Alma Colliery
Photo by MF from the Frank Lawson Collection.
Alma Colliery at North Wingfield was sunk & owned by Thomas Houldsworth around 1854. The pit was named after the Crimean War battle of the same name which took place in 1854. The dates when this associated brickworks were in production are unknown, but the frog design suggests 1880 to 1920. A mining reference states that in February 1922 the Alma Colliery management were reluctant to close the pit with the loss of 172 jobs due to the heavy expenditure of running costs.
Blackwell Colliery
The Blackwell Colliery Co. owned two pits located near the village of Blackwell, A Winning was at Primrose Hill & B Winning was at Hilcote along with the brickworks as shown on the map below. The local story on how these two pits got their names originates from the owner asking each week which pit had produced the most coal, A Winning or B Winning. So depending on which pit was in front, this spurred the other one to do better the following week thus making more profit for the owner.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of Ordnance Survey 1880.
1880 O.S. map showing the location of the brickworks & kiln at B Winning Pit with Hilcote village just to the north. The brickworks consisted of four Newcastle Kilns & nearby was a smithy to look after the needs of the pit ponies & a row of cottages for their workers which are all shown on this map next to the pit.
The village of Hilcote expanded after the sinking of the colliery in 1875 with the Company building houses for their workers. The brickworks probably closed with the pit in 1964 & today the site has been restored as an open green space.
Bonds Main Colliery
Photo by Frank Lawson.
Bonds Main Colliery in Temple Normanton was sunk in 1875/76 by the Staveley Iron & Coal Co. & was named after George Bond who was a Company Director & right hand man to owner Charles Markham. Many of the pits sunk by the Staveley I. & C. Co. included Main in there name, indicating that the company were the owners of the mine. The brickworks is not marked on a 1900 map only the colliery, but it is shown on a map which was surveyed in 1914, so the brickworks was established between 1900 & 1914.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1914.
The Bonds Main colliery along with many other collieries in the country was nationalised in 1947 & fellow brick collector Frank Lawson has recently photographed this example in a private collection. (added Sept. 2016). The colliery closed in 1949, so I expect the brickworks followed suit.
Photo by Frank Lawson.
Clay Cross Co.
Photographed at Chesterfield Museum.
In 1839 the Clay Cross Coal & Iron Co. was formed by George Stephenson along with his associates known as the "Liverpool Party". George had come across vast coal deposits while he was digging the mile long tunnel for his railway under Clay Cross between 1837 & 1838, which led him to form this new company. The works included a colliery, coke ovens, limeworks, an iron foundry & a brickworks. Later on with a better grade of coal being available from the Durham coalfields the company concentrated on iron making & producing bricks at the works.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1900.
1900 map showing the site of this vast works just to the north-east of Clay Cross with the brickworks marked in yellow.
Examples of some of the many variations of frog designs made at the brickworks over it's long lifetime.
Photographed at Chesterfield Museum.
Photographed at Chesterfield Museum.
Today this 26 hectare site which had been a hive of activity with all these works is now in the hands of the Provectus Group who have demolished all of the old buildings, are in the process of open-casting the site for it's surface coal & making the land safe by a method called Bioremediation to remove any toxins in the soil so houses can be built in the future.
Photo by Frank Lawson.
Hardwick Colliery
The Wingerworth & Hardwick Colliery Company was formed in 1830 with Hardwick or Holmewood Colliery being developed from 1868. The company became the Hardwick Colliery Co. in 1900. The 1900 OS map below shows that a brickworks had been established next to Hardwick Colliery, but I have to note that the present day village of Holmewood which is now located between the colliery & Williamsthorpe did not exist in 1900, hence the brick above is marked Chesterfield as an indication of the brickworks location. Holmewood village was built from 1905 providing houses for it's miners & later bricks are just marked Hardwick. The colliery was Nationalised in 1947, but no bricks have been found with NCB Hardwick on them, so the brickworks must have closed before then. The colliery closed in 1970 & is now an industrial site.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1900.
Photo by Frank Lawson.
Variation found by Frank which has only one L in Colliery & the S is reversed in Chesterfield.
Another "Coly" photographed in June 2020. I am thinking this version is earlier than the "Colly" ones with this one having the reversed S.
This example is the most commonly found & was probably made after 1905.
Photo by Simon Patterson.
Slightly different frog & larger letters on this one.
Tibshelf Colliery
There were four pits & two brickworks on two sites which made up Tibshelf Colliery. Pits 1 & 2 (locally known as the bottom pits) were sunk in 1867/70 & pits 3 & 4 (top pits, on Sawpit Lane) were sunk in 1893/4, all by Charles Seeley & Company. Two associated brickworks & coke ovens were operational in 1900 as shown on the 1900 map below. However a brickworks is recorded as being in production prior to 1900 in a Bolsover D.C. planning document regarding Tibshelf & Newton Railway Station & with now finding a map dated 1876, I can now add that two kilns are shown next to Pits 1 & 2 at this date & I this map is shown next.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1876.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1900.
Pits 1 & 2 closed in 1932, but the shafts were kept open to pump water from the Top pits.
The site of pits 1 & 2 has now been restored as an open green space with the planting of trees & grass areas together with footpaths down to the ponds & pits 3 & 4 are now the Sawpit Lane industrial estate.
As a footnote I have found how Sawpit Lane got it's name. At the end of this lane there was a saw mill which imported trees from Scandinavia to make pit props, with the finished product being transported by rail to collieries all over the country. A devastating fire destroyed the wood yard in 1956 (located next to the bottom pits 1 & 2) & the sawmill did not re-open.
There are photos of Tibshelf Colliery & it's brickworks in this link to Tibshelf Parish Council's webpage.
http://www.tibshelfparishcouncil.gov.uk/tibshelf-past-and-present
Photo by Darren Haywood.
With Darren photographing this brick in North East Derbyshire there is the possibility that it was made at Tibshelf while the brickworks was owned by the Sheepbridge Coal & Iron Co. in 1938 & 1939.
J. Frogett
Photo by David Kitching.
Jno Froggatt of North Wingfield, Derbyshire is listed as brickmaker in the 1857 White's Directory of Derbyshire.
George Knighton
This GEBK C+STN brick which I found at Valley Reclamation, Chesterfield in 2018 has had me guessing on who made it for several years. So with sending the image to the Old Bricks website in May 2021 to go on the Mystery Page, David managed to decipher these letters & reveal it's maker in George Enoch Banister Knighton & his yard was in Tupton just north of Clay Cross, so this brick had only travelled four miles to the reclamation yard from were it was made. The C + STN stands for Clay Cross Station. It's so easy to see when you know the answer.
Many Thanks David for this info.
"George Enoch Banister Knighton, Tupton, Derbyshire is listed in Kelly's Derbyshire directories from 1895 to 1912. The works was east of Clay Cross Station and the railway connection was known as Knighton's Siding." I have added the 1900 OS map below to show you the works location & the siding going to it.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1900.
Fantastic. Thank you for all of the information and photos!
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