Overview
Established 1888 in Kilmarnock by J & M Craig to make sanitary earthenware products such as toilets and wash hand basins – wares were expanded to produce everything in fireclay.
The firm was taken over in 1918 by Shanks & Co Ltd which became part of the Armitage Group in 1969, and then the Blue Circle Group in 1981. It was the last sanitary pottery in Scotland, closing in 1981 and later dismantled.
Main Products
Sanitary earthenware. Toilets, wash hand basins, drainpipes etc.
The Kilmarnock Standard reported in 1865 that the wares produced included: enamelled bricks of various colours, common bricks and tiles, chimney cans, garden edging, sanitary and water pipes, sewer traps, pickling pots, cattle troughs, gas retorts, full length human and animal figures etc.
At Perceton where the fire-clay was even finer, vases, fountains, rustic wares of every description of artistic fire-clay work were made.
Another report in the Kilmarnock Standard dated October 1880 stated that the mass production of the enamelled bricks and dishes made of fireclay by the Hillhead Fireclay factory was the first in Scotland. Four kilns were reserved for this range of goods while six kilns were reserved for the other lines.
Articles in SPHR
- None
Articles in Bulletin (Members only)
Typical Backstamps & Marks
Pattern Names
Patterns potentially exist in the form of patents for designs, but are not held by the Society.