Holding's Country Pottery was founded in 1842 by James Holding, but it was not
originally located on Haslingden Old Road where it is now. The original
pottery was built a short distance away in Gaulkthorn, another outlying
area of Oswaldtwistle. In 1860 James Holding moved his business to
Broadfield, then in 1900 his son Grimshaw Holding set up the pottery on
the present site. From then on the pottery stayed put and the business
passed down from father to son until it's decline very recently - the last
mandatory accounts, made up to 3rd. May, were submitted to Companies House
in 2010, with the comment,
"Nature of business, dormant company".
The reason for the decline of the business we do not know, and we saw
nothing to give any hint whilst wandering around the site. I must say
though that for a business that wound up so recently the buildings must
already have been in a sorry state of repair to have deteriorated so
rapidly subsequently - the impression is not of a building abandoned
recently, it looks more like ten years of decay! Having said that there
could be a very simple reason for the decay, but more of that later...
Although the postal
address is Oswaldtwistle this area is in a bit of a no man's land 'twixt
Ozzy and Hassy... that's Haslingden to any southerners reading this!
The reason the pottery was
built on a desolate road in the back of beyond - and speaking as a local I
can vouch for how bleak this area can be in winter, or summer for that
matter when it's raining - is all down to the quality of the clay in the
ground hereabouts. As a consequence of the Holding's on site
excavation of readily available clay the surrounding ground has an
appearance reminiscent of parts of the western front in France! The clay
was processed in a section of the pottery at the back, then dishes, pots,
jugs, and all manner of ceramics were thrown, glazed and fired, and then sold
from Holding's own shop out front. Even some of the bricks which were used
to extend the buildings over the years are reported to have been made on
site in the pottery's own kilns.
Their product range
was quite extensive and we found what looked like communion wine goblets
with matching candle holders in the same metallic glazed finish, red clay
plant pots, huge planters, wall planters, a hollow red clay animal
(headless now - a frog? a cat? a lion?), and both glazed and un-glazed
examples of what appeared to be a whole range of brown table ware jugs and
the like known as the "Treacle Glaze" range. Many of Holding's products were simply pressed in moulds, dried,
glazed, and fired, but a proper potter with the fine old Cornish name
of Roland Tregurtha, worked
there from the age of 14, throwing traditional pots on a wheel. An
electrically powered wheel
sits now in a large shed, together with loads of unglazed pots, a short
distance from the pottery proper.
The building is the
most amazing mess inside, exactly why I do not know. I suspect that since
closure shelves have simply collapsed, or have perhaps occasionally been
given a helping hand by the odd chav or child - or maybe even during a
process of very obvious slate reclamation from the main roof. Having said that the common
and depressing phenomenon of rampant chavvery, seen at almost every
derelict site in England, has clearly not been a problem here as there is
no graffiti evident anywhere and very little obvious vandalism per se,
only a massive scattering of pottery and artefacts over the floors. This
place is literally chock a block, not only with pots in various stages of
manufacture, but also with account ledgers, receipt books, and other
assorted and occasionally esoteric literature. Most interestingly there is a veritable cornucopia of
personal artefacts such as photographs, books, Christmas decorations, and
even the graduation photograph of someone who in all probability worked at
the pottery. The sheer amount of stuff lying around literally
everywhere imparts to the site a time capsule quality rarely experienced
elsewhere.
At the back of the
main pottery building can still be seen the machinery used to refine the
newly excavated clay to the desired quality ready for the potters. The
first part of the process uses a machine called a Blunger which looks like
a cross between a sausage machine and a food processor. The clay is thrown
into the top of the machine where blades churn it with water to create a
creamy sludge. Stones etc. fall out of the suspension as they are much
heavier than the clay. The stone free cream clay is passed on to a huge
sieve where smaller stones are removed and the excess water is pressed out
to leave slabs of uniform grey clay. We found a document listing extra
ingredients added to improve the firing qualities and the durability of
the finished pots, some of this process being quite complicated chemically,
although it was unclear during what stage of the process these additions
are made. A further machine called a Pugmill sits just behind the sieve.
The Pugmill pushes the processed clay out through a nozzle as grey "rods"
ready to be cut and worked, and there is still a stack of these clay rods,
dried out now, sitting on a table behind the machine.
The
last of the Holding dynasty to run the pottery still lives in the area and
for this reason I have blurred photographs and obscured other aspects in
order to preserve the family's privacy. I am not sure if he was formally
qualified in the pottery trade but we did find evidence of him gaining a
qualification quite different to what one might expect of someone entering
the pottery trade! The final oddity in the Holdings Country Pottery
mystery is the presence on site of children's toys aimed at toddler age -
there is a small train and a box of plastic construction pieces, a bit
like a cross between Lego and Meccano, and even a small knitted teddy
bear. I found it quite disturbing and not a little sad to see artefacts of
such a touching personal nature abandoned to be walked into the mud of the
floor in a building which is almost completely open now. The shop section
of the building at the front has not yet succumbed to water ingress apart
from one small part of the ceiling coincident with a slipped slate on the
roof directly above, but of course it is only a matter of time. The
pottery proper is almost completely derelict, the clay processing room
being the only area with a full roof - indeed in one area the roof beams
are held up only by the addition of Accro props, and there is not a slate
to be seen. I wonder if the recently converted Broughton Barn a few
hundred yards away across the field up by the main road has the roof
re-slated from the pottery? It is very clear from Google Earth satellite
photographs taken in 2005 that the pottery had a complete roof then, no
surprise as it was still a going concern at that point. The "Barn" though
was completely derelict. Now we find a complete reversal, with a
new roof on the "Barn" and the pottery open to the elements instead.
