Heanor
Photographed at the Silk Mill Museum, Derby.
Under this Heanor heading I write about the two brickworks which where actually in Heanor, then the two works which are recorded as being in Marpool & Mill Hay/Milnhay. The maker of the Heanor brick above is unknown.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1880.
The 1880 map above shows that there where two brickworks in Heanor in that year with one situated on Nelson Street & one on Thorpes Road & recorded as Commonside in trade directories. I first start with the two brickmakers who are just listed as brickmaking in Heanor & these two makers could have been at either of these two yards at the dates that they are recorded in trade directories, so R. Marshall is listed in Kelly's 1855, White's 1857 & Kelly's 1864 edition & Ebenezer Howitt is just listed in Kelly's 1876 edition. I then found in White's 1857 edition that Gould, Checkland & Marshall are recorded as colliery proprietors at Marpool, so the brickmaker R. Marshall above could be the same Marshall in this partnership of owning a colliery at Marpool.
I. & W. Gillott are listed in Kelly's 1881 edition at Commonside (green coloured yard on the 1880 map above) & then as Gillott Brothers, Commonside in Kelly's 1891 edition. This yard is no longer shown on the 1898 map below & no named bricks have been found by any of the above brick makers unless the Heanor brick at the head of this entry can be credited to one of them.
I have found two brickmakers with the name of Kemp in trade directories, one in Heanor & one in Ripley, so I do no not know which of these makers made this brick which I found at a reclamation yard at Pye Bridge. The trade directory listings are - William Kemp, Commonside, Heanor in Kelly's 1888 edition & Thomas Kemp, Greenwich, Ripley in Kelly's 1876 edition. The brick was on a pallet with other Ripley bricks, so Thomas Kemp is therefore my 1st choice, but William cannot be ruled out as maker of this brick, hence me adding this brick to this post as well as my Ripley Post. If I do get conformation of who made this brick, I will update both posts.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1898.
I now move on to the Nelson Street works in Heanor & Charles C. Fidler is listed at this yard in Kelly's 1881, 87 & 91 editions. Up to yet no bricks have turned up bearing his name.
We then find the listing of Rigley & Claxton in Kelly's 1895 edition through to it's 1900 edition at Nelson Street. Kelly's 1904 edition just lists Alfred William Claxton at Nelson Street & two bricks made by R. & C. are shown below. The year this yard closed is unknown, but the 1913 map shows that Claxton Street is now built on the site of this brickworks.
Photographed at the Silk Mill Museum, Derby by Frank Lawson.
Another R. & C. example photographed by Frank Lawson in Heage, Derbys.
A family website has revealed that Alfred William Claxton in the 1901 Census was aged 50 & born in Wrighton, Norfolk, trade - brickmaker/employer & was residing at 28 Nelson Road together with his 2nd wife Hannah, one son & 6 daughters. At number 27 Nelson Street his son Arthur W. Claxton, aged 27, also born in Wrighton, Norfolk is recorded as a brickmaker & living at this address with his wife & daughter aged 1. The 1891 Census reveals that Arthur then aged 17 was living with his father Alfred, Alfred's second wife Hannah & their children at Station Street, Kirkby in Ashfield & Alfred is listed as brickmaker. There was a brickworks on Station Street next to the railway station which I have not been able to find who worked there & it strongly looks like Alfred may have been the owner or just the brickmaker at this Kirkby yard. The 1881 Census records Alfred as a labourer aged 30 & living on New Street, Kirkby with his first wife Ann, Arthur aged 7 & two daughters. Alfred's first wife Ann died in 1881 & he then married Hannah in 1882. I have established that Alfred & Ann had moved to Kirkby in 1875/6 because Arthur had been born in Norfolk in 1874 & their daughter Frances was born in Kirkby in 1876.
I next found that A. Claxton & Sons are listed as brickmakers in Greenwich, Ripley as recorded in Kelly's 1916 edition, so could this A. Claxton be our Heanor duo Alfred William Claxton or his son Arthur William Claxton now with sons. I expect the 1921 Census would reveal this if Alfred (aged 66) & Arthur (aged 47) were still brickmaking at this date. Alfred's great grand-daughter, Jean Hill has informed me that Alfred died on the 29th of September 1916 aged 66, so with the trade directory being published at the beginning of the year there is the option that it could still have been Alfred in this Ripley entry. Jean continues to tell me that Arthur died in 1972 aged 98. We will have to wait until the 1921 Census is published to resolve this one.
