Busy Little Industry

One of the best-known landmarks to travellers using Waimea Road are the Bishopdale Potteries. Commuters from points south and west using this road pass this big long building many times in a year without even a thought as to what goes on inside. We thought this comparatively small but very busy little industry might prove interesting so in we went with loaded cameras. Inside we found a small but skilled staff turning out a tremendous variety of bricks, pipes, and other brick articles used in the drain-laying and building industries.

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The home of Bishopdale Potteries

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Eric Neighbours, manager, inspects drying drain pipes

The plant's output depends mainly on two machines - a pipe machine which, with a little manipulation can produce pipes of any length and any number of bends, and a brick-making machine which can turn out thousands of bricks a day. The pipe machine is of a special type. There are only two of its kind in New Zealand, as far as is known.

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Maurie Stagg and Vance Last-Harris draw a pipe from the machine

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Above them Dennis Delany feeds the machine with block clay

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Finished pipes travel by conveyor to Mick Omlo and John Chadwick, who do the finishing work

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Peter Logan demonstrates how to put a bend in a straight pipe