John Hall Gosling
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1875.
John Hall Gosling is next listed in Kelly’s 1864 to 1881 editions as brickmaker in Barlborough. These entries are followed by an entry in the 1885 edition of the Barlborough P.O. Directory as brickmaker.
With me finding this IFG brick in Derbyshire I am taking it to have been made by John & Fredrick Gosling. The letter I was used in this font to represent a letter J. I then found second son Frederick is listed as a brickmaker in Kelly's 1887 & 1891 editions in Barlborough & it appears Fredrick took over the full running of his father's brickworks between 1885 & 1887. The Gosling brick below may have been made by Fredrick. I just note that all of the census records for Fredrick only record him as a farmer & from Mark Lomas's findings this was at a different farm to his father's in Barlborough.
Although trade directories record John Hall Gosling as a brickmaker/owner until 1885 he had moved to Brampton, Chesterfield by the 1871 census which records him as a Colliery Owner in Chesterfield. This entry is then repeated in the 1881 census. By the 1891 census John is recorded as living on his own means. John died in Chesterfield in 1892. This Barlborough Road brickworks is last shown on the 1897 map, but doesn't look active.
Charles Robinson
Charles Robinson of Barlborough is recorded in the Brick & Tile Makers Section in Kelly's 1908 edition. Further research has revealed that Charles Robinson was the Managing Director of the Barlborough & Cottam Brick & Tile Co. from 1899, so it appears Robinson had some bricks made with his initials stamped in them when he is listed as the owner of the Cottam Works in 1908. Please see next entry for the location & more info on the Cottam Brickworks.
Barlborough & Cottam Brick Co.
Barlborough Brick Co.
Cottam Colliery, Barlborough was sunk in 1853 & was owned by Appleby & Co. then later by the Eckington Coal & Iron Co. The 1875 OS map below shows the associated brickworks was next to Cottam No.2 pit (yellow) which was also known as Cottam "New Colliery". The 1899 OS map shows the colliery as disused & the brickworks are no longer shown. So far no bricks have turned up made these two companies.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1875.
Photo taken at the Barlborough Heritage Centre.
Photo by Frank Lawson.
An article in the Derbyshire Times dated 30th of September 1899 records that fifteen acres of land at Cottam, Barlborough had been leased to the Barlborough & Cottam Brick & Tile Co. for a term of 30 years from the 25th of March 1899. A May 1911 Derbyshire Times newspaper article reports that in 1899 Charles Robinson took up the position of Managing Director of the Barlborough & Cottam Brick & Tile Co. & was instrumental in the re-opening of Cottam Pit. Known as the Cottam Brickworks I have coloured this works yellow on the 1914 OS map below. Please note Cottam is mis-spelt as Cottom on the first brick. The Barlborough & Cottam Brick & Tile Co. Ltd., Barlborough, Chesterfield is listed in Kelly's 1912 & 1916 editions. However articles in the London Gazette record that the Barlborough & Cottam Brick & Tile Co. went bankrupt & was wound up on the 14th of March 1912. It then appears Charles Robinson personally took over the brickworks & was operating it as the Barlborough Brick Co. A May 1916 newspaper article records Charles Robinson, Manager of the Cottam Brickworks was appealing against three of his workers being called up to go to war, two were exempted conditionally, but the third was given his orders to report for duty. Cottam Colliery which is also recorded as Hazel Colliery had closed in 1914. A 1917 newspaper article still records Charles Robinson as a brick manufacturer, however info on the web records the Cottam Brickworks had closed in 1917. I then found Charles Robinson was operating this brickworks again in 1926 & had formed a Limited company with the backing of new investors.
The Sheffield Telegraph dated 5th April 1926 records a new private limited company had been registered on the 29th of March 1926 called the Barlborough Brick Co. Limited. This new company with a share capital of £10,000 in £1 shares was owned by Charles Robinson JP, Westfield Lodge, Barlborough, Managing Director; R.E. Archer of the Royal Oak, Barlborough, licensed victualler & haulage contractor & T. Beighton, Brimington, public works contractor. Charles Robinson continues in the position of Works Manager. It appears this new company did not last very long with finding the London Gazette records the Barlborough Brick Co. Limited was struck off the Joint Stock Companies Register in June 1929. A search on Family Search website revealed Charles Robinson died on the 23rd of January 1929 aged 74 which resulted in the company not being formally wound up by the other investors. A Barlborough Brick Co. brick is shown after the map.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey revised 1914.
