Graham Taylor

Well, here in Britain, the far south, we have the China clays, which drove the sort of industrial revolution, white and blue China that went all over the world.

This is not the only place you get China clays.

I mean, they're called China clays because originally they came from China.

But they are extremely pure clays in that

What kaolinite, this wonderful chemical that makes clay possible, is, is decomposed floor spa from granite.

So it's a volcanic rock which over millions of years has decomposed through other gases being forced up through it.

So in the north of Britain, you have what we call boulder clays, which tell you a lot about what the clay is like.

It's full of rocks.

But people have exploited that clay for thousands of years because if you wash it, if you mix it with lots of water and you settle it out, you can get a perfectly good clay.

But now it's got all the stuff mixed with it, mostly iron.

And the iron oxide is what makes terracotta.

It makes it red.

So the red clay comes out of the ground looking mucky brown is what it comes out of the ground looking, sometimes yellow.

But it'll fire to a beautiful red colour.

And depending on the amount of iron oxide in there and things, it'll fire red.

Primary clays, where they've been deposited at or near to where the granite decomposed, will often be white or light colours and light cream.

So, yes, over the whole world you will get different kinds of clay that are formed in different places.

Well, Scandinavia is not blessed with lots of clay, largely because of the mountainous nature of it.

It hasn't sort of yielded that.

As a result, when you look at, say, Viking pots, they're often made of soapstone.