Local Industries

Some historical information

Glass Manufacture

Glass blowing

Origins in Tutbury are uncertain – possibly Roman or Saxon – but certainly well established by 1472, when records show a glassmaker was in trouble for poaching. The art of glassmaking was first established by the Romans and over the centuries, Britain has been a leading force in the production of high quality lead crystal.

The raw materials are white silica sand, red lead oxide, potassium carbonate, potassium nitrate, borax and serium.
These are heated in a furnace and the molten liquid is blown on a blowing iron and shaped between blocks of wet pear wood. After cooling, the cutting is done using diamond wheels and the finished item is polished in acid baths.

The Silk Mill before renovation

The current factory on Burton Street was built in 1836 for a business that was established in 1812, employing 22 people. It was acquired by Thomas Webb and Corbett Ltd in 1949 and became part of the Royal Doulton Group.

When Royal Doulton sold, Webb Corbett closed in 1981 and some members of the redundant workforce set up two independent companies, Georgian Crystal (now in the former Silk Mill) and Tutbury Crystal

Georgian Crystal

Tutbury Crystal

Glass Blowing at Georgian Crystal

Visitors can now watch the manufacture
from glass blowing to cutting and engraving
and buy products in both shops.

Gypsum Mining

This industry is at least 1000 years old. Gypsum is found in the West doorway of the church, foundations of the castle and decorations inside. There are monuments and memorials to Queen Phillipa, wife of Edward lll who died in 1369, in Westminster Abbey and to John of Gaunt’s wife Blanche in St Paul’s Cathedral.

There were three working gypsum mines in Hanbury Parish in 1894. One operated by J C Staton & Company, at Fauld, one by Peter Ford & Son, also at Fauld but further to the East and close to the area devastated by the Fauld Explosion. A third mine sited near Draycott-in-the-Clay, though still in Hanbury Parish, was owned by the Needwood Plaster and Cement Company.

Staton's had no plaster manufacturing facility at Fauld. The rock was mined, sorted and then transported to Scropton sidings on the 3ft gauge railway using a steam locomotive. The mineral was then loaded onto main line gauge trucks and taken to their recently acquired mill at Tutbury.

Alabaster from the Fauld Mines

The mill was converted from a cotton mill to a plaster mill in 1890. Before the conversion of the Tutbury mill, Staton's plaster was made at Shobnall in Burton-on-Trent.

Staton's mine was producing over 10000 tons a year of plaster products around this time, including potters plaster and Keenes cement. In 1894 an order for 18 alabaster blocks was fulfilled. The alabaster was used in the building of a mansion in New York by Cornelius Vanderbilt. Several of the blocks weighed 15 tons each and they were cut entirely by hand, loaded and transported out of the mine by horse and wagon.

Drilling of the rock to make shot holes was done by hand auger and black powder was used for blasting. Fuses to "set off" the shots were made by hand from black powder and wheat straws. The straws were lit by a candle and a quick dash for safety would follow.

Staton's mine was always very damp and many of the roadways were quagmires made by the horses drawing the full carts out of the mine. The only lighting was by candles or more properly "tallow dips", which were stuck to the rock face with balls of clay. By today's standards mining in 1894 was a very hard and unpleasant job.

The Staton family was related by marriage to the Newton family and together formed an early partnership in the company. Henry Newton took control of the firm in 1899 on the death of his uncle William Newton. The conversion of the Tutbury mill was his responsibility.

Henry was joined in 1901 by his brother-in-law,
T.Trafford Wynne, a mining engineer who took charge of the mining operations. In 1911 Henry Newton's son Leigh Newton became assistant to his father. About this time Statons had a very famous tug-of-war team; they were champions at the Burton-on-Trent Flower Show and defeated the All England Champions.

Local plaster was used in the ceiling of the Tower ballroom in Blackpool and local alabaster was used for Cornelius Vanderbuilt's mansion in the USA.

In 1890, the old cotton mill was used for crushing and grinding the stone to make plaster and had a direct rail link. In October 1968, the mill closed and was demolished in 1972.

The mine in Fauld is now the property of British Gypsum, who continue to manufacture plaster for the building industry.