Photo by Frank Lawson.
Miles Barber
Photo by Frank Lawson.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey OS 1876.
Miles Barber is listed as brickmaker in Barlborough in Kelly’s 1864 to 1881 editions. Miles Barber died at the age of 68 & was buried on the 26th of May 1884.
The Bolsover Colliery Company was founded in 1889 by Emerson Bainbridge who took out a lease from the Duke of Portland at Bolsover to extract coal from the Duke's land. John Plowright Houfton was the Company's first General Manager. A brickworks was also established & houses were built for the company's workers & was locally known as "The Model Village", but marked on maps as New Bolsover.
The brickworks was in production to around 1935 when the pit baths were built on the site and today this site is the home of Aztec Oils. During my visit to the "Model Village" I met Malcolm an ex-miner, who told me that the clay for the bricks was dug from what is now the village football fields and the bricks were stamped, BCC for Bolsover Colliery Company.
The Colliery was Nationalised in 1947 & closed in 1993.
Went I visited the old colliery site in search of B.C.C. bricks I had to get permission from the company which now runs the industrial site. I found that many of the former pit buildings were still standing & had been converted to new use as industrial units. The only bricks that I found that day did not have any makers marks stamped in them, but I believe that they had been made at this brickworks as these bricks were of the same size & colour as ones in the former colliery buildings. I then met up with the Site Manager who pointed me into the direction of one of the buildings which had these intertwining B.C.C. lettered bricks set above it's windows. He also told me the location of the former brickworks which was now Aztec Oils & that the site had been the pit baths in between.
I found the B.C.C. brick above a few weeks later in Derbyshire.
Updated 25.8.16. - Recently photographed by Frank Lawson in a West Yorkshire collection. More than likely this brick came from the works offices in Bolsover same as the ones I photographed in situ.
Photo courtesy of the Fred Webley Collection.
Fred Webley tells me at the age of 17 he started work at the Carr Vale brickworks in February 1967 as a kiln loader & unloader. He goes on to say this was back breaking hard work & the bricks were still hot when they came out of the kiln. However his time at the brickworks turned out to be a short one as owner Jeff Revell assembled all the men into the canteen one day in October 1967 & announced that the works was to close in two week time. I am assuming brick sales had slumped hence the works closure. Fred has sent me an image of his Byron brick with larger letters which I have never come across before, so one to watch out for.
After the works had closed the clay pits were filled in with refuse & the land was then restored by the planting of trees which have now matured into a woodland. The Stockley Trail footpath passes this woodland & it follows the former course of the branch railway line to Glapwell Colliery.
Killamarsh Brick Co. Ltd. at Killamarsh near Sheffield is recorded in 1899 to 1912 editions of Kelly's Trade Directory with Fredrick E. Welsh as manager.
Mosborough was another village which was historically in Derbyshire, but today it forms part of Sheffield. John Lee is listed as farmer, brickmaker & blacksmith at Waterthorpe, Mosborough, Sheffield in Kelly's 1887 to 1912 editions. John's works was on Station Road & I have coloured it yellow on the 1902 map above.
This G.H. brick was possibly made by George Haslehurst who is listed as brickmaker in Mosborough in White's 1879 edition. George may have owned the brickworks in Mosborough that John Lee is recorded at in 1887. See map in Lee entry.
Beighton was another village which was in Derbyshire before 1967 & with the boundary changes it became part of Sheffield.
Edward Reddish is recorded as the owner of Drakehouse Colliery on Drakehouse Lane, Beighton, but due to thin coal reserves & water in the mine the colliery closed in 1894. Although the colliery is not shown on the 1896 map, it may have been on the same site which the brickworks was to later occupy.
