A jardiniere of the type found during the fieldwork, From Peter Woodger's book JAMES HADLEY & SONS. Artist Potters Worcester

A drawing of the piece of a similar jardiniere found on the site

The Hadley Works in 1901

James Hadley 1837 to 1903

Hadley worked for Royal Worcester Porcelain from 1851 to 1875, by which time he was chief modeller.  In 1875 Hadley set up as an independent modeller and designer with his studio at 95 High St Worcester.  Hadley entered into an agreement with Royal Worcester that they would buy  almost all his work.  Also in 1875 Hadley bought a piece of land between the Diglis Road and the Worcester to Birmingham Canal.

At the end of 1895, Royal Worcester cancelled the agreement to buy Hadley’s work: so, with his three sons he set up his own business of James Hadley & Sons.  At first they used space at Locke’s works but in March 1897 they applied for planning permission to build a factory on the land which Hadley had bought in 1875.  James Hadley commissioned John Henry Williams, architect of Foregate Street, Worcester, to produce plans for the construction of his  porcelain works on the site in 1897.  A complex of buildings consisting of two kilns and associated preparation and finishing buildings were proposed.  This included a room for making and storing saggars; a W.C.; a biscuit ware room; a dipping room; a dippers store; a glazed ware finishing room; an enamel kiln; a packing shed and a printing room.  These buildings were to be positioned on the northern half of the site, with the kilns towards the canal side. 

A photograph dating from 1901 (above) shows the Hadley works in operation.  The new factory commenced production in September 1897 but the block shown on the original architect's design fronting the Diglis Road (which was to have consisted of a decorating room, burnishing and transferring room and offices) was never built.  The operations destined for this building were carried at 95 High Street and in the two cottages downstream from the factory that were owned by Hadley’s wife.

Royal Worcester bought the factory on 30th June 1905.  Production continued at Diglis Road until March 1906 when the workforce was transferred to the Royal Worcester site.  Royal Worcester demolished the kilns and put the site up for sale but had not sold it by 1915.  In 1969 the site was occupied by a new factory, the Hewin Works.  This building occupied most of the site until it was demolished in April 2002.

Archaeological Background to the area

Prehistoric activity in the area has been found in the form of artefacts recovered during river dredging; a Bronze Age sword was recovered during river dredging below Diglis in 1902 and a Bronze Age flint dagger found in dredged material dumped near Diglis docks in 1956.

The Roman settlement in Worcester seems to have been primarily industrial in character, with a highly developed iron smelting industry which was possibly already active at the time of the Roman occupation and appears to have continued until the eventual Roman withdrawal.  The site lies approximately 350m from the apparent core of the early Roman settlement, which was first discovered when the castle motte was removed in 1833(Allies, 1840, p5).

Diglis first occurs in the records as the place name "Dudleg" in 1232.  The Frog brook is known to have occupied a course that took it south of the east side of the city towards its confluence with River Severn some way below the Diglis Basin.  The low lying nature of the land in this area, and the presence of underlying beds of marl make it likely that the Diglis area was a marsh in the early medieval period.  Tracing the exact course of the Frog Brook has been made more difficult by the probable existence of multiple braided channels. 

Evidence relating to the presence of a mill (Frog mill) in Severn Street in the Fifteenth century also shows that the Frog Brook was dammed and diverted to provide water for a leat.  The Mill is known to have been in use in the Seventeenth Century, and was still occupied in 1678, but by circa 1660 the mill pond had silted up.

 Little evidence of medieval occupation has been found in the area, probably due to the low-lying nature of the land and the extended use of the area as pastureland.  Place name evidence suggests that the area was in use as pastureland in the fifteenth century.  Diglis is referred to as "meadow called Dudley" in 1490 (Mawer and Stenton 1927, p.163).  The meadows at Diglis formed part of the Bishop of Worcester's demesne in the medieval period, and the Prior of Worcester took a rent of £6 from the pastureland in 1535.

In 1815 the Birmingham and Worcester Canal was completed, with the Frog Brook being canalised.  The Severn Navigation Weir and Lock, to the south west of Diglis Dock was constructed in 1844. The arrival of the canal meant that the area experienced rapid development, with industrial activity such as porcelain production and associated trades becoming established in the area.

Maps of the area

The earliest maps of the area date from the Seventeenth century, but show little detail.  On Speede's map of 1610 Diglis is shown lying beyond the circuit of the city wall and ditch.  The position of the Frog Mill is indicated and the Castle ditch is also shown.

