East Cleveland Image Archive

This looks like a photograph of a finishing shop – a place where clay or ceramic objects are cleaned up and checked for defects.  I could suggest a date of 1903 – judging by the plaque being held to view at the nearest workbench, but that could be a red herring.

I say clay or ceramic because most of the objects in the image look like ceramic pipework, chimney pots and urns.

Behind the little table in the foreground can be seen some small moulds – like boxes in two halves.

Now we all know that Bank Top in Loftus was built on boulder clay – was there a brickworks there?

The reason it looks rather gloomy is that it was shot in natural light – no flash.