Bulwell Brick Co.
The Bulwell Brick Co. is listed in Kelly's 1876 edition through to it's 1932 edition at Kett Street, Bulwell with the works closing around 1940. The company had a second works on The Wells Road & that works is listed in Kelly's from 1891 to 1916. An example of a brick made at the Wells Road works & a map showing the works location can be seen at the end of this entry.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1875.
I have coloured Bulwell's brickworks yellow on this 1875 map & Kett Street green. So from this map it looks like the Bulwell Brick Company was in production before the 1876 trade directory entry. The purple marked brickworks was Sankey's which was on Hemphill Lane (coloured red) & I write about that company later in the post.
Bulwell Brick Coy. reverse Clayton's Patent photographed in-situ in the underground water reservoir at Papplewick Pumping Station.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1900.
This 1900 OS map shows that Bulwell at this date had incorporated Sankey's brickworks into their site & it also shows the extent of it's clay reserves on the other side of the railway line. The clay was brought to the works via a tramway which runs under the Midland railway line. Today the course of the former Midland railway line is now Sellars Wood Drive. Bulwell Potteries marked blue on this map was owned by Sankey's & as said this company features later in the post.
Made at Bulwell's Well's Road Works & was also photographed at the Wollaton Industrial Museum, Nottingham.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NCC/Ordnance Survey 1912.
1912 map showing location of Bulwell's Wells Road Works.
Linby.
This Linby reverse Clayton's Patent & Bulwell reverse Clayton's Patent (in Bulwell entry) bricks had be used in the construction of the underground water reservoir at Papplewick Pumping Station & to my delight I was given permission to have one of the Linby bricks which had been brought up to the surface.
Updated 17.1.19 & 26.4.19.
I have now found the location of Linby brickworks which was on Wighay Road, Linby, but at this moment in time who owned the works is unknown - please see 1875 map below. Available trade directories have also drawn a blank to it's owners. The works does not appear on the 1887 map, only the clay pit is shown. A search on the web has revealed that the underground water reservoir at Papplewick from where this brick came was built in 1879 by the Nottingham Waterworks Co. to store water from it's Bestwood Waterworks. It was also in 1879 that the Corporation of Nottingham purchased this underground reservoir & then set about the building of Papplewick Pumping Station near to the reservoir between 1881 & 1884. Therefore we can now date this Linby brick as to have been made before 1879. One could speculate that Linby Brickworks was set up by the Bulwell Brick Co. to supplement the many bricks needed for this vast undergound reservoir project with Linby Brickworks closing on it's completion. The reason why I have put forward the Bulwell Brick Co. as owning the Linby Brickworks is that the clay found at Linby is identical to Bulwell's in both colour & texture & both works used Clayton's Brick Making Machinery to make these reservoir bricks.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NCC/Ordnance Survey 1875.
I have coloured Wighay Road red & the land to the north of it which includes the brickworks is within the boundaries of Linby village. The land to the south of Wighay Road up to the railway line is in Hucknall. The village of Linby is where it says St. Michael's Church & Linby Colliery is in the bottom right hand corner of this map. Today, the houses on Peverel Road have just been built on this former brickworks site & they are situated next to the former clay pit & occupy land which had not been used for brickmaking or the buildings of the works. Peverel Road was named after William Peverell the younger who granted Linby to the Church of Holy Trinity at Lenton in 1105.
Three photos of Papplewick Pumping Station, it's underground reservoir & a Linby brick photographed in situ.
Sankey, Bulwell.
My first reference found to Sankey's Bulwell Brick Co. appears in the Nottingham Guardian dated 7th June 1877 when an individual (name not given) was selling their 25 shares in the company & were to apply to Mr. Martin, Solicitor, Low Pavement, Nottingham. Sankey’s Brick & Tile Co. Ltd. Hempshill Lane, Bulwell is listed in Kelly’s 1881 to 1885 editions with George Kemp as manager. Bricks may have only been produced between the mid 1870's & 1885 at Hempshill Lane as Sankey’s were more well known for producing clay flower pots which they made at their Bulwell Pottery works which was situated a little further north of their brickworks on the other side of the railway line. Sellars Wood Drive now follows the course of this former Midland railway line. The year the brickworks closed is unknown, but was before 1900 as an OS map dated 1900 shows that Sankey's yard was part of Bulwell Brick Company's yard by this date.
Sankey’s continued to produce clay flower pots until 1976 at their Pottery Works, when they then made them of plastic. The pottery/plastic works relocated to Bennerley Road & the site of their original pottery works is now Sankey Drive. Sankey’s became part of the Fiskars Group in 1999.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NCC/Ordnance Survey 1875.