So with Edward owning Drakehouse Colliery I expect that when he was listed as brick manufacturer, his brickworks was the one marked Drakehouse Brick Works on the 1896 map above, as there are no other brickworks marked on maps in Beighton at this date. Edward is listed in Kelly's Derby's 1899 & 1900 editions as Gregory - Reddish & Co. Beighton, Sheffield. Then in White's 1901 edition the listing is just Edward Reddish, Beighton. So I am taking it that this Mr. Gregory may have been part owner & possibly the brickmaker at the works. If it was John Gregory who is recorded in 1881 as a brickmaker in Sheffield, there is then a gap in trade directory dates for John until he is next listed in his own name at a new works in 1905 in Sheffield. So he may have been the Gregory in this Gregory - Reddish partnership in 1899 & 1900 ? Bricks found up to yet have only said Reddish. If I get confirmation that this Gregory is definitely John Gregory, I will update the post.
Photo by Frank Lawson.
As a footnote I mention the brick & tile yard which I have coloured purple on the 1876 map above. The Freehold to this yard was put up for sale by brick & tile maker Joseph Hopkinson in August 1853 who had briefly worked this yard. The notice goes on to say there was abundant amounts of clay on the 6 acre site of which only a small amount had been got. The site also contained a large amount of Moulders sand & various beds of coal. The purchaser of this yard may have been Samuel Woodhead who is recorded as brick & tile manufacturer at the time of his wedding in December 1854 & is then listed in Kelly's 1855 edition at Barlborough. Who owned this yard after 1855 is unknown. There is the option Miles Barber may have operated it at the time of this 1876 map with his yard being close by.
Barlborough Common Brickworks.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of Ordnance Survey 1900.
This brickworks at Barlborough Common is first shown on the 1875 OS map, but I have not been able to find who own this works at this date. I have used the 1900 OS map above to show it's location coloured yellow. So the first bit of information found is when this brickworks was put up for sale in September 1893 & had been operated by the Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway Co. It appears this railway company formed in 1891 took over this yard to produce the thousands of bricks needed for the construction of it's new railway line which conveniently ran past this brickworks. From the For Sale notice this works had the most up to-date machinery with it having a Clayton's pug mill & Clayton's brick press, a tile & pipe machine by Page & Son of Bedford, a horizontal engine & boiler, a 7ft clay pan with 4ft rollers, plus all the other items needed to make bricks. Surprisingly the notice did not state what type of kilns the works were using, only using the words " includes all the buildings, chimney & kilns."
The next owner of this brickworks was a Mr. P. Newton & this works is recorded in a August 1901 job advert as Newton's Brick Works, Barlborough. By October 1903 Mr. Newton was now trading as the North-East Derbyshire Brick Co. with Sam Parker as works manager. This new company was registered on the 13th of October 1903 with a Capital of £20,000 in £10 shares. This new company also took over Mr. Newton's other brickworks at Spinkhill in the deal.
My next newspaper find dated November 1905 reports that the Highways Department had sent a report to the North-East Derbyshire Brick Co. noting the excessive damage done to Spinkhill & Huts lanes by the Company's steam traction engine. Ruts had been formed 2 to 3 inches deep & the Committee was waiting to hear back from the steam traction engine's owners of their concerns. In August 1906 William Henry Ashwell is recorded as Managing Director of the company.
The 1914 map still shows all the brickwork's buildings, but is marked as disused, so I am assuming the works had closed due to their men going to fight in WW1. A February 1917 newspaper article recording the death by drowning of young man ice skating on the thin ice of a pond in the Barlborough Common Brickyard states the North-East Derbyshire Brick Co. still owned the yard & the Coroner suggested that the pond be filled in as soon as possible to save anyone else losing their life. It appears the works did not re-open after the war & closed for good.
Spinkhill Brickworks
Photo by Frank Lawson.
Spinkhill is a small village, a few miles north west of Barlborough & a brickworks situated north of the village is first shown on the 1897 OS map below (coloured yellow) next to a railway line in the course of construction (green). This brickworks had been established by the Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway Company to make the bricks needed for the tunnel at Spinkhill. This railway company had been formed in 1891 to construct a railway connecting many collieries in Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire to Liverpool in the west & the east coast ports in Lincolnshire. The first reference to this brickworks is a 1895 newspaper article stating that many kilns had been constructed to provide the bricks for the nearby tunnel & when completed Spinkhill Station would then be built at the end of the tunnel's cutting.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of Ordnance Survey 1897.
