First Flush is part of a series along the route of a guided walk “From Pits & Pots to Parks & Woods” which can be obtained from the tourist information office at Sharpe’s Pottery Museum in Swadlincote.
Edmund, son of Thomas Sharpe, patented the world’s first flushing WC rim in 1855. Thomas had founded a complex making pots in 1821 which eventually closed in 1967.
Household pots and utensils were manufactured and sold throughout the British Empire, Russia, Germany and Holland.
Sharpe’s Pottery Museum was opened in January 2003 and is housed in what remains of the pot making complex.