The “_Pool Works_” for terra-cotta fire-bricks and sanitary tubes, at Woodville, near Burton-on-Trent, were established about the year 1830, by the late Mr. Joseph Walker Bourne, yellow earthenware manufacturer, of Church Gresley, who purchased the property of the late Sir Roger Gresley, Bart., of Drakelow Hall, Derbyshire, and established the works for the manufacture, on a small scale, of fire-bricks for his earthenware manufactory. After the death of Mr. Bourne, in 1840, the present proprietor, Mr. Edward Ensor, then of Lyme Regis, Dorsetshire, purchased the business, and the year following sent his second son, Henry Loader Ensor, at the age of fourteen years, to learn, and eventually manage, the business. At that time the works consisted of a 4-horse power condensing engine to grind and prepare the fire-clay; two small hovels or sheds, and two small brick-kilns, covering an extent of 4,000 yards, the whole make not exceeding 20,000 bricks per week, and only seven men and six boys being employed. The market for the bricks was the local earthenware manufactories and collieries, and a few towns in the immediate neighbourhood; the bricks being carted to the Ashby and Burton Canals. About that time, the clay being found suitable for making crucibles for steel refiners at Sheffield, their manufacture was introduced into that market, and has gradually grown into a very important branch of the trade of the district. In 1845 Mr. Ensor, senr., came to live in his present residence, Gresley Cottage, and took the active management of the business. In 1846 the Midland Railway opened the line from Burton to Leicester, with branches to Woodville and Swadlincote, thus opening up a means of cheaper transit for the valuable productions of the neighbourhood. From this time the different manufactories and collieries greatly increased, and other branches of the trade were started, such as salt-glazed sanitary pipes and terra-cotta chimney-tops, &c. About 1850 Mr. Ensor purchased the Pool property from Mr. Mammatt, and soon after this his eldest son, Edward, having returned from South Africa, took part in the management of the business. In 1864, Mr. Ensor having seen the Hoffman Patent Brick Kiln at Wakefield, and being struck with the saving of fuel effected in burning common bricks, purchased the right of the sole use of the patent in this district, and erected kilns, drying-sheds, &c., intending to burn all his goods by this system, but found it essential to introduce many improvements and alterations, as the Hoffman system, although well adapted for common red bricks (which require little heat), was not adapted to fire-brick and terra-cotta, which requires very great heat. Mr. Ensor succeeded in inventing a process by which he retained the heat so effectively that 3 cwt. of small coal more successfully burnt 1,000 bricks than 20 cwt. of good rough coal did in the most approved old-fashioned kilns. At this time, _i.e._ in 1865,