Timothy Butler is listed as brickmaker in Kelly's 1855 edition at Marpool, Heanor. The earliest map that I have available was surveyed in 1879 & with this map not showing any brick yards at this date I am unable to tell you the location of Tim's yard.
Photo by MF courtesy of Phil Sparham Collection.
I first have note that the spelling of Milhay as stamped on this brick is actually Milnhay today & the 1879 map & White's 1857 trade directory both record this hamlet as Mill Hay.
White's 1857 edition lists the Patent Brickworks, Mill Hay with J.F. Milnes as manager & fellow collector Frank Lawson has obtained this information from the Heanor Local History Society - Millhay brickworks was associated with Millhay Colliery at Langley Mill & was owned by Smith & Goodwin, with the colliery closing in 1856. Further digging around on the web has revealed that Smith & Goodwin owned the Langley Mill Pottery on Station Road & Mill Hay Colliery was next to the pottery from 1847 to 1856. So this brick could have been made at S & G's pottery works, but I cannot rule out the option that there could have been a brickworks at the side of the colliery as well, also owned by Smith & Goodwin.
So it appears that this brickworks/colliery was not in Mill Hay, but actually in Langley Mill & just named after that hamlet with the colliery being situated opposite the road which went to Millhay. I have used the 1879 map below to show the location of the Langley Mill Pottery/colliery site. Today this former pottery/colliery site is occupied by the Acorn shopping centre.
After writing the last paragraph a new discovery on the web from a list of mines which closed in 1857 records that the Mill Hay Colliery closed in that year & the owners are listed as McAlum & Allen. Now I have brick (shown in the Langley Mill entry) stamped McCallum & Co. & this company is listed as McCallum & Allen in the 1855 & 57 trade directories. So this new info now disagrees with the information Frank obtained from the Heanor History Society. I am not saying that this information Frank received is incorrect as there is the option that Smith & Goodwin owned the colliery before McCallum & Allen in 1855 with the colliery being sunk in 1847. Only more research will resolve this quandary.
I now believe I have now found the Smith & Goodwin connection of them owning Mill Hay Colliery. There was a second pit on this site next to pottery in 1874. It must have been short lived as the pit is not shown as such on the 1879 map. The mining reference that I found it in states that "the pit (not named) was near the Pottery offices" & Smith & Goodwin's names are given as owners of the pit. So hopefully that has sorted this quandary & the information given to Frank by the Heanor Local History Society is correct. I have just got to establish who made the Milhay brick, Smith & Goodwin or McCallum & Allen & if it was S & G was it at their Pottery Works or was there brickworks at the side of the pit in 1874 - Simples !!!
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1879.
Langley Mill
Old maps show that there where two brickworks in Langley Mill & I have found many brickmakers listed in trade directories, but only with Langley Mill as the location of their works, so I am unsure in some cases who worked at which yard. There was a third brickworks next to Langley Mill Pottery on Station Road, but this works is not shown as such on any of the maps that I have access to - (coloured red on the 1879 map below). John Beardsley is listed at Aldercar Lane, so I am certain that he owned the works which was accessed off Cromford Road (yellow on map below). I have also attributed this same works as later being owned by the Langley Mill Brick Co. The 1899 map shows this works (yellow) was the larger in size of the two & I am then taking it that the smaller works (green) was being run by Charles Hardy, who was working on his own.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1879.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1879.
I have had to use two 1879 maps to show both of these Langley Mill brickworks & the bottom of the first map joins the top of the second. I was hoping that I could line these two maps together, but they do not quite match.
As said, because I have two works & several brickmakers & I do not known for certain who operated which yard, I have listed each of the brickmakers/companies in date order with the yard that they may have owned if known.
As I only have one photo of a brick made by any of these makers I start with McCallum & Allen who are listed in Kelly's 1855 & White's 1857 editions at the Patent Steam Brick, Pipe & Terra Cotta Works, Langley Mill. Searching the web has revealed that in a list of mines which closed in 1857, Mill Hay Colliery is in that list & the owners are recorded as McAlum & Allen. I am taking it that McCallum's name had been just been mis-spelt. Mill Hay Colliery was situated on Station Road next to Langley Mill Pottery, the location of which can be seen on the 1879 map above (coloured red). White's 1857 edition also records that J.F. Milnes is listed as manager at the Patent Brickworks, Mill Hay & this ties in with the McCallum & Allen 1857 trade directory entry as owners of the Patent Steam Brickworks.
