North East Derbyshire Brickworks

John Hall Gosling

John Hall Gosling was born in 1813 & is recorded as owning collieries in the Chesterfield & Barlborough areas in the mid 19th century. In the 1861 Census John is recorded as farmer & inn keeper at the Rhodes Arms Inn, Barlborough. John is then listed in Kelly’s T. D. from 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. From researching other small brick enterprises, I have found that farming, inn keeping & brickmaking all went hand in hand with brick making being done in the summer months.

With me finding this IFG brick in Derbyshire I am taking it to be made by Fredrick Gosling & from my research of the family tree, Fredrick had an older brother George I. Gosling who is recorded in the 1861 Census as grocer aged 25, with Fredrick being recorded as farmer's son aged 22. 
In Kelly's 1887 & 1891 editions Fredrick Gosling is listed as brickmaker at Barlborough. So I am reading these initials as (George) I. & Fredrick Gosling with George I. possibly having a financial interest in the business. The 1901 Census now records Fredrick as farmer.

 © Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of Ordnance Survey 1893.

I do not know the exact location of the Gosling's brickworks, but this brickworks marked on this 1893 map at Barlborough Common which was just south of Barlborough may be a contender. I have been told that this brickworks was owned & worked by a farmer called Sternham, but was not told at what date, so Sternham could have continued at this works after Fredrick Gosling had returned to farming sometime just after 1891/2 ? Another possible location for Gosling's brickworks was near Beighton Fields, just a short distance to the left off this map & marked old clay pits on a 1897 map. If I get to find the exact location, I will update the post.

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. Kelly's 1908 lists Charles Robinson as the owner of this Barlborough brickworks. The Barlborough & Cottam Brick & Tile Co. Ltd., Barlborough, Chesterfield are listed in Kelly's 1912 & 14 editions. Please note Cottam is mis-spelt as Cottom on the first brick. 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. The colliery closed had in 1914, but the brickworks remained in production until 1917 when we find the works was operating under the name of the Barlborough Brick Co. when it closed. I am assuming with many workers being called up to go to war that is why the works closed in 1917. With the Barlborough Brick Co. not being officially wound up it was struck off the Joint Stock Companies Register in June 1929. 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.

Miles Barber is listed in Kelly’s 1864 to 1881 editions as brickmaker in Barlborough, Derbyshire. Miles was also a builder & he built the 42 houses that once stood on Barbers Row, Low Common, Barlborough. Location of his brickworks is unknown.
Link to more information about Miles Barber & Barbers Row. http://www.barlboroughrc.btck.co.uk/barbersrow

Photo by Frank Lawson.

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 by 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.

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 by Frank Lawson.

Note the fancy C's same as the header brick above.

Byron Brick Co.

Photo from the Phil Sparham Collection.

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. continued to produce bricks & was put up for auction twice in 1893 & 1896 as a going concern. By 1921 this works was known as the New Byron Brick Co. & it is thought to be have been named after A.W. Byron, a Sutton Scarsdale Estate agent. After the colliery had closed, clay was then extracted from clay pits as shown on the 1900 map below. All of the Byron stamped bricks which have been found so far have been red house bricks, so it looks like Byron did not continue to produce the fireclay bricks same as the previous company. 

Byron closed in the late 1930's but was temporarily reopened during WW2 as there was a demand for bricks during the war. 

  © Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1900.

1900 map showing the location of the brickworks just off Carr Lane, Palterton. The village of Palterton is to the right just off this map.

Photo from the Frank Lawson Collection.

I have these Kelly's trade directory entries for this brickworks.
1891 Bathurst Firestone & Firebrick Co. Bolsover, Chesterfield.
1922, 25 & 28 editions, New Byron Brick Co. Joseph Wilson Chapman, manager, Palterton, Chesterfied.
1932, 36 & 41 editions, same company name & address but now Herbert Leslie Vass, manager.  

After the works had finally 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.  

More information & a detailed account of the owners of this brickworks can be read at these links, from which I have compiled most of the information from for this post. 

http://www.richardsbygonetimes.co.uk/batties.htm

http://www.oldminer.co.uk/brick-yard.html

This example of a Byron brick is the one most commonly found & possibly dates from the 1920's to the mid 1940's.

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 by 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 by 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 by 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.

Spinkhill Brickworks

Photo by Frank Lawson.

Spinkhill is a small village, a few miles north west from Barlborough & the only information I can find is an article from 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.

  © Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of Ordnance Survey 1923.

1923 map showing the location of the Spinkhill brickworks next to Spinkhill Railway Station. This works is also recorded on two other maps dated 1893 & 1900.

Photo taken at the Barlborough Heritage Centre.

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.