased on to the Stover Canal Trust, Network Rail (as they are now called) have, instead, completed a lease to the District Council who have sub-leased it to the Trust. The revised leasehold terms insisted upon by Network Rail are significantly less advantageous as they incorporate a 6-month break clause that could be of considerable concern to potential funders. Restoration of the Canal features strongly in the District Council’s plans for the Newton Abbot area, but to minimise any problems with the Environment Agency over flooding concerns the Trust intends to adopt a piecemeal, step by step approach to restoration, starting with opening up public access to the section between Jetty Marsh and Teignbridge that has already been cleared. The Trust will in the meantime commence ecological and other studies and embark on the project to acquire the Teignbridge clay cellars with a view to developing facilities such as a café, cycle hire shop and an exhibition space for the Stover Canal and Ball Clay Heritage Societies. As always, we welcome your comments on what we are doing or could be doing and would be delighted if any members felt they could become involved in providing material for the newsletter or website or in projects such as the cataloguing or mapping projects. John Pike Chairman 25 March 2010 |
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