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Local Toilets Are Historically The Best - Official

The June meeting of the Burton Business Club went on tour and visited the Sharpes’ Pottery Building in Swadlincote.  Members had a great evening out learning about both the historic pottery manufacturing facility and visiting the Magic Attic upstairs.  Firstly members were given a lovely buffet by the Sharpes’ Pottery staff before having a very informative talk and slide presentation from Phillip Heath, the Heritage & Conservation Officer for South Derbyshire District Council.

 Philip Heath first gave members some historic background to the clay and coal mining that shaped the development of the South Derbyshire area and how the Sharpes farming and business dynasty opened up the Sharpes’ Pottery operation on their land around the sleepy rural village of Swadlincote in1821.  They soon cornered the market in day-to-day items like household pottery, urinals, toilets, hand basins and even sewage pipes for which the local clay was ideal.    Edmund Sharpe (1810 – 1894) was the youngest of 3 brothers and as head of this new business soon turned Swadlincote from a small village into an industrial town.  He, like many other businesses in the heyday of the Industrial Revolution, used child labour to keep costs down. 

Pottery soon expanded into making Mocha Ware or Yellow Ware which was cheap useable pottery but it was attractive. Ware is now worth a fortune, especially in America, as it is now so rare.

In 1855, Edmund took out a patent on the flushing rim toilet and Swadlincote soon became the main centre for toilet production and sewage pipes in the world as the clay in the area was ideal for this purpose. Unfortunately this did mean that the area was known for the smoke, fumes, subsidence, dust, health problems and ‘general ugliness’!   Phillip gave us the quote – “It was like going down a well into the depths of hell……but it was great!”.

The pottery closed in 1967 and became low grade industrial units. A fire in 1973 destroyed much of the building.  Luckily in 1999 South Derbyshire District Council brought 5 bodies together to form an independent charitable trust and with a lot of fundraising and a lottery grant was able to obtain a 125 year lease on the property and start restoration.   The Pottery opened as we now know it in January 2003 with a small registered museum, the Magic Attic, Tourist Information, Gift Shop, Café with 36 covers, Conference room, Kiln auditorium, is licensed to sell alcohol and is the offices for People Express.

Phillip then took members on a tour or the building both inside and out to point out many interesting features.  Club chairperson, Lorraine Holden warmly thanked Philip and the Sharpes’ Pottery staff for a lovely evening, commenting that both the Sharpes’ Pottery and Magic Attic were both very worthy charities preserving our local heritage.  She then took the opportunity on behalf of the Club to present two cheques for £50 as donations to both Sharpes’ Pottery and Magic Attic.

Club members were then finally left to browse at our leisure through the thousands of fascinating newspapers dating back to the 1700’s…..or use the computers available there to search the archives in the Magic Attic.  Some members, who brought their spouses, had great trouble winkling them out of the Magic Attic archives at the end of the evening.