[2] Before the First World War there had been as many as seventy individual china clay producers but the industry had suffered from overcapacity and wartime dislocation.

[1] In 1951 ECC acquired Lovering’s shares in the operating company followed in 1954 by the purchase of the remaining Pochin minority.

ECC had also expanded into the ball clay market (used in the building industry) and, with over 250,000 tons a year, accounted for nearly half of British output.

After the 1960s, ECC began to regard private estate development as a suitable investment for surplus cash generated by the clay operation.

ECC was now building over 1000 private houses a year and in 1986 made a contested, but unsuccessful, bid for the larger Bryant Homes; it was left with a 29 per cent holding.

[4] A change in management in the early 1990s led to the decision to focus ECC more closely on its original china clay business.

[4] Finally, in 1999 ECC International was acquired by the French company Imetal which subsequently changed its name to Imerys.