Photographed at the Silk Mill Museum.
Kelly's 1855 edition records Woodward & Horsefield at Heanor, then the couple are listed at Langley Mill in White's 1857 edition. I think that this Heanor listing is still their Langley Mill yard as I have found in many trade directory listings that Langley Mill is listed first then Heanor second in the addresses of trades persons working in Langley Mill.
From the Ilkeston Pioneer newspaper I have a notice & an advert for the Erewash Valley Patent Brick, Pipe & Tile Co. The notice from June 1853 states that a new brickworks was going to open in Langley Mill with the capacity to produce 20,000 bricks per day when in full production. The May 1854 advert states "On sale & ready for delivery, common bricks, first rate pressed frontage bricks, hexagonal & square floor bricks, pantiles of all types & drainage pipes of all sizes. All orders executed on the shortest of notice. Any amounts delivered to Nottingham, Derby, Mansfield & any intermediate Stations at advantageous rates". Apply Joseph Tomlinson, Manager of the Works, Langley Mill Station. Neither the notice or the advert actually states which of the two brick works it was in Langley Mill as both works had there own sidings, but I am favouring the one nearest the railway station off North Street (coloured green on the 1879 map below). There are no listings for the Erewash Valley Patent B. P. & T Co. at Langley Mill in trade directories & how long this company operated in Langley Mill is unknown, but I have found another company called the Erewash Valley Brick, Pipe & Pottery Co. Ltd. & is listed in Kelly's Notts. 1900 edition at Newthorpe, however there is no connection between these two companies. This Langley Mill works was then taken over by Charles Hardy in 1899 & I write about Charles a little further down this entry.
John Beardsley is listed at Aldercar Lane, Heanor (again Aldercar Lane is in Langley Mill) in Kelly's 1876 edition. Then John is listed in Kelly's 1881 & 87 editions at Langley Mill. The London Gazette & a newspaper article records John Beardsley went bankrupt in April 1887. So I am crediting the yellow works to John Beardsley who also owned a coal mine leased from the Duke of Newcastle in Brinsley. As of yet, no bricks stamped J. Beardsley have turned up. There were two brickmakers with the name of Beardsley operating in Ilkeston & although I have not found any connections, John may have been related to one of them.
Clarke & Son are listed in Kelly's 1891 edition at Langley Mill.
Kelly's 1899 to 1912 editions lists the Langley Mill Brick Co. Ltd. Langley Mill. I have credited the yellow works to this company.
Charles Hardy is listed in Kelly's 1899 to 1900 editions at Langley Mill, then the 1904 & 1912 editions list C.W. Hardy at Langley Mill. I have credited the green works situated off North Street as being owned by Charles.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1900.
This 1900 map now shows that both brickworks have expanded in size. Today the green yard accessed via North Street is an industrial estate & the yellow yard is now housing on Crown Way.I now write about the two brickmakers who are listed at Langley, Heanor & these are W. Spray in Kelly's 1864 & White's 1857 edition, then Levi Spray in White's 1857 edition. I do not have any maps covering these dates to show you their yard & the 1879 map does not show any brickyards in Langley.
Sandiacre
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1880.
My first trade directory listing for a brickmaker working in Sandiacre is R. Salt who appears in Kelly's 1855 edition & Salt's yard was more than likely the one on Bostocks Lane (coloured yellow on the 1880 map above). This Bostocks Lane yard was then owned by the Sandiacre Brick Co., then John Saunders & finally T. Sellars before closing in the mid 1890's & I write about each brickmaker in turn.
The brick kilns (coloured green) on the 1880 map above where at the Sandiacre Wagon Works. It appears from this map that the brickworks was established to produced the bricks needed for the building of this wagon works which was designed & laid out by Daniel Macnee in 1877 & may have been owned by Edward Eastwood who is listed as waggon builder at Sandiacre in Kelly's 1891 edition.
Photo by Frank Lawson.
This brick was made by the Sandiacre Brick Co. & although not named as such in Wright's 1874 trade directory, the making of bricks, lace & starch products are listed as being produced in the village. This brick yard is coloured yellow on the 1880 map above & my next reference to the Sandiacre Brick Co. comes from the London Gazette dated 28th May 1875 when the company was voluntarily wound up. We next find that John Saunders was the next owner of this works, possibly not long after 1875 & featured below is one of his bricks which was produced using the latest patented steam machinery.
