The rich and accessible coal seams in the Lithgow Valley were exploited vigorously after the rail link to the coast and to the west was opened in 1869.

[1] The three principal colliery companies in Lithgow all diversified in the later 1870s: Eskbank into iron and bricks, the Vale of Clwydd into copper and LVC into clay products.

[1] The domestic products from the pottery have won justifiable acclaim, with major collections on display at Eskbank House's new gallery in Lithgow and at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.

[1] Although the domestic pottery did not function after 1907, pipes, tiles, chimney-pots and bricks continued to be produced in large quantities, right through the Depression and during the Second World War.

The competition from Fowlers in Sydney, which had a similar reliance on heavy industrial wares, was successfully met, while there was sufficient demand for bricks to make profitability possible for four or five brickworks in twentieth century Lithgow.

[1] In the nineteenth century the spatial arrangement of the clay products plant placed pipe-making to the north, the brick kilns to the west and the pottery to the south.

In 1901 LVC same substantial capital into a state-of-the-art continuous brick-kiln, patented by Sercombe on the Hoffman model: this new and much larger kiln was inserted in the central area east of the pipe-kilns, close to the clay quarry.

The millions of bricks manufactured on the site over 69 years built many of Lithgow's houses, can be seen in the major tunnels and deviation works on the eastern railway line and in many contexts throughout the state.

The colliery site to the west was systematically obliterated in 1972 to construct a supermarket, so these clay products buildings are the sole industrial relics of LVC.

Since Cunningham left the premises in 1994, another craft-potter Cameron Williams and his wife Colleen have leased the store area, so the traditional use of the site is maintained.

[3][1] Following community representations from the National Trust of Australia (NSW) and the then Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences a section 136 order was placed over the site on 11 July 1979 to prevent demolition of remaining structures.

However it was not a financial success and the high collectability of Lithgow wares today gives the pottery a higher national profile than it enjoyed whilst operating.

[1] The site's significance of its potential contribution to understanding clay-products technology in the period 1876 to 1945 is dependent entirely on the integrity of the subsurface archaeological record.

[3][1] Lithgow Valley Colliery & Pottery Site was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.