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Flower Pots

1954 , Waltham Abbey (Essex)

Cat no. 509

An educational film shot at unit the pottery works of G & A Tuck Ltd, Upshire near Waltham Abbey.

The film shows a crawler tractor and earth-moving machine scraping up the clay. The commentary explains that this would have been done by hand in earlier times. The clay is left to weather. A sample is shown of clay before weathering, when it is a lump, and after weathering, when it had been broken down. The weathered clay is dug out by hand, put into a tractor drawn truck, and taken to the factory. Here it is put into a grinding machine. A diagram shows how the grinder, rollers and mixer produce clay that can be manipulated by the potters. The clay comes out of the machine in a large lump. In certain potteries, like the one shown in the film, the flower pots are moulded on a machine. The workers operating the machines are all women. A potter hand makes small flower pots. A detailed sequence shows him making a larger flower pot. The pad and pedals that control the speed of the machine are shown and the commentary describes the processes in detail. The pots are left to dry for several days before being placing into the kiln. There are interior shots of the kiln as the men load in the flower pots. The door is sealed and the fires started. The kiln fires for five and a half days before they are allowed to burn out. The kiln cools and the door seal is broken and raked away. The fired pots are unloaded and taken away by lorry.

Keywords

Potteries; Pottery

Other Places

Upshire

Manifestations

Flower Pots

Copyright restrictions apply.

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