English China Clays was incorporated in April 1919 through the amalgamation of three of the largest producers: Martin Bros.(established in 1837), West of England China Clay & Stone (1849) and the North Cornwall China Clay Company (1908). The three companies accounted for around half the industry's output at the time. 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. More mergers were to follow. Months after the ECC merger, H.D. Pochin acquired J.W. Higman taking it to third place in the industry after ECC and Lovering China Clays. Even then it was estimated that the demand for clay was not much more that half of the industry's capacity. The division built for local authorities across the country and developed private housing estates in its local
Devon and
Cornwall areas – an activity which was to be substantially expanded in the years to come.
Growth of private housing After the 1960s, ECC began to regard private estate development as a suitable investment for surplus cash generated by the clay operation. The division was substantially expanded in 1984 by the acquisition of the
Swindon-based firm of Edwin H Bradley a family firm founded in 1902. Bradley brought with it the well-known Bradstone building blocks and Bradley Estates with its extensive land holdings. 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. Nevertheless, housing sales reached almost 1300 in 1989 and its trading margins were the highest of any large housebuilder. ==Technology and innovation==