I have coloured Sankey's brickworks purple & Hemshill Lane red. The yellow coloured brickworks was owned by the Bulwell Brick Co. & it appears the Bulwell Brick Co. took over Sankey's yard when they closed.
Babbington.
The story of this brickworks all starts in the village of Babbington in 1839 when Thomas North who owned the Babbington Coal Company was sinking shallow pits around Babbington to extract it's coal. This successful venture lead Thomas to move to nearby Cinderhill to sink two 7ft mine shafts on land owned by the Duke of Newcastle in 1842, calling his new pit Babbington Colliery. A brickworks was established next to the colliery in 1851 & from a 1853 list of brick outputs in Nottinghamshire, it lists Thomas North as producing 6 million bricks in that year at Cinderhill. Thomas North was well revered by his workers for providing them with housing & other amenities. He built Cinderhill Church on land given by the Duke of Newcastle & with the fruits of his hard labour he moved into Basford Hall.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1900.
This 1900 OS map shows the size of the Babbington's brickworks which was located next to Babbington colliery (also known as Cinderhill Colliery as shown on this map). Also to note on this map is the railway line which connected the colliery & it's brickworks to the Great Northern Railway line which opened in 1870.
With the expansion of Thomas' company in owning or sinking other collieries & building houses for his workers, resulted in Thomas running out of money & moving out of Basford Hall. Sadly Thomas North died a pauper in London in 1868 aged 57 & owing a quarter of a million pounds to the bank, who took over the running of all his businesses which included Babbington brickworks.
Wright's 1866 & 68 editions - Thomas North, Low Pavement, Nottm. (offices).
Kelly's 1904 edition - Babbington Coal Co. 5, Low Pavement, Nottm.
Kelly's 1908 edition - ditto plus Cinder Hill Road (works), Hayden Rd, Marmion Rd & Wells Rd, Nottm. I have been told that these three addresses are railway sidings on the Nottingham Suburban Railway line from where Babbington Coal Company may have sold it's coal from. This is the only entry listing these addresses.
Kelly's 1912 edition to Kelly's 1928 edition - Babbington Coal Co. offices, 5 Low Pavement, works, Cinder Hill Road, Cinder Hill, Nottm.
Kelly's 1928 to Kelly's 1936 edition - Babbington Coal Co. offices & works, Cinder Hill Road, Cinder Hill, Nottm.
So with the last trade directory entry being 1936 for the brickworks one can assume that it closed before 1941 as it does not appear in that directory. Today the site of the former colliery & brickworks is the Phoenix Business Park & it includes ample parking at the tram station which takes you to the centre of Nottingham.
More can be read about Thomas North's life at this links.
http://www.nottinghampost.com/pioneer-owner-north-died-57-poverty/story-12242592-detail/story.html
http://www.picturethepast.org.uk/frontend.php
McCarthy, Bulwell.
McCarthy's brickworks was at the end of Thames Street in Bulwell, on the opposite side of the then Midland Railway line to Sankey's Pottery works. Today the course of the former Midland railway line is Sellers Wood Drive.
As far as I know McCarthy's only made internal house bricks & they were stamped either McCarthy (one is still to be found) or MAC. A bricklayer friend has told me that because these internal bricks were very absorbent he had to soak them overnight before he could lay them the next day. If not the bricks would draw the moisture out of the mortar and the wall would fall down. Gary has also told me that when he was a nipper, he & his friends would play in McCarthy's brickyard where they stacked the cooling bricks. These cooling bricks had their use in the winter, first they kept the gang warm & secondly they use to take their jacket potatoes & place them in-between the bricks until they were cooked, Lovely Jubbly ! I expect that while he was playing in this brickyard with his chums at this tender age, he did not think that one day he would be laying McCarthy's bricks for a living !
The company is listed in Kelly's 1941, 53 & 56 editions as M. McCarthy & Sons, sand, lime & bricks, (SPW Brand), Bulwell Lime Works, Thames Street, Bulwell, Nottingham.
Nottingham Journal - Tuesday 05 January 1937 Image © Reach PLC.
Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NCC/Ordnance Survey 1946.
1946 OS map showing location of McCarthy's works (coloured blue) between the end of Thames Street & the Midland railway line which today is Sellars Wood Drive.
Just to note that the Bulwell Brick Co.'s brickworks on Kett Street (green) had gone by the date of this map.
McCarthy's also made internal bricks stamped SPW = Special Purpose Whites & SPW was their Trade Mark for this type of brick. Below is an advert from the 1939/41 edition of the Architects Standard Catalogue showing the composition & quality of their Special Purpose White bricks. Many thanks to Paul & Cynthia for supplying me this advert.
