Durfold china clay works

The early history of the china clay extraction industry in the Blisland area is not well known, and the early sites of the mining and streaming operations even less well known. However it is clear that china clay extraction has been carried out since very early times and there are several other sites in the area. Not only china clay extraction but also tin mining and streaming are known from the Durfold area, although it was noted that "This branch of the industry has, however, become exhausted, and is now almost relinquished in favour of the clayworks and granite quarries".

In 1839, during the first official geological survey of Cornwall, Sir Henry de la Beche had noted the presence of china clay in this area3, and although it was brought to the attention of clay workers of the St Austell workings nothing was done at this time. In 1860 the Reverend C. M. Edward Collins of Trewardale suggested to Andrew Cundy, then prospecting for china clay near Roche, that he should investigate the Blisland area4. A few months later clay was discovered at Durfold, and the clayworks opened that year under the ownership of Henry Phillips. However it has also been stated that Cundy was joined by John Truscott, and together they established a clay works on behalf of Messrs. Parkyn in 1864.

The pit's annual production appears to have been around 2-300 tons. Frank Parkyn took charge of the operation in 1870, having acquired the lease from Henry Phillips in that year. After this it declined, and finally closed in 1884 when the equipment was sold off. Considerable development was carried out during this period, with at least two water wheels being erected. Sometime during Parkyn's reign (probably between 1880 and 1884) the pit became the first in the area to lay pipes to transport clay slurry. The slurry was taken about two kilometres westward to the Stumpy Oak (Tresarrett) kiln, built adjacent to the Wadebridge-Bodmin-Wenford Bridge railway (now part of the Camel Trail), where coal, and therefore drying, was cheaper. This kiln also included a set of settling pits and tanks. By the time of the second series 25-inch Ordnance Survey in about 1900 both the pit and processing works were derelict.

The Durfold settling tanks and pipeline were re-opened at a later date for processing slurry from the Greenbarrow clay works at Temple, just over 2km to the south-east, next to the A30. Initially the slurry was pumped using flat-rods operated by a 50-foot waterwheel at Gawns, about 500m south-west of Durfold (at SX 1132 7325). This was erected in 1920, having been acquired from the Laxey Mines on the Isle of Man. Made at the Hawarden Iron Works in Flintshire in 1865 it saw service at West Fowey Consols before being sold to the Laxey Mines. The wheel had been transported by rail to Wadebridge in parts and hauled by a traction engine to Durfold where it was rebuilt, and while in use was the largest in Cornwall. The unusual set-up at Gawns had its own unusual problem: the flat-rods were lubricated by grease which was popular with cows and constantly being licked off, and consequently a man was employed to walk the line of flat-rods every day to replace the lost grease. The course of the rods can still be traced across Trehudreth Downs, passing under the A30 through a tunnel (at SX 1320 7365). The wheel was fed from Durfold via an aqueduct, the water supply being secured by erecting a dam on the river and flooding the south-western part of the site.

This system eventually proved too inefficient because so much of the power was lost through friction, and a generator, which was also run by the wheel, subsequently replaced the flat-rods. The generator fed power via a copper wire, mounted on the flat-rods which were pushed into the ground; some of them can still be seen. It is rumoured that the voltage drop along the line was similar in magnitude to the loss of mechanical energy through friction, the loss becoming total one day when most of the cable was stolen. The wheel was disused by 1934 at which time the Durfold works was abandoned. The Gawns wheel was eventually disassembled in 1971 by its owners (English China Clays International) on behalf of the Trevithick Society. It proved too large to erect at the Wheal Martyn Museum and was later removed on loan to the Llwernog Lead Mining Museum near Aberystwyth and in 2003 given on permanent loan to the Laxey and Lonan Trust; the wheel was opened to the public in August 2006.

Most of the flat-rods were donated to a park in Lerryn (near Fowey) where they were used as railings. The reason behind this donation is that Frank Parkyn donated the woodland which now comprises this park in the 1860s, for the public's benefit. Parkyn appears to have adopted Lerryn at an early age, having reinstated the village's regatta in 1870 after which he served for many years as its secretary. These unusual railings therefore form a small (and probably largely, if not entirely, forgotten) monument to a well liked and respected local benefactor.

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