Apart from coal, clay was also extracted from Ladyshore Colliery, Little Lever, and was used extensively to produce terra-cotta goods. In 1845, Fletcher's the colliery owners actually built a church, (St Stephen's, Darcy Lever, built 1842-1845)) from terra-cotta. (SH109/733085) This use of terra-cotta by the architect Edmund Sharpe was so novel that the Illustrated London News carried a drawing of the church in their February 1845 issue.