Photo by Reg Baker, courtesy of the Picture the Past website.
This photo of the works was taken shortly before the works closed due to poor sales of lime & bricks in 1977.
Bestwood Coal & Iron Co.
This Bestwood Coal & Iron Company brick is set into the wall of the winding engine house at Bestwood Colliery Museum. Bestwood pit was sunk between 1872 & 1878 & the building of an ironworks next door had been completed by 1881. Just over a mile to the north of the colliery a brickworks at Cobler's Hill had been built & is shown on the 1875 map below. As found with the sinking of other coal pits a brickworks will have been established to provide the bricks needed to line the pit's shaft as it was being built & these bricks will have been made at the Moor Road yard starting around 1870 using the on-site clay. A tramway was built alongside Moor Road to take coal to & bricks from the brickworks. This tramway also serviced a gravel quarry which was slightly to the north of the brickworks. A web article records that bricks made at this works were used to build the original 64 dwellings & colliery buildings in the village, whether all of these bricks were stamped with the colliery's name is unknown, as the few bricks that I have found in the village have been not been stamped with any makers name. Another web article records that the terrace houses on Park Road, St Albans Road & The Square were these houses built by the Bestwood Coal & Iron Co. & with viewing street view on Google Maps the houses on Park Road have stone wall plaques dated 1876 & the Company's logo. Checking the web has revealed that coal production at Bestwood started in 1876, so the bricks used to build these houses were made with clay shale from the pit after 1876 & not from the clay which was readily available at the brickyard. The use of clay shale produced a much harder & weather resistant brick.
The next available map in 1899 shows the brickworks as disused & the tramway & gravel pit are no longer shown. I have therefore come to the conclusion that after the 64 houses & colliery buildings had been completed the brickworks closed, the exact date of which is unknown, but I am thinking around the early 1890's because the 1899 map shows that 4 of the 5 brickworks buildings were still standing. Bestwood ironworks closed in 1928 & the pit closed in 1967.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NCC/Ordnance Survey 1875.
I have coloured the tramway yellow to indicate it's route between the brickworks at Cobbler's Hill & the Colliery on this 1875 map.
Added 3.8.20. Just found this Bestwood C & I Coy Ltd brick which is stamped both sides close to the village & it's made of pure clay rather than clay shale from the pit, so my thoughts are that this brick was one of the first ones made at the yard in the early 1870's before they started using clay shale to make a more hard wearing durable brick.
Granger/Wilmott, Hucknall Torkard.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1878.
A brick made by William Granger of Hucknall Torkard has still to be found, whether he stamped his bricks we will not know until one turns up.
William Granger, brickmaker, is listed at Hucknall Torkard, Nottingham in Kelly's 1855 & 1864 editions. The 1881 Census records William aged 52/3 as brickmaker, farmer & maltster employing 10 at his brickworks called the Brick Yard, situated on Wood Lane, Hucknall Torkard & is shown on the 1878 map above. The next trade directory entry for William Granger records him brickmaking at The Common, Hucknall Torkard in Kelly's 1885 edition & this will have been the Wood Lane works with Common Lane meeting Wood Lane near to the brickworks entrance. The 1891 Census only records William Granger as farmer & maltster. The Wood Lane brickworks continues to be shown on maps up to 1938, but I have no trade directory entries or web info on who worked or owned this brickworks up to this date. If anyone has this information, please get in touch.
Update 28.11.16.
I can now add that I have found information of another brickmaker working in Hucknall Torkard. John Wilmott is listed in Kelly's 1876 & 81 editions at Hucknall Torkard. There is then a gap in trade directory entries until John Wilmott is listed again in Kelly's 1888 & 91 editions with the address of High Street, Hucknall Torkard. The location of his brick yard is unknown.
Update 25.2.20.
I can now add this information just received in an email from a resident who lives in "The Brickyard" Butler's Hill. It was with them doing research into their house's history that they found that John Wilmott is recorded as owning the land their 1897 house is built on & I have deduced from the location of their house that John Wilmott's yard was the one which I have coloured yellow on the 1879 OS map below. There is also the option that Wilmott may have also owned the other yard. Today this former brickworks site now called The Limes is accessed via a railway crossing with barriers, but I expect back then access was still over the tracks but without any barriers. Bricks stamped Wilmott have still to be found.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NCC/Ordnance Survey 1879.
I wish to thank the following people in helping me bring this post to the web.
Papplewick Pumping Station
Nottingham Museums & Galleries
NCC & NLS for the use of their maps
Picture the Past
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