Sheepskin

A tannery was established in 1915, in an 18th century building that is on the site of an old corn mill. The Sheepskin Shop complex now uses three floors of the mill and the twin water wheels are still in position.

Originally dealing with all sorts of hides: sheep, horse, donkey, cow, calf, deer, goat, fox, badger, dog and cat, some were used for making whips and drum skins.

Skin drying

Sheepskins are first washed and any surplus fat removed before being steeped in a vat of tanning liquor. The skins are then dried and stretched on metal frames before being degreased.

Drying skins in 1934

Nestle's Factory

The factory is on the Hatton (Derbyshire) side of the River Dove which forms the boundary with Tutbury (Staffordshire). The date 1901 still appears on the left-centre block recording the year the Nestle Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company built on this site and began to process milk from local farms, making use of the adjoining North Staffordshire Railway.

In world war two, dehydrated skimmed milk, dried powdered eggs, Red Cross food parcels and survival ration kits were packed here.

In the 1950s there was extensive re-building so that this view down Marston Lane around 1910 is much altered today.

From 1959 the factory began instant coffee production and now provides well over 40 per cent of this growing market. Nestles first introduced Nescafe from the continent in 1938 but it was post-war that it became a big marketing success, largely responsible for the rapid growth in coffee consumption.

In 1966, 6.3 cups of tea were still drunk for every cup of coffee; the gap is now (1984) only 2 to 1 in favour of tea and this factory's annual output is the equivalent of 3,250 million cups of coffee.

Grice & Co - Funeral Directors

The property in Monk Street was originally used as a Malthouse. The founder of the carriage building and wheelwright firm was Mr. Samuel Grice, the grandfather of the late Miss Mary Grice, who will still be remembered by some of the senior members of our local community. Mr. Samuel Grice purchased the property in 1859, after previously using workshops on High St, Tutbury and a location somewhere in Anslow. Mr. Samuel Grice married and there were five sons and three daughters. Two maiden aunts of these children ran a private school in Castle St. The schoolhouse was eventually divided into two dwellings now known as 28 and 28a Castle St.

Mr. Samuel Grice in 1918 leaving the business to his son Mr. John Henry Grice. Soon afterwards, he formed a partnership with a Mr. Horace Marler, an excellent craftsman who was employed by the firm at that time. The firm then became known as "Grice and Marler".

About this time, Grice and Marler acquired the use of the Castle St property which had originally been the coach-house and stables of Tutbury vicarage. The machining was done there. The circular saw, band-saw and planing machine were all powered by a Crossley gas driven motor. The bulk of hardwood was received from the timber merchants at Castle St where it was carefully stacked outside where 1" thick strips were placed between each plank to allow the planks to `breathe'.

The partnership continued until Mr. Marler left the firm in 1937. The work-force comprised one senior man named Mr. George Furr, Mr. Eric Thompson and Mr. J Cooke - aged 14. The funeral business in rural areas at that time was divided into self employed craftsmen who were prepared to "undertake" these duties for bereaved families. In the Tutbury area there were 4 firms and in most villages a similar situation applied. Smart advertisements were not known in those days and personal trust was the norm. It was a fairy common procedure for a male member of the bereaved family to visit the workshop to inspect the coffin as it was being made.

The onset of war made few changes at the beginning, but as the months went by there were more and more restrictions. For the repair and maintenance of farm vehicles there was no difficulty in obtaining home-grown hardwoods, but imported softwoods became very short in supply. The petrol shortages meant that there was an increase on the repairs and renovations of light horse-drawn vehicles such as pony traps and governess carts. The yard at Monk St. was literally crammed with horse-drawn vehicles and long hours of overtime were quite normal. Perhaps the most memorable of the vehicles was the Shetland Pony Stage-coach from Bertram Mills Circus, which spent most of the war years at "Vernon's Oak " in Sudbury.

During those years of war the firm was becoming established in a variety of skills and was willing and reliable noted in the business of funeral directing. When Mr. John Grice died in 1950, Mr. J Cooke took over as a partner to Miss Mary Grice. Miss Grice died in 1983. By this time the firm was busily engaged in funeral work to the exclusion of all other, until the retirement of Mr. Cooke in 1987.