Craven Dunnill

Craven Dunnill

Craven Dunnill & Co. Ltd. (formerly Hargreaves & Craven, then Hargreaves, Craven Dunnill & Co.) was formed on 9 February 1872, by Yorkshire businessman Henry Powell Dunnill (1821–95), at Jackfield, Shropshire, England. The firm was to become one of Britain's leading producers of ceramic tiles.

Contents

Expansion

Initially based in old buildings in Jackfield, the firm relocated to a nearby new factory, known as the 'Jackfield Works', on 25 February 1874 (grid reference SJ 686029). Designed by Charles Lynam (1829–1921), an architect from Leek, Staffordshire who specialized in industrial buildings and also worked on Croxden Abbey, Craven Dunnill's Jackfield Works was constructed in the Gothic Revival style with a characteristic 'long and thin' plan, enabling raw clay to enter at one end, and finished products to emerge at the other. Lynam was the architect of two other nineteenth century Victorian era tile works – those of Mintons Ltd of Stoke-on-Trent and Hollins, Staffordshire (built 1869), and Maw & Co., Jackfield, (built 1883).

Craven Dunnill became well known for its encaustic tiles, in imitation of medieval originals. Decorated with inlaid patterns of different-coloured clays, Craven Dunnill encaustic tiles were extensively used for church tiling schemes, from parish churches (such as Kemberton church, in Shropshire) to cathedrals (Chester Cathedral and Shrewsbury Cathedral, for example). The firm also made decorative mosaic, photographic, painted, lustre, transfer-printed, and relief-moulded tiles.

A small quantity of art pottery was produced by Craven Dunnill, decorated with relief-moulded patterns and lustre glazes.

Decline

Craven Dunnill ceased tile production at their Jackfield Works in 1951, after which the company became a tile distributor based at Bridgnorth, Shropshire.

Museum

The historic Jackfield Works site was acquired by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust in 1983, and part of it is now managed as the Jackfield Tile Museum, one of many museums operated by the Trust. Other parts of the site are occupied by commercial businesses, including Craven Dunnill Jackfield Ltd., who returned to the Jackfield Works site in 2001, reviving the manufacture of commercial tiles there after a gap of around fifty years.

The Craven Dunnill Encaustic Tile Works are a waypoint on the South Telford Heritage Trail.

See also

External links

Sources

The Jackfield Decorative Tile Industry, Tony Herbert (Ironbridge: Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, 1978)
Pottery and Tiles of the Severn Valley, Michael Messenger (London: Remploy, 1979: ISBN 0706607325)
Journal of the Tiles & Architectural Ceramics Society, Vol 4, 1992 (ISSN 02645157)

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