X-Nico

unusual facts about china clay



Clay pit

The Eden Project at Bodelva near St Austell, Cornwall, UK is a major redevelopment of a former china clay (kaolin) pit for educational and environmental purposes.

Fowey railway station

The railway was then converted into a private road to bring china clay from Par harbour.

Lostwithiel railway station

At the east end of the station is a level crossing while at the west end the line is carried over the river, beyond which is the junction for the Fowey branch which is now used by china clay trains only.

The passenger service was withdrawn on 4 January 1965 but the line remains open to carry china clay to the jetties at Fowey.

Scratchboard

Scratchboard or scraperboard refers to both a medium, and an illustrative technique using sharp knives and tools for etching into a thin layer of white China clay that is coated with black India ink.

South Devon Railway Tornado class

It was also notorious for being the locomotive of a runaway china clay train at Burngullow on the Cornwall Railway on 29 October 1872.

St Austell railway station

As well as the general traffic for a busy town, the station handled large volumes of china clay from the surrounding district, and of fish from Mevagissey.

Thomas Frye

With his silent partner, a London merchant Edward Heylyn, he took out a patent on kaolin to be imported from the English colony of Virginia in November 1745, and became manager of the Bow factory from its obscure beginnings in the 1740s.

Train reporting number

The china clay train from Cliff Vale (Stoke-on-Trent) – St Blazey (Cornwall) is limited to 60 mph, so it is a class 6 train.


see also

Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway

Lord Morley had interests in china clay (kaolinite) deposits on Lee Moor, and in 1833 he agreed with the Johnson Brothers that they would build a branch line to Plympton largely on the northern margin of the Exeter Turnpike.