Defence Online

A former pottery near Penrith which became an animal sanctuary could be reopened as a holiday village, if planning permission is granted by Eden Council.David Birkett, who lives at Clifton Dykes and runs Serious Waste Management, has applied for planning permission to restore the Grade II listed beehive kiln at Wetheriggs Pottery and convert other listed and scheduled buildings plus the 1990s pottery workshop on site into holiday apartments.He is also seeking consent to build several new properties for holiday use, incorporating photovoltaic panels, rainwater harvesting and sustainable drainage. The plan is for a total of 22 apartments and five lodges, with a swimming pool, communal building/visitor centre and site manager’s apartment, more than doubling the existing built footprint on the 3.1 hectare site to 3,000sq metres.The plan will involve the demolition of the former cafe and several other outbuildings associated with the pottery’s former uses. The history of Wetheriggs Pottery dates back to 1855, when clay from Clifton Dykes was used to make bricks, tiles and pipes, followed by pottery production in 1860, when John Schofield and Margaret Thorburn moved to the site from Stepney Bank Pottery, Newcastle. It remained in their family until 1973 — the same year it was given ancient monument status.The kiln fell out of use in the 1960s, following the closure of the Eden Valley railway line, but use resumed after restoration by Fred Dibnah during the 1990s of the steam engine used to power the machinery. Production at the pottery finally came to an end in 2008 and over the past decade the site had been used as an animal sanctuary. It has remained disused since Wetheriggs Zoo moved to a new site near Barnard Castle in 2014.