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Maw and Co's Siding

557 bytes added, 17:49, 12 December 2020
Maw & Co. history: additional info on the area
The company was formed in Worcester in 1850, and in 1862 moved to a new factory in Broseley in the Ironbridge Gorge<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maw_%26_Co Maw & Co], Wikipedia, accessed 7/12/2015</ref>, providing a significant portion of the traffic at [[Ironbridge and Broseley]] station. The company quickly outgrew the cramped Ironbridge site, and a decision was taken to open a new factory downriver at Jackfield, home to several other tile factories. On opening in 1883, the Benthall Encaustic Tile Works were the largest tileworks in the world, employing 400 people and producing 20 million tiles annually. Tiles were exported across the British Empire via the Severn Valley railway, to locations including as the Maharaja's Palace, Mysore, India; St. Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne; and the Bank of South Africa, Johannesburg.<ref>M. A. Vanns, ''The Severn Valley Railway''</ref>
The area between Maw and Co's factory and [[Jackfield sidings|Jackfield]] lies on the Doughty Fault, an area of unstable ground made worse by the history of clay mining in the area.<ref>[[Bibliography#Books | Vanns (1998)]] p.46.</ref> The susceptibility of the land around Jackfield is prone to slipping, which became a constant expense to both the Great Western Railway and other local businesses. In 1882, Maw & Co undertook to sink several old boiler barrelsor 'shells', some possibly from GWR locomotives, vertically into the ground and fill them with concrete in an attempt to stabilise the ground. The process was described in an article in "The Engineer", December 1882, a copy of which may be seen on a Telford and Wrekin Council information board at the site of the slip.<ref>The Engineer, December 8, 1882 on [https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/ Grace's Guide]</ref> The . A significant further slip in 1952 resulted in the relocation of [[Jackfield Halt]]. Telford & Wrekin Council completed a three year land stabilisation scheme in October 2016 which substantially landscaped the area,<ref>[http://www.telford.gov.uk/jackfieldstabilisationproject Telford and Wrekin Council]</ref> although the remains of several of the shells are still present in the vicinity.
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Jackfield_Boiler_Shells.jpg|Remains of old boiler shells
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