Bricks

J & M Craig was formed by two brothers, James and Matthew, in 1847, with fireclay and brick works at Dean and also at Hillhead in Kilmarnock and at Perceton, near Irvine. They also made high class sanitaryware. The company was incorporated as J.& M. Craig Ltd in 1896 but went into liquidation in 1923. At both sites the company worked coal and fireclay mines.

Burn Fireclay Co, Stobswood, Northumberland. See details below.

In 1873 John McKnight owned Kilmarnock Colliery, to the south of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. This was already an old colliery at that time and had gone by 1896.

Castlecary Fire Bricks were made by Joseph McLauchlan Ltd at Castlecary, Cumbernauld, Dunbartonshire.

Fauldhead Colliery at Kirkconnel was easily the largest pit in Dumfriesshire. A brickworks was opened here in 1912 by Sanquhar & Kirkconnel Collieries Limited. The National Coal Board took over in 1947 and the works remained in production until a few years after the closure of the colliery in 1969.

The South Buckley Coal & Firebrick Co was registered in February 1866 to open and operate a colliery and brickworks on land to the west of Buckley. It appears that the colliery was the first business to be developed and the brickworks did not commence operations until the 1870s. Financial problems followed and the works passed to the Main Coal & Cannel Co around July 1877 although this company was also unsuccessful and the company was dissolved after being taken over by David Evans, a Liverpool brickmaker and builder. The works, along with that of his North Buckley Colliery and Firebrick Co were sold in 1881 to the newly formed North & South Buckley Colliery, Brick & Tile Co Ltd.

The North & South Buckley Colliery, Brick & Tile Co Ltd was incorporated in 1881 and absorbed the South Buckley Coal & Firebrick Co and the North Buckley Colliery and Firebrick Co. The South Buckley works flourished and expanded to the extent that it outgrew the collieries and was renamed as the South Buckley Rock Brick Co in the early 1890s.

A glazed product of the South Buckley Rock Brick Co which operated under this name from the early 1890s until the closure of the works in 1914. Fireclay was supplied along with coal for the kilns from the adjacent colliery. When the colliery closed in 1909 the clay and coal was brought by a tramroad from the associated North Buckley site, which had been rename as West Buckley Colliery by this time.

A product of the South Buckley Rock Brick Co which operated under this name from the early 1890s until the closure of the works in 1914. Fireclay was supplied along with coal for the kilns from the adjacent colliery. When the colliery closed in 1909 the clay and coal was brought by a tramroad from the associated North Buckley site, which had been rename as West Buckley Colliery by this time.

The South Buckley Rock Brick Co always made a play of being near to Chester, presumably to gain marketing advantage in Cheshire.

This one is special; the decoration in the frog is just wonderful. Francis Harry Gordon opened his brickworks in the 1870s, on a site with a 30ft thick bed of clay, adjacent to the Daw End Canal just south-west of Clayhanger Bridge at Brownhills. The buildings included three drying sheds, the largest measuring 150ft x 30ft and had a cast iron plated floor. Nearby and on the other side of the canal was the Walsall Wood Colliery brickworks and price cutting by this works led to the demise of the Gordon business in 1896.

Hawkins Colliery was also known as Cannock Old Coppice Colliery and commenced working c1840. Joseph Hawkins took on the lease in 1869 and the colliery remained under the control of the Hawkins family until nationalisation in 1947. The company also opearted a brick and tile works with adjacent clay pit at Longhouse, adjacent to the Wyrley and Essington Canal. By the 1920s Henry Hawkins was advertising a wide range of products from the Longhouse Brick & Tile Works, Cannock. About 7 million bricks were made annually using clay mixed with mining spoil. The works continued in Hawkins' ownership after the colliery was nationalised and remains in production today under the Eternit name.

Birch Coppice Colliery and Brickworks east of Tamworth was owned by Morris & Shaw Ltd. The pit was sunk in 1875 and the brickworks first appears between the mid 1880s and 1900. It was expanded after WWII by the National Coal Board but had been closed by the 1970s.

Walsall Wood Colliery was sunk in1874 on a site close to the Daw End Canal just north of Coppice Road. A brickworks was established just to the north of the pit and a canal basin was constructed for brick traffic. There was a very large circular kiln (presumably continuous) with central chimney. The Earl of Bradford as mineral owner was paid a royalty of 1/- per 1000 bricks manufactured. The works is shown on the OS maps from just after the First World War but the site had been cleared by 1938.

The West Cannock Colliery Company leased the mines and clay from the Marquis of Anglesey. The royalty on bricks was 2/6d per 1000. The brickworks was adjacent to the No.1 colliery which commmenced operations in 1869. Bricks were produced only for the company's use and were never sold outside. By the 1920's production was only undertaken if outside sources were more expensive than the home made bricks. The plant comprised: A Wooton Brothers brick making machine capable of producing 28,000 common bricks per week. A Lancashire boiler which powered a single cylinder steam engine for the brick making machine. Two square kilns of 28,000 and 25,000 brick capacity. In 1928 the plant produced 422,993 bricks but in 1930 it was only 43,000 bricks and the plant then closed.

This radius brick is from the chimney of Sykes' bleach works in Edgeley, Stockport. The works ceased production in 1986 and the chimney was felled soon after. This example was saved from the rubble by the late Frank Wightman who was a wonderful draughtsman and spent his working career in the Accrington brickworks.

An unusual name for a brick manufacturer. This one is from the Ashgate area on the west side of Chesterfield. The works was established in the early years of the twentieth century and was closed by the 1950s.

The Swalllownest Brick Co was situated at Swallownest to the east of Sheffield.