Re-deployment of readily available roofing materials wouldn't surprise me
in the slightest as we are 99% sure that the "Barn" originally belonged to
the the Holdings before it was converted to multiple dwellings and put on
the market.
So, in Holdings
Country Pottery we have a recently abandoned building almost completely
open to the elements, reason for abandonment unknown. There is decay
consistent with, but unlikely to have been caused by, a far longer period
of abandonment. And finally we have personal artefacts in abundance
consistent with an abandoned home rather than an abandoned business.
In short we have quite
an enigma...
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Due to the
somewhat personal nature of some of the artefacts at this site this
link will only "fly" you to the general area of the site in Google
Earth... |
To view any of the
photographs in a bigger size please click on the picture you want to see and it will
open in another window.
Panoramic shot of the pottery
buildings, August 2011... |
We found
numerous items abandoned in the undergrowth here like this clay
trolley...
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...and this old lawn push along
mower - my great grandmother had one almost exactly the same!
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This shed at the side of the site
is full of interesting bits and pieces...
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Unglazed planters... |
Electric potters wheel...
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Headless garden statue...
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Vintage typewriter...
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Plant pots... |
The front elevation of the
pottery proper... |
The name is fading fast...
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This little guy greets you when
you first go inside...
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An invoice
from 1969..
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Beautifully
neat handwritten accounts in one of many old fashioned, leather
bound ledgers...
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This individual
stood as a Conservative candidate in 1980. Only history can show if
he was successful or not...
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A
graduation photograph together with a small B&W portrait photograph
and the programme from the graduation ceremony. Please note, all
faces and names have been deliberately blurred to prevent
identification.
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The programme from his graduation
ceremony held in Bolton's Albert Hall...
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He
achieved a Bachelor of Science in Electronic Engineering...
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A professional portrait photograph
taken in 1969. Please note, the subject's face is intentionally
blurred out...
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Name removed for
privacy...
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Everywhere is a complete
jumble!
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One of the kilns...
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Massive
decay consistent with the building being open to the elements for a
long time... the trouble is it hasn't!
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A common pulley and shaft runs
belts to various machines. This was normal Victorian industrial
practice...
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We have no idea what this machine
does. It looks like some sort of pillar drill but that's a wild
guess!
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Everywhere you
look, even under foot, there are unfinished pots in every
conceivable shape and size...
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Photograph of
an unidentified individual. Just one of dozens of photographs...
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This is a 1/- souvenir
from a trip to Llandudno. It was on the floor and in
imminent danger of being destroyed...
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Slabs of processed clay still
malleable and ready to work...
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This seems to be a popular
range... |
Unglazed and waiting to be
fired... |
It
looks like the reason for all the decay was systematic removal of
the roof slates... |
Another kiln...
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Looking through
the wall into a working area from the clay processing room shows the
other side of an impassable jumble... |
How odd to find
a child's toy amongst machinery! |
Yet another
disused piece of industrial equipment...
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It appears to
be some sort of ventilated booth such as might be used for spray
painting. I have seen a similar enclosure on a bead blaster... |
Tonto
inspecting some 35mm photographic slides left on a bench in the clay
processing room... |
This machine
presses the excess water out of the clay after it has been cleaned
of stones etc. |
Old machine, heavy corrosion. But
I wouldn't mind betting it will still work with a little TLC...
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The
manufacturer's plate on the clay sieve. there is still a William
Boulton Ltd. in Burslem today...
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The side of the sieve...
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Workshop behind the machine
area...
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This machine is
the "Blunger" which processes the raw clay to remove stones etc.
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Clay
is macerated with water to produce a cream from which stones and
impurities drop out naturally... |
I
think this is the outlet end where the clean clay cream comes out...
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The other delightfully named
machine! This is the "Pugmill"...
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Clay is extruded from the Pugmill
in long rods. There are still a few rods here but they are dried out
now...
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Some sort of rope pulley
mechanism, it's purpose was not immediately obvious!
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Is this part of a press mechanism
to force clay into moulds?
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The inside of
the building is rapidly becoming a jungle now that it is open to the
elements... |
This section of
the building looks ready to collapse any time... |
Another room and again it's open
to the skies allowing the elements free reign...
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Back in the jumble we found a
wedding invitation from 1975...
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The names are obscured to preserve
the privacy of those it concerns...
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Another example of the brown range
we saw everywhere...
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Faces
obscured for privacy...
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In the shop area now...
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Evidence of diversification? |
A tiny suitcase - but it was
empty. |
...and finally, the old sign from
"out front"... |
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