Bricks

Shipley brickworks was situated north-west of Shipley Common adjacent to the railway at Shipley wharf at the terminus of the Nutbrook Canal. It was operating in the 1880s and had grown by 1900, but had gone by 1914.

Skiers Spring Brickworks was established in the late 1870s south of Hoyland, adjacent to the branch railway from Elsecar to Lidgett Colliery. In the early twentieth century Earl Fitzwilliam (EFW) took over the management of the works but these only survived until 1919.

The Heath End brickworks was at Slacky Lane, Heath End, Pelsall. It does not appear on the 1884 OS map and closed in February 1906 when the partners were declared bankrupt. They were Samuel Blackmoor, residing at Heath End, Pelsall, George Blackmoor, residing at 25 Blackenall Heath, Walsall, James Blackmoor, residing in lodgings at Alexander Terrace, Heath End, Pelsall, and Joseph Blackmoor, residing in lodgings at Heath End, Pelsall, carrying on business in copartnership under the style of G. Blackmoor & Co. at Heath End Brick Works, Pelsall, Staffordshire, brick manufacturers.

Watnall colliery was sunk in 1873 in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire and closed in 1950. The associated brickworks continued to operate until early 1975 and the remains were demolished in 2009.

I found this glazed fireclay feed trough whilst out and about today. The manufacturers are Oates & Green Limited, Manufacturers of brick, tile, earthenware, sanitary and ceramics products. Established by 1880, in 1905, they were at Beacon Brick Works, Ellen Royd Works, Halifax, and North Bridge Station. In 1908, the business was bought by the Leeds Fireclay Company.

Paving tile from the Alloa Brick and Tile Works which operated from c1821 to c1915. The works was situated close to the Forth, south-east of the town centre. Image courtesy of Alan Fleming

Bowman & Co were proprietors of the Muiredge Colliery at Buckhaven from the early 1860s and by 1895 had established a brickworks adjacent to the pit. This had gone by 1914. In the 1890s the company sank Denbeath Colliery close to the shore on the other side of Buckhaven. In 1895 the Wemyss Brick Works is shown on the OS map a short distance north-east of the colliery but this had been swallowed up in raiway sidings by 1914. My best guess is that this brick is a product of the works at Muiredge Colliery before Bowman and Co sold their collieries to the Wemyss Coal Co Ltd in 1905. Image courtesy of Alan Fleming

I can't find where this works was located. Black Hill is on the Darwen side of Entwistle, but the only brickworks I can find on the old maps is that at Bull Hill which is a different operation.

The Baxenden brickworks was situated just south of Baxenden Station and appears to have had a short life. It opened after 1893 and was already disused in 1911.

H.J.Baldwin Brickworks, Bunny, Nottinghamshire. This works, just south of Nottingham, was closed some time after 1986 and the claypit used for landfill.

James Barker, Ingleton Fireclay Works, operating from c1895 - 1905.

The Ridge Hill Brick & Tile Co appears in White’s 1851 Directory of Staffordshire as brick. tile, and drain pipe manufacturers. In 1904 Thomas Peake was manager. The works was situated by the Leycett branch railway just south of Madeley Heath Farm. By 1924 the site was occupied by Keele Tileries Ltd. Photo from Ken Perkins.

This works at Berry Hill, Fenton, first appears in 1889-90 and is last listed in 1912 as Henry Warrington & Son. Henry Warrington, 1838-1907, was born at Cheadle, left school in 1851 to work for William Bowers at Berry Hill and succeeded Bowers in operating the colliery and associated brickworks on his death in 1880. There was also an iron works at Berry Hill, but the forges closed circa 1900. Warrington employed 1000 men, farmed 400 acres and lived at Fenton Manor House. He shot himself on the 2nd March 1907.

I had been looking for something made by the Jabez Thonpson works for some time, so was delighted when Capitol 203 and myself found some examples of his terracotta work during a mooch around the Potteries.

James Wood ran the Fenton Tileries, Fenton Culvert in partnership with Leonard Broughton Wood as a brick and tile manufacturer. The business is first listed in the trade directory of 1875-76 and James Wood was in banruptcy in May 1892. It appears that the site was owned by Messrs John Challinor & Co Ltd, Glebe Colliery, Fenton, and there is a memorandum of minutes re the application by William Hill and others to take lease of Fenton Tileries brickworks, 20 Feb 1893. I have no further details at present.

Another great find from a mooch around the Potteries with Capitol 203. The Goldendale Brick & Tile Co, Tunstall, is listed in the 1904 Kelly's directory. It is not listed in any other directory that I have seen before or after, so I suspect that the works had a short life.

Hexter, Humpherson & Co., Ltd. The Potteries and Brick And Tile Works, Newton Abbot, South Devon. The business appears to have been established in 1890. Their 1902 catalogue describes the firm as: Manufacturers of plain & ornamental terra cotta, vitreous engineering bricks, vitreous buff pavements, real stoneware pipes and traps, tested pipes, patent hassall jointed pipes also stanford jointed pipes, terra cotta chimney tops, garden edging, real stoneware rustic & grape vases, fire bricks, of exceptional quality.

In later years the firebricks produced at Hammond's works at Bakestonedale in Pott Shrigley were stamped with the intials 'W H' intertwined within a circle. Production ended in 1966.