Photo by Frank Lawson.
This Bostock Lane works under the ownership of John Saunders did not last very long as we next find in a notice which appeared in the Ilkeston Pioneer newspaper in 1882, declars the Sale of the Brick & Tile Works at Sandiacre & reads - This works is being sold by Mr. Thomas Neale at his mart on Wheelergate, Nottingham on Wednesday 9th August 1882 at four o’clock precisely on behalf of the Mortgagee. The notice then goes on to list all the Plant that was for sale & this included three kilns, extensive steam-heated drying sheds, stable, office, steam engine & boiler, complete steam brickmaking machinery, an elevated tramway to the mill giving easy access to the Erewash Canal (the canal at this point was actually the Derby Canal according to the 1880 map above). The machinery has been put down (purchased & set up) at great cost by Mr. John Saunders & is in good working order & of best of it's kind. The bed of clay is practically inexhaustible & best in the neighbourhood. Bricks made are much sought after. I think the person who wrote this notice would make an excellent spin doctor today ! The notice continues with the listing of land which has been divided into 56 plots & to be sold for housing, each plot varying from 800 to 1000 square yards. The proximity to the brickworks would materially cheapen the cost of building the houses. So it appears that from this notice of the sale of the works, John Saunders had not kept up on the repayments on his mortgage & the Mortgagee was selling the works to recoup their losses.
We next find that T. Sellers is the new owner of this works as recorded in Kelly’s 1887 edition & two examples of his bricks can be seen below. The first using the same designed frog as the one used by Saunders with Sellars continuing to call his works "The Red & White Brick Works.
Photographed at the Silk Mill Museum, Derby.
Photographed at the Silk Mill Museum, Derby.
The 1898 map below shows this works is now disused, so Sellars was only at this yard for a few short years also. The in-exhaustable clay reserves as recorded in the 1882 Sale of the Works Notice appears not to have been used. Also the plan to build 56 houses next to the brickworks does not appear to have materialised either. Bostock Lane in places now follows a slightly different route today to the one shown on the 1898 map below & houses have now been built on this former brickworks site with the traffic on the M1 gently roaring-by sandwiched in-between these houses & Wilsthorpe Lodge Farm. This farm house & buildings are shown as being in the same location on the 1898 map below & today the farm has access off Bostock Lane via it's own bridge over the M1.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1898.
Shipley
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1900.
There are no trade directory entries for this brickworks which was located next to the Nuthall Canal at Shipley Wharf. With it being situated very close to Shipley Hall, this brickworks I believe was an estate brickworks owned by the Miller-Mundy family who lived at the Hall. The family are recorded as owning Shipley Colliery which consisted of two pits - Coppice & Woodside. I have found on the web that this brickworks was operational between 1880 & 1914 & this is backed up with the works being shown on the 1879 map as a brick yard & then not shown at all on the 1913 map. Not even the outline of the clay pit is shown on the 1913 map which can be clearly seen on the 1899 map above, so the clay pit must have been filled in by 1913.
Photo by Frank Lawson.
The lettering on this Shipley brick indicates that this is a pre 1900 brick. Frank photographed this brick in situ on top of a wall in Marpool, so only a stones throw from where it was made. I then added this next example to my collection in 2024.
I photographed this blue brick on a farm in Sutton in Ashfield & I expect that the company with finding that there was another brick company in Shipley, Yorkshire making bricks they decided to add Derby to their bricks.
Photo by Mick Farmer.
Stanton by Dale
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1880.
T. Gillott is listed as brickmaker in Kelly's 1855 edition at Stanton by Dale. I do not have a map from that year to show Gillott's yard & the nearby Stantongate yard on the 1880 map above may have been his yard in 1855. Stanton by Dale is just off to the left on this map & no brick yards are shown actually in this village, hence my thought's that Gillott's yard was this yard at Stantongate next to the canal & railway station. As you can see this was an ideal location for a brick yard with the canal, roads, railway, coal pits & clay all on hand to produce & distribute bricks.
This brick yard is still shown on the 1898 map & from the 1871 Census Joseph Blackwell aged 63 & his son John aged 20 are recorded as brickmakers at Stanton by Dale.
Gillott rev. Stanton, photographed at the Silk Mill Museum, Derby.
I wish to Thank the following :-
Frank Lawson
Silk Mill Museum, Derby
Heanor Local History Society
NLS/Ordnance Survey
Ilkeston Library
Phil Sparham
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