ÿþ<HTML LANG=en-GB> <HEAD> <TITLE>The Derelict Miscellany :: Leswidden China Clay Works</TITLE> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="leswidden, china clay, common, works, factory, derelict, abandoned, concrete, st just, cornwall"> <META NAME="description" CONTENT="Leswidden China Clay Works is an extensive complex of settling tanks, holding containers, kilns and flues used to wash and process china clay until the 1920s"> <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="ALL"> <link rel="icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"> </head> <body link="#668b8b" bgcolor="darkgray" text="000000" vlink="#668b8b"> <center> <table width=1044> <tr><td> <table width=1044 cellspacing=0> <tr background="gam_print_ordsvywat-sun-171278517207606.jpg"> <td background="gam_print_ordsvywat-sun-171278517207606.jpg" align=right><A HREF="index.html"><img src=1.jpg border=0></a></td><td background="gam_print_ordsvywat-sun-171278517207606.jpg" align=center> <A indepth="true" STYLE="text-decoration: none" HREF="index.html"><h1>T H E &nbsp D E R E L I C T &nbsp M I S C E L L A N Y</H1></A> R e f l e c t i o n s &nbsp o n &nbsp f o r g o t t e n &nbsp a n d &nbsp a b a n d o n e d &nbsp s p a c e s <br><br> </td><td background="gam_print_ordsvywat-sun-171278517207606.jpg" align=left><A HREF="index.html"><img src=2.jpg border=0></a></td></tr></table> </td></tr> <tr><td bgcolor="#EEE9E9"> <center> <a indepth="true" STYLE="text-decoration: none" href="http://derelictmisc.org.uk/index.html">{home} </a> &nbsp &nbsp <a indepth="true" STYLE="text-decoration: none" href="http://derelictmisc.org.uk/menu2.html">{menu} </a> &nbsp &nbsp <a indepth="true" STYLE="text-decoration: none" href="aboot.html">{about} </a> &nbsp &nbsp <a indepth="true" STYLE="text-decoration: none" href="cont.html">{contact} </a> &nbsp &nbsp <a indepth="true" STYLE="text-decoration: none"href="http://twitter.com/DerelictMisc" target="blank">{twitter}</a> &nbsp &nbsp <a indepth="true" STYLE="text-decoration: none" href="disc.html">{disclaimer}</a> &nbsp &nbsp <a href="#" STYLE="text-decoration: none" onClick="window.open('veh/index.html','', 'width=589,height=577,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"> {rusty old cars}</A> &nbsp &nbsp <a href="#" STYLE="text-decoration: none" onClick="window.open('misc/menu.html','', 'width=870,height=482,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;"> {miscellany}</A> &nbsp &nbsp <a indepth="true" STYLE="text-decoration: none" href="links.html">{links}</a> &nbsp &nbsp <a indepth="true" STYLE="text-decoration: none" href="contrib.html">{contribute} </a> </td></tr><tr><td bgcolor=#EEE9E9><table width=100% bgcolor="#EEE9E9"> <td width=13></td><td> <center> <br><u><font size="5">Leswidden China Clay Works</font></u></center> <br><b>What:</B> China clay works <BR> <b>Where:</B> St. Just, Cornwall <BR> <b>Built:</b> 1890s-1900s<BR> <b>Architect:</b> Unknown <BR> <b>Abandoned:</b> 1920s <BR> <b>Listed:</b> No. <BR><b>Visited:</b> 2007<BR> <b>Last Known Condition:</b> In ruins <br><b>Page Updated:</b> February 2011<BR> <br> <p align="justify"> On the moors above St. Just is a stark grey ruin; a labyrinth of concrete tanks, pipes and conduits covering the hillside, presenting a formiddable sillhouette against the sky. <br> A large door in the wall nearest the road opens on to a furnace room with three fireboxes and a set of steps leads onto a huge 'pan' drying kiln chamber spanning the length of the works with a chimney at one end. A series of chambers lead off the near (east) wall, but access to the rest of the site is by climbing the 8' wall and walking along it to the upper settling beds where the only route is accross the narrow walls separating the tanks. This is no easy feat; high winds seek to topple the unwary into the gorse outside or else onto the unforgiving concrete of the deep tanks below. <br> Leswidden China Clay Works opened in the 1890s on a site which is now used by a blockworks, but lasted only a few years before closure. It was reopened by McClaren China Clays shortly after the turn of the last century and it was possibly at about this time that the upper works, the site that we visited, was built. Working continued until the 1920s after which the works was presumably stripped of machinery and the steel or asbestos roofing which covered the buildings. <br> </p><center> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('industrial/lesw.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;" > <img alt="From the road." src="industrial/th_lesw.jpg" border=0> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('industrial/lesw1.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;" > <img alt="Furnace chamber and clay chambers." src="industrial/th_lesw1.jpg" border=0> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('industrial/lesw2.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;" > <img alt="Upper and lower works." src="industrial/th_lesw2.jpg" border=0> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('industrial/lesw3.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;" > <img alt="Offices, perhaps?" src="industrial/th_lesw3.jpg" border=0> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('industrial/lesw4.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;" > <img alt="Furnace chamber." src="industrial/th_lesw4.jpg" border=0> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('industrial/lesw5.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;" > <img alt="Firebox." src="industrial/th_lesw5.jpg" border=0> </A> <br> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('industrial/lesw6.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;" > <img alt="Window." src="industrial/th_lesw6.jpg" border=0> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('industrial/lesw7.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;" > <img alt="From the steps looking over the wall to the quarry." src="industrial/th_lesw7.jpg" border=0> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('industrial/lesw8.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;" > <img alt="Kiln chamber." src="industrial/th_lesw8.jpg" border=0> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('industrial/lesw9.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;" > <img alt="Kiln Chamber." src="industrial/th_lesw9.jpg" border=0> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('industrial/lesw10.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;" > <img alt="Lean-to." src="industrial/th_lesw10.jpg" border=0> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('industrial/lesw11.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;" > <img alt="Lower chambers and settling tanks above." src="industrial/th_lesw11.jpg" border=0> </A><br> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('industrial/lesw12.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;" > <img alt="Settling tank complex." src="industrial/th_lesw12.jpg" border=0> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('industrial/lesw13.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;" > <img alt="Tanks." src="industrial/th_lesw13.jpg" border=0> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('industrial/lesw14.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;" > <img alt="Pipe cradle." src="industrial/th_lesw14.jpg" border=0> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('industrial/lesw15.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;" > <img alt="more tanks." src="industrial/th_lesw15.jpg" border=0> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('industrial/lesw16.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;" > <img alt="Tanks." src="industrial/th_lesw16.jpg" border=0> </A> <a href="#" onClick="window.open('industrial/lesw17.jpg','', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,menubar=no');return false;" > <img alt="View across the works." src="industrial/th_lesw17.jpg" border=0> </A> <br> </center> The works, mostly colonised by nature, is now part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest, while the old quarry is home to a concrete block works. <br><br> <font size="2">Source of historical facts: http://www.trevithick-society.org.uk/industry/leswidden.htm</font><br><br><center></font><b> <a href="index.html">Home..</a></b><br> <BR> </td><td width=13></td></tr></table> </TD></TR><TR><TD bgcolor="#EEE9E9" ALIGN=CENTER> <font size=1>Derelict Miscellany. 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