the clay factory
The Clay Factory originally started life as a china clay works at the turn of
the 1900’s – the clay was pumped down to the site from Dartmoor for drying and
processing before being transported by train for production. No longer
commercially viable, the clay works closed shop in the early 1930’s. The next
company to take up residence was the tractor engineering firm Western Machinery
who were so impactful that The Clay Factory is still known in the local
community as the ‘Western Machinery building’ or Westmac. After Western
Machinery closed it doors the site was broken up into smaller units for various
industrial uses. After many years of under use, the section now known as The
Clay Factory was officially taken over by RedPod Enterprises in 2016 when we
launched our ambitious plan to set the building at the heart of the community
once again.