Lithgow Valley Colliery and Pottery Site facts for kids

The Lithgow Valley Colliery and Pottery Site is a special place in Lithgow, Australia. It used to be a busy factory where people made pottery and mined coal. Today, it is a heritage-listed site, which means it's protected because of its important history.

The site is located on Bent Street in Lithgow. It was built between 1876 and 1945. It is also known as the Lithgow Pottery and Brickworks. This property is privately owned. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on April 2, 1999.

History of the Site

This site holds the hidden remains of a clay products factory. It was part of the Lithgow Valley Colliery Company Ltd. This company was one of Lithgow's most important and longest-running businesses.

In 1869, a railway line was built connecting Lithgow to the coast and the west. This made it easier to mine the rich coal found in the Lithgow Valley. Thomas Brown, a Scottish farmer, owned much of the valley. He opened two coal mines himself. He also sold parts of his land to business people from Bathurst. These people started the Lithgow Valley Colliery (LVC) in 1872-1873.

Making More Products

In the late 1870s, the three main coal companies in Lithgow started making other products. They wanted to use the local resources and make more money. The Eskbank company started making iron and bricks. The Vale of Clwydd company got into copper. The Lithgow Valley Colliery (LVC) began making products from clay.

The area next to the LVC mine was used for this new business. The LVC company called its clay products factory the Lithgow Pottery and Brickworks. They made bricks, pipes, chimney-pots, and tiles. For a while, they also made pottery for homes.

The brickworks opened first in 1876. A brickmaker named Aston used a special oven called a clamp-kiln. Then, in 1878, a kiln for making pipes was built. This kiln made pipes for both sewage and farming. In 1879, the first pottery kiln was built. A skilled English potter named James Silcock ran it.

Pottery for Homes

The pottery made for homes at Lithgow became very famous. You can see large collections of it at Eskbank House in Lithgow and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. Different master potters worked there, making beautiful items.

However, making pottery for homes was not the most profitable part of the LVC business. So, this part of the factory closed between 1896 and 1905. There was a short but well-known return of pottery making from 1905 to 1907. This happened when another English potter, Arthur Brownfield, leased the factory. After 1907, no more pottery for homes was made for sale.

Pipes and Bricks Continued

Even though the domestic pottery stopped in 1907, the factory kept making pipes, tiles, chimney-pots, and bricks. They made large amounts of these products, even during the Great Depression and World War II.

They successfully competed with other big companies like Fowlers in Sydney. There was also enough demand for bricks. This allowed four or five brickworks to make a profit in Lithgow during the 20th century.

How the Factory Was Arranged

In the 1800s, the clay products factory had different sections. Pipe-making was in the north. The brick kilns (ovens) were in the west. The pottery section was in the south.

In 1901, the LVC company invested a lot of money in a new, modern brick kiln. This was a "continuous brick-kiln" based on the Hoffman design, patented by Sercombe. This much larger kiln was placed in the middle area, east of the pipe-kilns. It was also close to where they dug up the clay.

Besides these three main sections, there were also general buildings. These included a blacksmith's shop, an engine house, a boiler house, and a clay storage area. These buildings changed over time. The LVC company offices were built in 1878. They are still standing today at 69 Bent Street. Next to them, at 67 Bent Street, was a nice house for a company executive. The offices are part of the heritage listing, but the house is not.

Where the Clay Came From

The raw materials for all these products were found right at the site. Clay and shale were dug out of the hillside just east of the factory. This created a larger and larger clay pit and quarry face.

Clay was also brought in from other places like Clarence and Marrangaroo. But the quarry and pit on the site were always used. The quarry face is still a noticeable part of the landscape today. The clay pit itself has been filled in with industrial materials.

Old Tramways

The old tramway system, which grew more complex until 1906, is now hard to see. The last part of the tramway, which went from Bent Street to the Sercombe kiln, was visible as a drainage channel. But new offices were built over it in 1981.

Other parts of the tramway are now under Silcock Street or have been removed. This happened when a supermarket was built on the old colliery site.

The Factory Closes

The entire production of clay products stopped in 1945. The factory's equipment was sold off in early 1946. Millions of bricks were made at this site over 69 years. These bricks were used to build many houses in Lithgow. They can also be seen in major tunnels and railway works on the eastern railway line.

The stoneware pipes made here were used for many government and city projects. They were used for sewerage systems in Lithgow and other parts of New South Wales. Even today, when old pipes are repaired, Lithgow pipes are sometimes found.

Since the auction in 1946, the clay products site has been gradually cleared. The last remaining kiln, called Big Ben (pipe-kiln no. 4), was built around 1900. It fell down in 1977. Since then, most of the site has been cleared or used for dumping building materials.

Only a few original structures from the industrial plant remain. These include:

• The store for patterns and pottery (which also held a sulky, a light two-wheeled cart).
• The square pottery chimney stack.
• The rectangular clay store with a water tank on top (all three are in the south).
• The more recent powder magazine (storage for explosives) to the east.

