Robert Hunt, Brickmaker, Heage, Derbys.

Bull Bridge Brick Company.

After finding an article in the 2008 edition of Mining History in Derbyshire at the National Archives, Matlock, about Robert Hunt, brickmaker, I set off on the hunt to find him. Sorry about the pun. I could not resist it !

I was originally searching for information on the Bull Bridge Brick Company & this article stated that Robert (Bob, as he liked to be known) Hunt owned the BBB Co. around 1876, at the address of The Brickyard, Ripley Road, but no village. The BBB was at this address, but in Sawmills. I later found out that his small brickworks was on Ripley Road, Heage. The rest of the article was correct, as I found out when I met some very nice people in Heage, who helped me confirm the information I had read. 
Bob may have owned BBB, but this has to be confirmed, as no other written evidence has been found.

The article stated that when Bob closed the brickyard due to financial reasons, at a date unknown, the last of his bricks were used to build 25 & 27, Ripley Road, Heage. So off I went to Heage, taking my BBB brick with me, to compare it with the ones in the houses. Although they were similar, they were not the same. 
I knocked on the door of one of the houses not knowing, if the owner would be able to help me. As it happen the lady knew quiet a bit about Bob.

After telling me, that his small brickyard was in the field behind the two houses, she told me of an old cow shed/pigsty that had once stood in her garden & the footings were still there. To my delight we found this brick, which the lady then said I could duly have. After many thanks she told me that Bob lived in the house at the top of the hill & he payed the miners a few pennies, who went down the lane at the side of his house to dig & turn the clay for him when they had finished their shift. I now had firm evidence that his bricks were marked RH & not BBB.

Robert Hunt

The story gets even better in finding about Robert Hunt. I then went to look at the house were Bob had lived & by chance the owner was just coming out of the house. After briefly explaining about Bob, she told me about the deeds to the house with Bobs name on. As she was just going out she asked her husband to show me the papers. A few minutes later, after inviting me in, he appeared with a folder full of Deeds. There must have been the deeds to every time the house had changed hands.
Turning each one over till we got to 1891. This was the year that Bob purchased the house from Kendal Daykin. It may have also been the year that Bob started his brick business, as the property came with all the land down the valley to where he founded his brickyard. It was in front of his brickyard that the houses of 25 & 27 Ripley Road were to be built around 1896. 

Indenture Dated 4th May 1891.

It was very strange but also a privilege to be holding & looking at the papers signed by Bob, 123 years ago !

The next document was the sale of the house back to Kendal Daykin in 1896. So this ties in with the library article, telling us about Bob's financial problems & closing his works. The gentleman on showing me out, said he had seen several bricks in his garden with RH on, again confirming that Bob had made his bricks in Heage.

Sale Dated 15th May 1896.

From the Library article Bob passed away on the 24th of October 1917.

I wish to Thank Again the kind people who helped me in bringing Bob's story to Web, which may have been lost forever.