The Civil War had a major impact on the city defences, with a system of outlying fortified redoubts linked together by deep trenches with ramparts was laid out on the east side of the city.  The Civil War entrenchments had a relatively short lifespan and were extensively slighted after the defeat of the Royalist garrison by Parliamentary forces in 1651.  Parts of the Civil War fortifications ran through the Diglis area.  Two bastions were located where Diglis meets Severn Street  (WCM 96153), and were joined by a section of the entrenchments (WCM96155).  A civil war fort is recorded to have been present at Field Terrace, Diglis on the 1902 Ordnance Survey map.  During the Civil War the Frog Brook was deliberately dammed to cause flooding and the area remained a marsh for a long period after the end of hostilities.

Doharty's map of 1741 clearly shows that the area was in use as meadows and shows the course of the Frog Brook and the line of the Bath Road.

Young's plan of 1779 also shows that the area was in use as meadow land, with no development on the site.

Nash's plan of 1781, reissued in 1799 also shows the area to have remained in use as meadows.

Young's plan of 1790 shows the line of the proposed Worcester and Birmingham Canal with associated canal basins crossing the site, but this was not actually completed until 1815.  Similarly the line of the Bath road is shown as having been altered, but this never actually occurred.

Eaton's plan of 1829 shows the canal and the position of the Diglis Basin.  The canal bridge immediately to the north of the site is shown.  Some development has spread down the line of Bath Road, but the site itself is still shown as open ground.  The canal towpath is also shown, but Diglis Road itself has not yet been constructed.

A plan of 1832 by Crisp for the Electoral Commision, shows further development occurring along the line of Bath Road and appears to shown the plot occupied by the Albion public house (on the corner of Diglis Road and Bath Road to have been developed.  Some development appears to be present along the line of Diglis Road to the south of the site.

Clement's plan of 1835 shows that the line of Diglis Road was now clearly established, but is not detailed enough to record individual building plots along the road.

Bentley's plan of 1840 is the first to show clear indications of development along Diglis Road.  The buildings shown fronting onto Diglis Road may represent the cottages owned by James Hadley's wife in 1875.

At the time of the 1887 Ordnance Survey map the site is shown as having been cleared.  A mixture of industrial and residential development now occupied the entire length of Diglis Road.  The kilns of the Royal Worcester Company's works on the east bank of the canal opposite the site are shown

By the time of the 1902 Ordnance Survey map Diglis Road has been developed along both sides.  Hadley's factory and the two cottages next door to it are clearly marked, and have been constructed in line with the architect's design, apart from the block that was to have fronted onto Diglis Road, which was never built.  The site immediately to the north of the site was a coal yard.

On the 1938 Ordnance Survey Map Hadley's works have been demolished and the site has been redeveloped.  The 1963 Ordnance Survey Map (not shown) shows a new development on the site bordering the canal, which appears to be an industrial unit.  The southern half of the site has been cleared.

The excavation

Trench A

This trench measured 21 metres by 2 metres and was positioned in order to investigate the state of preservation of any remains of the kilns of the Hadley Works.  The trench was excavated to a total depth of 1.7 metres (16.03 OD)

A layer (1) of mid brown sandy silt including abundant brick fragments, approximately 20% ash and kiln waste, 10% coal and 5% stones.  At either end of this trench layer 1 was directly over a layer (2) of kiln waste comprising kiln furniture (spacers, wasters, biscuit fired unglazed wares, saggars etc in a matrix of loose ash/coal waste.  In the central portion of the trench layer 1 lay directly over a layer (5) of pale yellow/ cream brown decayed lime mortar mixed with abundant pale yellow hard fired brick and approximately 10% crushed red brick and 5% coal waste.  The brick in this layer is consistent with the type of brick used as kiln lining.  This layer overlay a layer (3) of black coal waste mixed with brick and approximately 10% small pebbles.  This layer was very compacted in places.

At the northern end of the trench a brick foundation wall (7) was exposed.  This was in the correct position to represent the external boundary wall of the Hadley factory, and had internal buttresses in a similar pattern to that shown on the architect's plan. 

In the centre of the trench a second wall (8) was exposed.  This wall had clearly been inserted as the deposits showed evidence of a cut for the construction of the wall.

Two further walls (9 and 10) were visible at the southern end of the trench.  The loose nature of the fills in this area made it impossible to clearly determine whether these walls had been inserted by examining the sections.  In plan, however, the footings appear to have been cut through areas of the underlying clay that show evidence of having been heated, probably because they lay in the vicinity of the kilns belonging to the Hadley Works.

Two exploratory sondages were cut across one of these areas where walls 8, 9 and 10 crossed the trench to a depth of 0.3m below the base of the trench.  This confirmed that wall 8 had been cut through the top of the natural clay substrate which was compacted and a noticeably more orange-red colour than the undisturbed natural lying immediately below.