The colliery site to the west was completely removed in 1972 to build a supermarket. So, these clay products buildings are the only remaining industrial parts of the Lithgow Valley Colliery.

New Uses for the Site

In the 1970s and 1980s, a well-known local craft-potter named Bob Cunningham used the old storehouse. Cunningham built a brick pottery kiln in front of the store. He also put another kiln inside the store.

After Cunningham left in 1994, another craft-potter, Cameron Williams, and his wife Colleen leased the store area. This means the site continues to be used for pottery, keeping its traditional purpose alive.

Site Development

The northern part of the Pottery and Brickworks site was developed in 1981. The owners at the time, Coalex Pty. Ltd., were allowed to build new offices and laboratories. These were built right behind the original offices at 69 Bent Street.

An archaeological study was done by Dr. Edward Higginbotham in this area. His digging found the exact locations of some old pipe kilns, pipe-drying sheds, and the Sercombe brick-kiln from 1901. It also found the last of the railway tracks that served that brick-kiln. The foundations were surprisingly well-preserved. A photo of the excavated foundations of pipe-kiln no. 3 was even used as a poster by the Department of Planning.

To protect the site, the National Trust of Australia (NSW) and the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences asked for action. On July 11, 1979, an order was placed on the site to stop any remaining structures from being torn down. A temporary protection order was also put in place on August 10, 1979. This gave time to study how important the site was.

On July 31, 1981, the Heritage Council of NSW recognized the site's importance to the state. They placed a permanent protection order on it. The site was officially added to the State Heritage Register on April 2, 1999.

What You Can See Today

An old chimney at the site.

The Lithgow Valley Colliery and Pottery Site, listed on the State Heritage Register, was once much larger. The current listed site is about 4.2 hectares (about 10 acres). It contains the following:

• Pottery and Pattern Store - This is a brick building. It was used to store pottery and the molds (patterns) for making pottery. It also housed a sulky.
• Square Pottery Chimney Stack - This is a brick chimney. It was used by several kilns (large ovens).
• Clay Store - This building is rectangular and has a water tank on top.
• Magazine - This is a 20th-century powder magazine, used to store explosives. It's a brick structure, partly buried, with protective brick walls.
• Original Offices - These offices were designed by Edward Gell, one of the founders of Lithgow Valley Colliery. He was an architect who moved to Lithgow in 1880 to be the general manager of the company. The offices were handy for both the coal mine and the pottery. In the 1890s, a new section was added to the offices. They were used by Coalex until the 1980s and are now leased as a doctor's surgery.

Archaeological Condition

As of September 27, 2011, the site has a high potential for archaeological discoveries. This means there might be many old things buried underground that can tell us more about its history.

Changes Over Time

• 1981 - New offices and laboratories were built on parts of the site.

Why This Site is Important

Map showing the heritage boundaries of the site.

As of September 27, 2011, the Lithgow Pottery and Brickworks is very important to the history of New South Wales. It was a major producer of industrial products for 69 years. It also made beautiful tableware for 20 years.

The pottery, started by James Silcock in 1879, had many skilled potters. Arthur Brownfield restarted it in 1905. These potters brought their skills from England to create unique Australian pottery. This pottery was good enough to compete with items imported from Britain. However, making pottery for homes was not a big money-maker for the company. Today, Lithgow pottery is highly sought after by collectors, which gives it more fame now than it had when it was operating.

Industrial and farming pipes were a strong part of the Lithgow Valley Colliery Company's business. They were profitable for more than three times longer than the pottery section. Even with strong competition from other ceramic pipe makers and iron pipe companies, Lithgow's pipes were used in many important drainage and sewerage systems across New South Wales.

The factory also produced a huge number of bricks. After the Sercombe kiln was installed in 1901, they could make up to 50,000 bricks a day! These bricks were used in many big public projects and in private homes in Lithgow.

The site is historically rare because it combined clay product manufacturing with a large coal mine and a nearby clay pit. The domestic pottery made here is highly valued. The site was also very important to the economy of the Lithgow region. It shows how pipeworks and successful brickworks operated in the state. It also shows how companies invested in new technology, like the Sercombe kiln, after 1901, alongside older brick-making methods.

The site's importance for understanding clay-product technology from 1876 to 1945 depends on what is still preserved underground. A lot of the area has been disturbed, making it harder to find archaeological remains. However, there are two small areas with important parts of brickwork and other industrial items. These should be studied before any new building takes place.

The pottery made at the site is highly respected locally. A new building was even opened in 1996 at the Eskbank House Museum in Lithgow just to display its collection of pottery from this site. Even though the pottery was not very important financially and only lasted 20 years, its products are visible and collectible. The pipes, chimney pots, tiles, and bricks, on the other hand, have mostly remained functional and less noticed.

The clay products division was part of the Lithgow Valley Colliery, which was the longest-running business in Lithgow. It provided jobs and company facilities, which were a big part of Lithgow life for a century.

The Lithgow Valley Colliery & Pottery Site was officially listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on April 2, 1999.