Monument record MDR5381 - Pottery (site of), Sheffield Road, Chesterfield

SK 383 733. Pottery and brick making on Sheffield Road, opposite the end of Pottery Lane. (1) On Sheffield Road, opposite the end of Pottery Lane, stands a former pottery built in the mid 19th century and used as a brickyard since 1949, having ceased production as a pottery in the General Strike of 1926. The structure remained empty until the war, when it was used as a fire station. This conversion entailed lowering the height of three of the seven old pottery kilns so as to make them suitable for brick making, adding new buildings and removing an upper floor (from which the kilns had been loaded), in an existing building. The three kilns still in use, all brick fired, plus two of those not modified, are of uniform dimensions; the seventh is somewhat smaller. The kilns (apart from the small one) are 23' 6" external diameter at foot, walls 33" thick, have eleven fire holes and a central chimney 30" in diameter. The odd one has nine fire holes, an external diameter of 22' 2". All have cast-iron strapping put on when built to control expansion. At present [1968] the kilns are deteriorating, as are the original buildings, including a weighbridge and adjoining cottage, and an old carpenters/wheelwrights shop with an adjacent smithy. The smithy contains two old hearths, a large pair of bellows, a selection of old tools and old raw materials. The carpenter's shop contains a considerable number of wheels in various stages of repair and construction. Both workshops have been disused for some years. The weighbridge, however is in daily use. It is not dated. The cottage is owned by Pearsons, but is not otherwise connected to the brickyard. When the premises were used as a pottery they made all types of traditional Chesterfield stoneware and earthenware. Clay was obtained locally and in fact some came from a pit in the field to the west of the works (SK 380732), from where a gravity operated tramway brought the clay to the kilns. The pottery's water was obtained from a well on the premises. The yard at the works contains an old horse trough (near the door to the smithy), the remains of a gas lighting system (which energy was once used experimentally to power the kilns for brick making), old saggars and a pair of iron wheels about which no-one from the works knows anything. (1, 2)