Description:A view of the new Tunnel Kiln installed at Blythe Colour Works in 1975.
The manufacture of underglaze colours in Cresswell began in 1870, when a small works was set up by Pigott and Scarratt, pharmaceutical chemists. But it was not until it was taken over by Fred Wildblood in 1908 that the works expanded. He put his son Cecil in charge, invested in new technology and took full advantage of the adjacent railway. By 1914 Blythe Colour Works was one of the most advanced and successful of its kind in Europe. The company became public in 1936 and shortly afterwards, in 1938, a new office block was built. A new laboratory block followed in 1955 and a new pigment works block in 1957. The Works was acquired by Johnson Matthey in 1963 who owned it until its closure in 2015.