I then found Mr. P. Newton owner of the Barlborough Common brickworks had also taken over the Spinkhill Brickworks from the railway company & this may have also been in 1901. Mr. Newton then formed The North East Derbyshire Brick Co. in October 1893 to run his Spinkhill & Barlborough works. The first newspaper advert found this company at Spinkhill is in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph dated 4th December 1907 for Brick Setters & Drawers by contract. Apply, Parker, Spinkhill Brick Yard, Spinkhill near Eckington. Sam Parker was also the Works Manager at the Barlborough Yard which appears to have closed in 1917.
The next reference to the Spinkhill brickworks is in 1919 when it was proposed by Eckington Parish Council to use the brickworks to supply them with bricks for their preposed house building program. The article does not say who was running the works.
I have used the 1923 map below to show the completed railway line & station which had been opened in 1898. The brickworks looks like it was still operational in 1923, but I have not found who it was owned by.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of Ordnance Survey 1923.
My next piece of info on the brickworks at Spinkhill comes from a For Sale advert in the Derbyshire Times dated 30th November 1934 for Good Hard-Burnt Bricks, Apply Spinkhill Brick Co. Sheffield. I think the brick below will have been made by this company, but no more info on this company/works has been found other than this info in the London Gazette dated 8th February 1949, registering The Spinkhill Brickyard Limited with the Companies Registration Office (Board of Trade) Bush House, Strand, London, WC2 on that date. The 1947 map only shows four small buildings & clay pits at this date, so it appears by 1947 it was only a small concern.
Photo taken at the Barlborough Heritage Centre.
Bolsover Colliery Co.
The Bolsover Colliery Company was founded in 1889 by Emerson Bainbridge who took out a lease from the Duke of Portland at Bolsover to extract coal from the Duke's land. John Plowright Houfton was the Company's first General Manager. A brickworks was also established & houses were built for the company's workers & was locally known as "The Model Village", but marked on maps as New Bolsover.
The brickworks was in production to around 1935 when the pit baths were built on the site and today this site is the home of Aztec Oils. During my visit to the "Model Village" I met Malcolm an ex-miner, who told me that the clay for the bricks was dug from what is now the village football fields and the bricks were stamped, BCC for Bolsover Colliery Company.
The Colliery was Nationalised in 1947 & closed in 1993.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1900.
On this 1900 map I have marked the location of the brickworks & the site were they dug the clay from in yellow. The clay was transported to the brickworks via a tramway & miners had their coal delivered to the "Model Village" by the same tramway.
I found the B.C.C. brick above a few weeks later in Derbyshire.
Updated 25.8.16. - Recently photographed by Frank Lawson in a West Yorkshire collection. More than likely this brick came from the works offices in Bolsover same as the ones I photographed in situ.
Photo by Frank Lawson.
Note the fancy C's same as the header brick above.
Byron Brick Co.
New Byron Brick Co.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1900.
1900 OS map showing the location of the Byron brickworks just off Carr Lane, Palterton. The village of Palterton is to the right just off this map.
The origins of this brickworks started in 1881 when Josiah Court & William Mannikin leased land from Earl Bathurst of Cirencester Park, Gloucestershire to mine coal & fireclay on the Earl's estate just north-west of Palterton village.
In 1883 the Bathurst Fire Stone & Fire Brick Co. was established by Court & Mannikin alongside their Bathurst Main Colliery. After this company had changed hands several times the colliery closed in 1891, but the Bathurst Fire Stone & Fire Brick Co. which is listed in Kelly's 1891 edition continued to produce bricks & was put up for auction twice in 1893 & 1896 as a going concern. I have found S. Pearson & Sons, Contractors had taken up the lease in 1893 & carried on running it as the Bathurst Brick Works. Then with their lease about expire in June 1896 a new notice in March 1896 was offering a new lease & I think this when A. W. Byron, a Sutton Scarsdale Estate Agent stepped in to run the brickworks, calling his company the Byron Brick Co. The first newspaper job advert for the Byron Brick Co. appears in the Derbyshire Times dated 22nd November 1899. Another job advert dated March 1907 for clay getters is the last for this company.
Photo from the Phil Sparham Collection.
