Leicester Brickworks

Messenger & Healey, Wigston.

Photo by Dennis Gamble & reproduced with the permission of the "Old Bricks" website.

Some info in this entry has been supplied by Dennis Gamble.

I first tell you that Ebenezer Healey in the 1871 census is recorded as a Manager of a Steam Brickworks in Knighton, Leicester. Whites 1878 edition records Healey was now the owner & brickmaker of this works which was on Saffron Lane, Leicester. Healey may have left this works shortly after 1878 as we find in White's 1877 edition Ebenezer Healey was in partnership with Thomas Goode Messenger at the Wigston Junction Brickworks in Glen Parva, Blaby. This works is also listed as being in Wigston or South Wigston. The 1881 census records Healey as a Master Brickmaker, living in Glen Parva & employing 45 men & 20 boys. It appears Thomas Goode Messenger who lived in Loughborough was the moneyman in this partnership with him owning several other businesses as well. He is recorded as a Master Plumber, Glazier & Horticultural Builder. Then listed under Messenger & Co. as Valve Makers, Hot Water Engineers & Iron Founders. 

Several editions of Wright's directories & Kelly's 1881 edition records Messenger and Healey at the Wigston Junction Brickworks, Glen Parva & their works is shown on the 1884 OS map below. This is followed by Messenger & Healey's half page 1881 advert for their works. Healey is still listed as a Brick & Tile Maker in Glen Parva in Wright's 1887 edition.

Dennis Gamble has found that by 1888 Orson Wright was now the owner of this Glen Parva works & his company the Knighton Brick Co. is listed in Kelly's 1891 edition as owning two works, Knighton Junction & Glen Parva, so it appears Messenger & Healey ran this brickworks for around ten years. 

In the 1891 census Messenger is recorded as a Retired Horticultural Builder & Healey is recorded as a Farmer in Aylestone, however in Wright's 1899 edition & the 1901 census Healey, aged 60 is listed as a Brick Manufacturer in Kirby Muxloe & living a mile away from his works on Hinckley Road in Leicester.

© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1884.

Kelly's 1881 edition.

Blaby Brick & Tile Co.

The Blaby Brick & Tile Co. is listed in Kelly’s 1928 to 1936 editions at Cork Lane, Blaby, Leicester. I have used the 1928 OS below to show the location of this brick & tile works.

© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1928.

The advert below from Leicester Daily Mercury dated 9th of September 1939 indicates the works was still active in the sale of it's bricks & operating an Air Raid Warning Station, but the making of bricks had ceased due to the war. The 1943 Ministry of War Directory of Brickworks records the Blaby works was completely closed & not under their ownership, however my next newspaper article dated 28th of March 1946 written by Managing Director Mr Charles Arthur Sword in the Leicester Evening Mail records the opposite & the works had been used by the Ministry of War. Simply Blaby on Facebook also revealed some bits of info about this works. Charlie Sword grandson of Managing Director Charles Sword wrote in 2021 that the War Dept requisitioned the works from his grandfather to store Rolls Royce aircraft engines there during the war with the location of the brickworks being far enough away from major industrial centres which were being bombed. Charlie also writes that his father also called Charles was the works general foreman & he use to take him as a child down to the works to see the kilns being fired & emptied. Charlie notes his happy memories of the brickworks & what a great bunch of chaps who worked there were. I tried contacting Charlie for more info on the works in August 2023 through FB, but alas I have not had a reply.   

 Image © Reach PLC. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.

 Image © Reach PLC. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.

In 1947 the company was taken over by the Butterley Brick Co. & in 1955 Butterley was renamed the Butterley & Blaby Brick Co. The Butterley & Blaby Brick Co. was taken over by the Wiles Group in 1968, later called the Hanson Trust & the company was renamed Butterley Building Materials Ltd. In June 1986 Lady Hanson commissioned the new kiln at Blaby. However with poor brick sales Butterley/Hanson decided to close it's Blaby works in November 1990 with a loss of 60 jobs & hand made brick production was transferred to Butterley's Heather works. Today houses on Navigation Drive have been built on this former brickworks site. 

As a footnote there was another brickworks which was on the opposite corner of Cork Lane were the Chemical Works is shown on the 1928 map above which was only operational for a few years around 1900. Kelly's 1900 edition lists the Blaby Brick Co. with Charles Halford as Managing Director. Charles Halford was a builder & timber merchant in Blaby. The 1900 map shows this works had two bee-hive kilns & a tramway into the clay pit from the main building.   

