B W Blades, West Bromwich

A coping brick seen on a canal bridge over the Hereford and Gloucester Canal at Sutton Marsh.

Brownlow William Blades appears on the 1881 census as a "Blue Brick Manufacturer", living in Swan Road, West Bromwich. His son had the same name, as did his father who was also a brickmaker from Northampton. The West Bromwich works was operating in the 1870s and was still in business in 1900.