Two kiln workers stack tiles for firing, Wheatley Quarries, 1952

Two kiln workers stack tiles for firing, Wheatley Quarries, 1952. Two men sacking tiles in the brown kiln . Wheatley Quarries made Triton floor tiles from three types of clay drawn from three pits and special seams at their Springfield tileries in Trent Vale. The clay produced a range of ceramic tile colours after blending and firing in kilns. The long and complicated process of firing in round coal fired kilns could take up to 17 days and the kilns worked on a three week cycle. Orders for Triton tiles came from many government departments they were durable and resistant to acid and chemicals so favoured in many industrial as well as domestic quarters. Wheatley Quarries closed in the late 1970s. Photograph by Walter Nurnberg (1907-1991), who transformed industrial photography after WWII by using film studio lighting techniques. Photographie ©SSPL/NMeM/Walter Nurnberg