Description:Hand moulding valley tiles at Hawkins Tiles (Cannock) Ltd., Longhouse Works, Cannock.
Manufacturing of tiles on Watling Street had started by 1868. The following year Joseph Hawkins took on the lease of Hawkins Colliery (also known as Cannock Old Coppice Colliery) and the adjoining clay pit and tile works at Longhouse nest to the Wyrley and Essington Canal. From 1896 the tile works was operating under the name of Henry Hawkins Ltd. The works were producing 100,000 tiles a day by 1953. The Longhouse Works were purchased by Tarmac in the late 1980s. Brick production ceased in 1993 and the works closed when tile production stopped in 2006. The works were demolished soon after and the site has been redeveloped as Gallan Park.
Photographer: A.T. Herbert, former curator of Jackfield Tile Museum, Ironbridge, Shropshire.