I next found a new company was running this works & a job advert in June 1907 for barrow runners to work on the setting & drawing a patent kiln was being advertised by the New Byron Brick Co. The owner of New Byron Brick Co. was Mr. James Bilson, a Bolsover Industrialist who lived in Leicester.
Photo from the Frank Lawson Collection.
All of the Byron stamped bricks which have been found so far have been red house bricks.
The New Byron Brick Co. is listed in Kelly's 1922 to 1928 editions at Palterton, Chesterfield with Joseph Chapman Wilson as manager.
Kelly's 1932 to 1941 editions lists the New Byron Brick Co. Palterton, Chesterfield, but now with Herbert Leslie Vass as Manager.
James Bilson died in March 1936 while on holiday in Algiers. It is unknown at this moment in time who then ran this company.
The 1943 Ministry of War Directory records the New Byron Brick Co's works was closed like most of the other brickworks in the country, but another source reveals the works was re-opened as there was a shortage of bricks in this area.
I now have a very large gap to when the brickworks closed in 1967. The only bit of info found from an obituary of a Duckmanton man is that he worked at Revells brickworks in Carr Vale. Then Fred Webley has told me the Revell family were builders.
This example of a Byron brick is the one most commonly found & possibly dates from the 1920's to the mid 1940's.
Photo by Fred Webley.
More information & a detailed account of the owners of this brickworks can be read at this link, from which I have compiled some of the information from for this post.
Killamarsh Brick Co.
Killamarsh Brick Co. Ltd. at Killamarsh near Sheffield is recorded in 1899 to 1912 editions of Kelly's Trade Directory with Fredrick E. Welsh as manager.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1900.
Although not marked as a brickworks on this 1900 map, I have been told when I visited Killamarsh that the area which I have coloured yellow was the site of this brickworks off Station Road. There are brick yards marked on this map opposite Holbrook Colliery & this is also Station Road but this location may be in Holbrook. Historically Killamarsh was in Derbyshire, but today it forms part of Sheffield.
J. Lee, Mosbro
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey revised 1902.
Mosborough was another village which was historically in Derbyshire, but today it forms part of Sheffield. John Lee is listed as farmer, brickmaker & blacksmith at Waterthorpe, Mosborough, Sheffield in Kelly's 1887 to 1912 editions. John's works was on Station Road & I have coloured it yellow on the 1902 map above.
Photo taken at the Barlborough Heritage Centre.
Photo by Simon Patterson found in North East Derbyshire.
G. Haslehurst, Mosbro
Photo by Frank Lawson.
This G.H. brick was possibly made by George Haslehurst who is listed as brickmaker in Mosborough in White's 1879 edition. George may have owned the brickworks in Mosborough that John Lee is recorded at in 1887. See map in Lee entry.
Reddish, Beighton
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1896.
Beighton was another village which was in Derbyshire before 1967 & with the boundary changes it became part of Sheffield.
Edward Reddish is recorded as the owner of Drakehouse Colliery on Drakehouse Lane, Beighton, but due to thin coal reserves & water in the mine the colliery closed in 1894. Although the colliery is not shown on the 1896 map, it may have been on the same site which the brickworks was to later occupy.
So with Edward owning Drakehouse Colliery I expect that when he was listed as brick manufacturer, his brickworks was the one marked Drakehouse Brick Works on the 1896 map above, as there are no other brickworks marked on maps in Beighton at this date. Edward is listed in Kelly's Derby's 1899 & 1900 editions as Gregory - Reddish & Co. Beighton, Sheffield. Then in White's 1901 edition the listing is just Edward Reddish, Beighton. So I am taking it that this Mr. Gregory may have been part owner & possibly the brickmaker at the works. If it was John Gregory who is recorded in 1881 as a brickmaker in Sheffield, there is then a gap in trade directory dates for John until he is next listed in his own name at a new works in 1905 in Sheffield. So he may have been the Gregory in this Gregory - Reddish partnership in 1899 & 1900 ? Bricks found up to yet have only said Reddish. If I get confirmation that this Gregory is definitely John Gregory, I will update the post.
G. Milnes
Photo by Simon Paterson.
George Milnes is listed as brickmaker at Mosborough in White's 1876 edition. Milnes was followed at this brickworks on Station Road by George Haslehurst in 1879 & John Lee 1887 to 1912. Please see map in Lee entry.
