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Publication Account

Date 1986

Event ID 1017672

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017672

This small clayworks, which was demolished by 1978, stood on the coast at Knock Head, about 3 km W of Banff. It was established on the farm of Blackpots by one Dr Saunders a few years before 1788, at which date it was extended by his son. The works assumed its final layout in about 1840 when the manufacture of drainage tiles commenced. The production of pantiles and bricks ceased in the early 20th century and in 1946 respectively. At the date of survey in 1971 the works produced only field drainage-tiles and employed eleven men in the summer season, the same number as in 1840.

Blue gault clay was dug manually at a quarry on the E side of the headland, and was transported to the works in hand-operated bogies on a narrow-gauge railway. There it was gravity-fed into the machine-shed and passed through two sets of diesel-powered (originally steam-powered) pug-mills and a plunger which removed the stones; a twin-piston extruder forced the mixed clay through two pipe-dies, and the moulded sect io ns were cut by handoperated wire cutting-machines. The green clay pipes were then carried in three-tier barrows to the racks of the adjacent drying-shed, a fine pantile-roofed and louvred structure measuring 234 ft (71.32m) in length by 28 ft 6 in (8.68m) in width overall. It was laid out on a three-aisled plan with four parallel rows of simple box-framed dryingracks. Each rack was about 6 ft 6 in (1.98m) high and 8 ft 3 in (2.52m) long, a dimension which was determined by the load-bearing capacity of the wooden shelves and which in turn governed the bay module of the whole building. There were two tiers of louvres, or passes , in each bay; they were made up of ledged boards and were hopper hung, being pivoted on strap-hinges and secured in the open position by rough props. Over the years the simple post-and-lintel construction of the building had sett led unevenly, giving the roof an irregular but pleasing undulating profile. A timber wall-plate composed of scarf-jointed sections was carried on masonry piers placed at the angles and midway along the side-walls; intermediate support was provided by timber posts demarcating each bay. Set on stone bases, the posts were notched to receive raking struts and spiked to the soffit of the wall-plate.

The air-dried tiles were then transferred to the kiln which had a capacity for some forty tons of ware and was fired about sixteen times each season. Although largely rebuilt as recently as 1953, the kiln was a modified version of the traditional 'Scotch' up-draught type; it was equipped with low-level furnace-holes staggered opposite one another in alternate bays along the side-walls, which were flanked by 9 ft-wide (2.74m) stoking-aisles. The kiln yard was adjoined on the SE by a house and the manager's office. To the NW, and still surviving, there is a small harbour with a rubble-built pier, which was used for importing coal and exporting some of the clay-ware products.

Information from ‘Monuments of Industry: An Illustrated Historical Record’, (1986).

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