Knighton Junction Brick Co.

The Knighton Junction Brick Company first appears in Kelly's 1891 edition with James Squires as Manager & as wrote previously this company was formed around 1888 & was owned by Orson Wright, a local builder. A new find by Mark Cranston in a newspaper article which appeared in the Leicester Chronicle dated 19th of November 1887 reveals The Knighton Junction Brick Company had been formed with capital of £30,000 in 3000 shares at £10 each to take over the brickworks owned by William Watts Clarkson & it's owners are listed as William Henry Ellis & Arthur B. Partridge of Ellis Partridge & Co. Builders Merchants in Leicester, Orson Wright, Builder & Edward Sharman, MD of the Wellingborough Brick & Tile Co. Ellis was Chairman & Partridge & Wright were joint Managing Directors. The majority of the shares had been taken up by it's Directors, with the rest being available to the general public. 

This Knighton Junction brickworks on Welford Road in Leicester had been owned & run in his own name by William Watts Clarkson from at least 1871 to 1888 when he retired, hence the Knighton Junction Co. being formed to take over the running of this works. I am therefore thinking this Knighton Junction brick was made by the Knighton Junction Brick Co. rather than Clarkson. William Watts Clarkson is first recorded as a Brick Manufacturer in the 1871 census employing 33 men & 2 boys. The next references to William Clarkson manufacturing bricks are the many advertisements which appear in local newspapers from May 1874 & these all refer to his works being on Welford Road. I next found two trade directory adverts, the first is from Barker's 1875 edition & the second is from Kelly's 1881 edition. It is only the 1881 advert which refers to Clarkson's works as being situated at Knighton Junction, hence my thoughts this Knighton Junction brick was made by the Knighton Brick Co. I am just hoping a brick stamped Clarkson now turns up, so it can be added to this entry. 

Barker's 1875 edition.

Kelly's 1881 edition.

© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1902.

As I have digressed I now return to the Knighton Brick Co. & I have used the 1902 OS map above to show their Welford Road brickworks which I have coloured green. Kelly's 1891 edition also records that the company owned a second works called the Wigston Junction Brick Works at Glen Parva & this works up to 1888 or thereabouts had been run by Messenger & Healey. I have coloured this Glen Parva Brickworks yellow on the 1902 OS map below.

© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1902.

Kelly's 1891 advert for the Knighton Junction Brick Co. with works at Knighton Junction & South Wigston which is the Glen Parva works.

I next found in Kelly's 1895 edition that the company had acquired another brickworks at Countesthorpe previously operated by the Countesthorpe Brick Co. & below is the OS 1885 map showing this works which I have coloured purple.  

© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1885.

Kelly's 1895 edition advert with the addition of the Countesthorpe works & this time the Glen Parva works is listed as Wigston. Kelly's 1899 editions only lists the Knighton Junction & Wigston brickworks, so the Countesthorpe works was only short lived & the 1902 OS map confirms this with only the clay pit now being shown.

Kelly's 1908 edition is the last trade directory recording the Knighton Junction Brick Co. & the Leicester Daily Post dated the 14th of October 1909 reports that men working at both of Knighton Junction's brickworks were given a weeks notice that the company was to close & the closure was due to very poor sales. This article goes on to say that at it's most profitable time the company was paying it's workers £100 pounds per week, but this had gradually dwindled until the Glen Parva works was now only paying £40 & Knighton Junction £35. I then found in the London Gazette dated 27th of January 1911 that Chairman Orson Wright put the Knighton Junction Brick Co. into Voluntary Liquidation & the company was wound up a year later by the Liquidator. It appears Wright had become chairman of the company after the death of Ellis in December 1894.

George Wain

Photo by Frank Lawson.

The only info that I have for George Wain is that his brickworks was on Ansty Lane, Leicester (shown as disused on the 1885 OS map below) & he is listed in Wright's 1878 edition with the address of Leicester Road, Belgrave & then the 1880 edition of the Commercial Gazette records his works as being on Ansty Road. 

© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1885.