Similarly the sondages cut through the line of walls 9 and 10 showed that these features were also cut through areas of the natural clay that had been heated.  The central area of the trench showed that the clay had been heavily compacted and was heavily mixed with crushed brick and mortar debris. 

Trench B

This trench measured 12 metres by 2 metres and was excavated to a total depth of 1.3 metres (16.77 OD).  The excavation of the trench, which was planned to have been a total of 20m was constrained by machining forming part of the site clearance and the presence of a concrete slab which the client wished to retain as hard standing.  In this trench a layer (1) of mid brown sandy silt including abundant brick fragments, approximately 20% ash and kiln waste, 10% coal and 5% stones lay directly over the top of the natural mid orange pink natural clay (6).  A flat bottomed gully 3.5m wide cut layers 1 and 6 at the north eastern end of the trench and was filled with kiln waste, ash, brick and building rubble.  This feature ran north west- south east across the trench.  A second similar cut immediately adjacent was also filled with ash and kiln debris.

A rectangular feature (11) 1.5 metres by 1 metre consisting of corrugated iron sheets acting as shuttering for a concrete pad lay immediately under the surface in the northern corner of the trench.  No other archaeological features were visible in this trench.

Trench C

This trench measured 19 metres by 2 metres and was excavated to a maximum depth of 1.8m metres (16.2 OD).  A very loose layer (12) of brick rubble and demolition debris 0.5 metres deep was revealed overlying a very dark layer (2) of mixed clay and silt containing a high proportion of ash, coal, brick and nineteenth century pottery.  This lay over an orange-pink layer of clay (6) which was of variable consistency, being hard at either end of the trench but notably more friable in the central portion.  A deep feature (1.8 metres) was encountered filled with loose brick rubble (3).  This probably represented the backfilled inspection pit within the Hewin works.  This feature cut across the trench running south west north east and was approximately 4 metres wide.  The clay layer  (6) came progressively closer to the surface at the south east end of the trench and a series of shallow footings were encountered immediately under the surface.  A brick lined arch was seen in the northern section of the trench at the south east end.  This formed part of a brick culvert which had subsequently been blocked with concrete.  No other archaeological features or deposits were found in this trench.

The Pottery

A sample of all the pottery found during the excavation was kept.  No material dating from before the nineteenth century was found.  Peter Woodger examined the kiln waste found re-deposited across the site on site.  This consisted of annular kiln spacers; thick-bodied saggars and shards of biscuit fired porcelain.  All the material examined was consistent with the designs produced by the Royal Worcester Company and consisted of shards from a variety of vessels such as bowls, plates and cups.  Only two examples of pottery manufactured by James Hadley were found.  Both are body sherds from a giardinaire in a fine, highly fired china fabric and have a floral design picked out in raised strips of applied blue coloured clay.  This is consistent with the type of pottery described by Hadley as 'Worcester Faience'.  All the pottery and kiln furniture recovered has been retained.

Conclusions

The relative paucity of ceramic material relating to the Hadley Works indicates either that kiln waste and rejects were dumped elsewhere on the site or that it was removed from the site.  This may have happened after the demolition of the Hadley works or even during its period of operation; kiln waste was routinely used as landfill in and around Worcester in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries.  An example of this re-use of kiln waste occurred at the King's School Worcester where waste from the Royal Worcester works was used to make up the yard of Choir House in the early part of the Twentieth century. 

The ground that trench A was cut through has clearly been made by a series of episodes of dumping of kiln waste, industrial material and demolition debris.  The kiln waste that layer 2 consisted of was material originating from the Royal Worcester Porcelain works (pers. comm. P. Woodyear).

The Hadley Works was acquired by Royal Worcester in 1905 and production continued on the site until 1906.  The site was subsequently cleared and remained the property of the Royal Worcester Company until after 1915.  Large amounts of kiln debris from the Royal Worcester works was sold and used as landfill in the twentieth century.  This was often transported by canal, and it seems likely that after the site was cleared it may have been used to store kiln waste.  Layers 2 and 5 must therefore post-date the demolition of the Hadley Works, and it would therefore appear that the only remaining traces of the buildings and kilns are the external wall and the discolouration of the natural clay caused by heating.

No evidence of medieval or earlier occupation was found during the evaluation.  This probably reflects that this area is low lying and remained in use as pasture land until it was developed in the nineteenth century.  No alluvium was observed which suggests that the ancient course of the Frog Brook lies further to the west.

Reporting

JAMES HADLEY & SONS. Artist Potters Worcester - Peter Woodger 2003. Dorchester: published by author
 

unpublished report - The Former Hewin Works, Diglis Road, Worcester: an archaeological evaluation - Huw Sherlock, Archenfield Archaeology, 2002