Denby Iron & Coal Co. / Salterwood Brick Works, Denby

During my research for this area, I found that there were three companies making bricks at the same works which was next to Salterwood Colliery in Denby, Derbyshire & I start with earliest in 1860.

Denby Iron & Coal Co.  

The Denby Iron & Coal Company was established in 1860 by William Henry & George Dawes, Iron Masters from Elsecar, Barnsley, who built their Ironworks on land leased from local land owner William Drury-Lowe in Denby. The Dawes Brothers who originated from the West Midlands also owned other Iron Works in West Bromwich, Oldbury, Barnsley & Scunthorpe. 

After George Dawes, sole owner of D. I. & C. Co, had passed away in 1888 at his home at Smethwick Hall, West Bromwich, D. I. & C. was reformed into a Limited Company. The works installed new electrically driven air compressors & made other small changes to the plant. At a date unknown Thomas W. Ward joined /purchased this new Limited Company, which may have been 1904.  It was in 1904 that Thomas Ward reformed his own company by purchasing many iron, coke & coal companies. 

D. I. & C. Co. were also owners of Ryefield Colliery & Salterwood Colliery together with it's Brickworks. In 1929 due to the ironstone being worked out, the Iron Works closed & Salterwood Colliery ceased winding coal, but the Brickworks remained open. In Kelly's Directory The Denby Iron & Coal Company is listed as making bricks at Denby, Derbyshire in it's 1928 & 1932 editions.

I next have a Mining reference to T. Ward Ltd. / D. I. & C. Co. Ltd owning Ryefield & Salterwood Collieries when both pits closed some of their seams in 1926 & then some more seams again at both collieries in 1930. In 1929 due to the Iron Works being unable to compete in obtaining new orders because of their outdated plant, the D. I. & C. Co. went into Liquidation on 5th September,1929 & the furnaces were dismantled. T.W. Ward Ltd. was then granted the lease of the coal rights, held by D. I. & C. Co. on 18th April, 1930. This may have also been the same time that Thomas W. Ward Ltd. fully acquired the D. I. & C. Company name, collieries & brickworks, because by 1950 the old company is recorded as trading as T. W. Ward Ltd, proprietor of D. I. & C. Co. Just to note the founder of this company, Thomas W. Ward had died in 1926. 

Both these bricks shown will have been made some time between 1900 & 1950.

Salterwood

The first recording that I have found for the Salterwood Brick Works, proprietor Thomas W. Ward Ltd. at Denby is in Kelly's 1941 Trade Directory. This directory is also the last one available.

The next article I have found relates to the sale of certain assets owned by Thomas Ward Ltd. Negotiations had been started as early as 1950 by Thomas Ward Ltd, owners of  D. I. & C. Co. to sell their Denby brickworks to the Butterley Brick Company. Ward Ltd. had offered two brickworks to Butterley, but one was rejected as it was too far away from Butterley's base. This may have been their works at Apedale near Stoke on Trent which the company had purchased by 1934, after the previous company the  Midland Coal, Coke & Iron Co. had gone into Liquidation in 1930 or it may have been their works at Longton, Lanchashire. The purchase of Salterwood was then delayed because the freehold of the land was owned by Captain Patrick Drury-Lowe, who's forebears had only leased the land to William & George Dawes of the Denby Iron & Coal Co. in 1860.

 © Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of Ordnance Survey 1939.

1939 Map showing location of Salterwood Brickworks, with the entrance of the works being opposite Denby Pottery. The Colliery was located north of the brickworks, just off this map. 

Butterley Co. Ltd. Salterwood

With the freehold sorted & the completion of the sale of the Salterwood Brickworks, the Butterley Brick Company first made red bricks, same as this example, they then went on to produced Aglite blocks in 1956. The exact date when Butterley closed it's Salterwood Brickworks is unknown (around 1970/80's). The area was then used for open cast mining & after that the land was restored to an open green space & an industrial estate.