Billesdon Brick & Pipe Works

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

Before I write about the marked brick, tile & pipe works, coloured green on this 1900 OS map I tell you about another brick yard in the village. A Freehold Sale Notice in the Leicester Journal dated 15th of February 1867 describes this excellent brick yard together with pasture land of 3 acres, cow shed, stables. piggeries, pottery, sand pit & other buildings situated with a considerable frontage to the Turn-pike-road from Billesdon to Leicester, & also to Long Lane, & adjacent to the Work House. This all points to the fields which I have coloured yellow. The buildings listed may relate to the ones situated to the right side of this field on the Turn-pike-road, but by this 1900 map some may have disappeared. The Notice goes on to say the brick yard was leased & worked by Thomas Henry Sharpe who is recorded in another article as being a brickmaker in the village in 1865. Also in the same Notice there were eight other houses/cottages being sold with sitting tenants, two were on the main street & five situated on or just off Long Lane which I have coloured red. I am therefore assuming one person was disposing of their estate which included all of these houses & the land on which the brick yard was built. It appears from my next find this brick yard was purchased by Thomas, John & William Batchelor, builders in Glenn Magna. However by April 1868 the brothers were advertising this brick yard to be Let. With the brothers failing to Let this yard they then proceeded in October 1868 to sell 90,000 bricks, all of the Plant & tools associated with brickmaking some of which were being sold as nearly new. In January 1869 Messers Batchelor advertised the Freehold Sale of the brick yard, kilns, a house & other buildings together with land amounting to three acres. It appears with there being no takers for the brick yard it then closed. 

Now on to the marked brickworks coloured green & it appears Thomas Henry Sharpe, brickmaker at the other yard had established this works by 1876 with Thomas being listed as brickmaker in Billesdon in Kelly's 1876 edition. Thomas then goes into partnership with George Ward Ward, a Provisions Merchant in Leicester operating as Sharpe & Ward. The London Gazette dated 11th of February 1879 records Thomas Henry Sharpe now living in Ruabon & a Brick & Pipe Manufacturer in the County of Denbigh, North Wales & George Ward Ward, a Provisions Merchant in Leicester operating as Sharpe & Ward, brickmakers in Billesdon had dissolved their partnership by mutual consent on the 5th of February 1879 & from this date William W. Ward alone would continue to operate this brickworks under the name of Sharpe & Ward. The only answer I can come up with Ward continuing to operate as Sharpe & Ward is that he felt customers would continue to purchase bricks & pipes from him with Henry Sharpe being a trusted brickmaker in the area. Kelly's 1881 edition records the company of Sharpe & Ward as brickmakers in Billesdon, however Kelly's 1891 edition records this works was being operated in George W. Ward's name only. 

Photo by Lynne Dyer.

A newspaper article in The Leicester Chronicle dated 21st of April 1894 states the Billesdon Brick & Pipe Works would be Let by Private Treaty. Machinery & all Stock in Trade could also be purchased at current prices. Immediate possession can also be had. Apply Williamson & Whittle, Auctioneers & Estate Agents, Leicester. Kelly's 1900 edition records the partnership of Bird & Hubbard were now operating the Billesdon works, therefore it appears Bird & Hubbard purchased the lease in 1894. Bird & Hubbard are not listed in Kelly's 1908 edition nor is anyone else, so I am assuming the brickworks had closed for good by 1908. The shape of the frog indicates the brick above may have been made between 1890 to when the works closed. Lynne has found there are several of these bricks displayed in walls in the village. Thanks Lynne. 

Belgrave Brick Co.

© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1901.

The first reference found to the Belgrave Brick Co. appears in a newspaper article dated 29th July 1898 when the company had been summoned to court for allowing two youths under the aged 18 to be working after 6pm. The bench fined the company one & a half guineas plus costs. 

Kelly's 1900 edition records the Belgrave Brick Co. Barkby Road, Leicester. I have coloured this works green on the 1901 OS map above. Kelly's 1908 edition is the same entry plus John Henry Weston as manager. However from my next find in a newspaper article dated September 1909 it records John Henry Weston as a brick manufacturer & had died in June 1909. With John not having any sons his estate was left to his brother Joseph, a retired farmer, so I have come to the conclusion with the death of John the brickworks closed. The 1919 map shows this works as disused & not shown at all on the 1928 map. 

Photo by Paul Ross. 

More brickmakers will be added to this post, when time allows, so please call back. Thanks.