Henry Shaw, Brickmaker, Sutton in Ashfield

Henry Shaw was born in 1842 in Greasley, Notts., his father Joseph was a brickmaker & later a builder & Henry aged 19 was a miner in Greasley. We later find Henry moves to Sutton & I think I have the right man from the census, as the 1871 census records Henry Shaw a builder & married to Mary (nee May), living with Mary's parents on Forest Side, Sutton. Now Mary's father Thomas May was a shoe maker & this ties in with Henry being later recorded as a shoe maker as well. However we next find in the 1881 census that builder Henry is now married to Sarah who was eleven years younger than Henry & they had a daughter aged 2 called Elizabeth & they where living on Mansfield Road, Sutton. I am taking it Henry's first wife Mary had died. This info then all ties in with White's 1885 edition which records Henry Shaw as Builder, Contractor & Shoe Dealer on Forest Side, Sutton-in-Ashfield. So at this 1885 date I do not know if he had started making bricks as there is no reference to him as being a brickmaker. 

Local historian, Luther Lindley wrote in his 1907 book, that Henry Shaw was a builder, contractor & brickmaker, with the address of Eastfield Side who had established his business in 1868 & was employing 50 males with Mr. R.W. Doughty as Works Manager. I then found Robert Doughty was his son-in-law & was married to his daughter Elizabeth. With this 1907 account of Henry Shaw recording him as a brickmaker I found Henry is recorded as a brickmaker in Skegby in White's 1894 edition. This entry is then followed by the entries for Henry in Kelly's 1904, 08, 12 & 16 editions at Skegby as a brickmaker. I have established the location of his brickworks from other brick makers working in Skegby & some later info regarding another Mr. Shaw who I write about later. I have used the 1899 OS map below to show Henry's works which I have coloured purple & this works was accessed off Dalestorth Road. Please note the dotted line along this road denotes the parish boundary between Skegby & Sutton with Henry's brickworks being in Skegby. Henry died in February 1917 & I am taking it this is when the brickworks closed. It appears son-in-law Robert Doughty continued to run the building & contractors side of the business as he is named together with wife Elizabeth (Henry's daughter) as joint beneficiaries of his Will which equated to £6083. 15s. &  8d.

© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of Ordnance Survey 1898.

This example is a normal house brick, found in a garden not to far from Henry's works. The brick shown at the top of this post is plinth stretcher brick.

I now fast forward to 1928 & we find Kelly's 1928 edition records this purple coloured works as being owned by The Sutton-in-Ashfield Brick Company on Dalestorth Road. This is the only entry for this company & information gathered from Nottingham Archives & the London Gazette has revealed the answer why this is the only entry.

On the Company's letterhead deposited with the Archives & dated 15th September 1926, the name, address & owner of the works is given as The Sutton in Ashfield Brick Co. works, Skegby, Managing Director, Mr. Shaw with James Leece as secretary. So who this Mr Shaw is I am not 100% sure. I have found a Walter Shaw who is recorded in Kelly's 1904 edition as brickmaking at Forest Side, but I have not been able to trace him in the census or establish exactly which brickworks he was running as all works can be accounted for at this date, unless he was working for Louisa Barke who is recorded as a brickmaker on Mansfield Road in 1904 with her husband now working at a second works in Skegby in 1904. It seems to fit ?  Then is this Walter Shaw related to Henry Shaw the previous owner of this works ? Henry did not have any sons as far as I can trace, unless Walter was born to Henry & Mary, Henry's first marriage ? Then if this is correct why isn't there any trace of this Walter Shaw in the census ? This Walter Shaw could easily have been Henry's nephew. If I get the answer, I will update the post. 

So this 1926 S-in-A Brick Co. letter is to Bennett & Sayers, brick machinery manufacturers in Derby to supply new machinery & parts.
The next letter dated 17th July 1928 from Bennett & Sayers to the S-in-A Brick Co. states that B & S can no longer supply any more goods until "your account has been substantially been reduced, please send remittance as promised in June as we can no longer afford to give such prolonged credit."
There is an exchange of several letters during the next few months with B & S then threatening to take legal action under the Hire Purchase Agreement. In one reply in August, the brick company blamed a misunderstanding with the clerk & sent £20 0s 0d & promised to send more money. But this did not happen because in October, James Leece writes to B & S saying "because no bricks have been sold we cannot send anymore money & I will put this problem to the Directors next week." 
This resulted in a letter dated 28th October 1928 to B & S from Arthur Edward Cripwell, accountant for the Company stating that the Shareholders had agreed a motion to go into Voluntary Liquidation & Mr. Cripwell had been appointed Liquidator. In reply B & S said they would come & remove supplied machinery as under the Hire Purchase Agreement. Mr. Cripwell then made a request to delay this as he had already received one or two inquiries about the sale of the yard. B & S agreed.
As time went on & the sale did not happen, B & S then said they would now remove the machinery, but this did not happen either as Barclay's Bank who were part of  the Hire Purchase Agreement stopped this, saying that "The plant would be sold with the yard."
I am sorry to say that I do not know what happen next as there is no more correspondence between the several parties concerned deposited with the Archives. With no buyers for the yard or evidence in Trade Directories of New Owners, one can only assume that everything was sold at auction or taken back by Bennett & Sayer. The London Gazette dated 13th of December 1932 records the Sutton in Ashfield Brick Co. Ltd. had been struck off the Companies Register.  


Further research has revealed that Richard Carter worked at this yard before Henry Shaw with Richard being recorded as brickmaker in Skegby in White's 1872 & Kelly's 1876 editions. It was from a Mansfield Advertiser  "For Sale by Private Contract Notice" dated 1st of March 1878 for this works that revealed the location of Carter's yard. The notice is as follows - " A valuable & freehold estate comprising of around 12 & half acres, including all plant & machinery, buildings & kilns. The land is also very valuable for building purposes. It has an excellent bed of clay which is seven feet thick & the entire property is in the parish of Skegby with having a large frontage to Wragg's Lane from Sutton Forest Side to Dalestorth. The above Estate will be sold with or without mineral rights. The brickyard has being doing good business under the occupation of Mr. R. Carter. For more details please contact W.A. Vallance, Builder & Valuer of Mansfield, agent for Mrs. Shelton the owner of the land." 
So this account records Carter's brick yard as being on Wragg's Lane & this road was later renamed Dalestorth Road & is shown as such on a map dated 1887. Today this road is still known as Dalestorth Road & leads up to the 18th century Dalestorth House. Today modern houses now occupy this former brickworks site which I remember being built, but what year I cannot remember, possibly in the 1960's/70's. The houses which front this site on Dalestorth Road were built in the 1940's/50's.