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Bishop Waltham Clay Company (Maker)
The Vernon Hill estate in Bishops Waltham, Hampshire, England takes its name from Sir Admiral Vernon (whose name was also taken for George Washington’s family home, Mount Vernon). When, in the early 1860s, its owner Sir Arthur Helps began to expand his land-holding, he discovered a deposit of fine terra cotta clay. With this resource he established the Bishop Waltham Clay Company which began in 1862 making bricks and tiles. For about 18 months between 1866 and the autumn of 1867 he also made a range of fine tableware. This was just one of a number of local schemes in which Helps invested, none of them were financially viable and he failed completely by 1867, when he gave up Vernon Hill and retired to a house in Kew granted to him by Queen Victoria.
The clay was later used by Blanchards (Bishop Waltham Ltd) who successfully made bricks on the site until 1957.
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