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tarboat club

Posted: 20 Feb 2011

Taken: 28 Jan 2011

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industry •
brick •
cheshire •

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Percy's Patent - I R D

Percy's Patent - I R D
This one is a mystery at the moment. Found in Hyde, which was once in Cheshire but now calls itself Tameside after a series of local government reorganisations. I can find no clue about the initials I R D, which I assume to be those of the manufacturer. As for Percy's Patent, I would love to know what that was. Presumably the patent was something to do with brickmaking machinery.

Latest research (see below) suggests that this may well be a product of the Rowland Brickyard in Birch Lane, Dukinfield.
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 tarboat
tarboat club
Having now found a fragment of another brick at the same location as the original brick, with Percy's Patent on one face but the name of the maker and location on the other.

Rowland, Birch Lane, Dukinfield 2 fragment - Percy's Patent obverse of I R D found Wellington Inn demolition Hyde, Cheshire

This has allowed a search of the records for brickmakers in Dukinfield. The most likely manufacturer is William Rowland who was operating a brickyard at Birch Lane, Dukinfield in 1857. The letters on the original brick may stand for John Rowland, Dukinfield, who I think was his father, and who died in 1856.
10 years ago.
 tarboat
tarboat club
Patent granted to William Carter Stafford Percy, machinist, of Manchester. Two records: 1) on 29 April 1847 for "improvements in machinery for making and dressing bricks and tiles, and in certain sheds and kilns, in which bricks and tiles are dried and burnt", and 2) on 31 July 1858 for "Improvements in arrangements and mechanism or apparatus for the manufacture of bricks, tiles, pipes, and other articles made of plastic earths."

I was able to search a bit further and find further patent details from 11th December 1861:

3104. Machinery for making bricks, tiles, pipes and other articles formed of plastic materials.

It also appears that the inventive Mr Percy spent time in Lancaster Gaol due to bankruptcy in early 1854.
10 years ago.

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