This film looks at the design and making of clayware pipes for use in land drainage. The film opens with several men describing as yet, an unrevealed object. Title: “We call ‘em tiles” The film opens on a view of clay ware pipes, field drains or ‘tiles’ stacked on top of each other. The film shows the modern tile is a simple pipe, other tiles show a similar design but with variations. A diagram shows an early form of land drain, a ditch filled with small stones. Later a roofing tile laid...

This film looks at the design and making of clayware pipes for use in land drainage. The film opens with several men describing as yet, an unrevealed object. Title: “We call ‘em tiles” The film opens on a view of clay ware pipes, field drains or ‘tiles’ stacked on top of each other. The film shows the modern tile is a simple pipe, other tiles show a similar design but with variations. A diagram shows an early form of land drain, a ditch filled with small stones. Later a roofing tile laid at an angle at the bottom of the ditch helped the flow of water. Sometimes four tiles were used, but then a u-shaped tile was developed, old examples are shown on film. Because of the initial use of roofing tiles to aid drainage this is the reason the more modern pipes are, in some areas of the country, still called tiles. The cylindrical shape was finally settled on in the mid-19th century and has remained so as it is strong and the easiest to lay. The film shows clayware tiles being laid in farmland by a special machine then the view moves to a tractor sowing seed or dispersing fertiliser. While the commentary lists the advantages of having well drained fields. A cow feeds on rich grass growing in a well-drained field. A football match underlines the commentary about drainage being beneficial for activities other than farming. Parks and sports grounds also need adequate drainage. The football match shows how poor drainage can lead to poor performance on the playing field, especially where there’s standing water. Private landowners know the benefits of good land drainage. Views of Ribston Hall North Yorkshire follow as a drainage scheme was started there in 1866. The film shows a wall map showing the scheme’s plan. Metal plaques on headwalls, the small retaining wall built around a drainage outlet, bear the date of drainage installation. Many of the Ribston Hall drainage pipes are still working efficiently. The film moves on to show stacked ‘tiles’ at the Alne Brick Company. A machine using a continuous line of excavation buckets to scrape clay a claypit. A small railway engine transports the clay to the works where manufacturing takes place. Before the clay enters the works for processing each batch is checked. A worker checks its texture and if required adds lime to absorb moisture and sand to reduce density and improve drying at later stage of manufacture. The clay is taken by conveyor belt to begin processing. A machine kneads and mixes the clay to the right consistency. Rollers remove lumps and small pebbles. They clay is then extruded through a machine to form the standard three inch pipe sections which are then cut to length, then they are taken to the drying sheds. The ends are ‘dibbled’ where the opening of the pipe is enlarged slightly with a former. After drying the pipes are taken to the kilns. The man stacking pipes checks for imperfections and throws faulty pipes away. He takes a barrowful of dried pipes to one of the kilns. He fills the kiln with the pipes in a specific way. Once the kiln is filled the doorway is blocked by stacking loose bricks. After stacking, the workman covers them in plaster. After the plaster is dried, burners are lit. A man attends to one of the burners used on the kiln, firing takes place for ten days. Another man checks how the pipes are progressing in the firing by removing a brick placed in an observation hole in one of the kiln’s sealed doorways. After firing it is left to cool then men empty the kiln. Any imperfections from the firing and the pipe is rejected. As men load a lorry, the pipes are still checked at this point for imperfections and again discarded if faulty. Other pipes produced at the factory are those which have junctions. A still ‘green’ or damp section of pipe is cut at an angle. The workman scrapes the end to give a firm joint, and the wider ‘green’ main pipe is prepared to receive the junction pipe. It is after this joint has been secured that a hole is cut in the main pipe. The junction pipe is then ready for firing. The film shows stacks of fired junction pipes. Other pipes manufactured at this factory are of six and four inches and larger. A man stacks some nine-inch pipes, a change of view shows stacks of thousands of standard three-inch pipes. The commentary mentions the longevity of service for these clay pipes, as some twenty per cent of pipes we rely on for drainage are over hundred years old. The film shows an old piece of drainage pipe lying on top of debris in a field. The commentary states that clay, the raw material, is easy to get at and there is lots of it. Clay pipes offer a wider bore, the wider the bore there is less risk of silt blockage when in use. A man tests the crush resistance of a length of pipe on a special machine. The film then shows pipe lengths being fed into a special pipe laying appliance at work in a field. An open trench shows a length of newly laid pipe. The view changes to large country house which is headquarters of the ADAS [Agricultural Development & Advisory Service] Field Drainage Experimental Unit. Here field drainage comes under scrutiny from scientists, where experiments give vital information on materials and their use in effective drainage. Testing continues outside the laboratory in long term field trials, the film shows an open field. At the ARC [Agricultural Research Council] Letcombe, a large mobile greenhouse moves on tracks across a strip of turned soil. This is an experiment to gauge the waterlogging of soil and its effects on crops. The results will help the design of field drainage systems in the future. The film goes back to the factory where another kiln door is being sealed up by a worker. Pipes are baled together for transport on the back of a lorry. They are loaded by one man using a remote-controlled crane fitted to the lorry. The film ends showing an uncovered length of drainpipe in its trench, stretching off into the distance. The commentary emphasises the need for good field drainage in the cultivation of the nation’s food. Credit: Presented by Alne Brick Co Ltd Credit: Produced by Cygnet Films Ltd Bushey Studios England