Shepshed Brickworks, Leicestershire

In this post I cover the two brickworks which were situated in Shepshed & I start with the Fenney Hill works & then go on to the later Station Brickworks which is still operational today.

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

I have found several newspaper articles relating to this Fenney Hill brick yard which I have coloured purple on the 1901 OS map above. This works is also shown on the 1882 OS map. From these newspaper accounts this yard was owned by Mr Thomas Hopkins in the 1880's & was managed by his son William, his other son Francis being the brickmaker at the yard. This yard was advertise to be Let in 1876, so the Hopkins family may have taken it over then. Also employed at this yard in 1887 was brickmaker William Rossell who is recorded in two 1887 newspaper articles as living at Iveshead Cottages, Iveshead Lane, Fenney Hill, the location of which being a short distance from the brick yard (see map). William Rossell is also recorded as a brickmaker in Shepshed in a March 1862 newspaper article & may have worked at this Fenney Hill works back then.  

An April 1889 notice in the Hinckley News records with the death of Thomas Hopkins the brickworks together a newly built kiln, drying sheds, two clay mills & the surrounding arable land was to be sold freehold & it appears it was William Rossell who purchased this brickworks. Kelly's 1891 edition records William Rossell as brickmaker at Shepshed. No bricks stamped Rossell have been found so far & it is unknown how long Rossell ran this works for.

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

Now on to the Station Brickworks also called the Charnwood Brickworks from 1899 which I have coloured green on the 1901 OS map above. Brothers William, Alfred & Horace Gibbs at first were primarily brick, lime, cement & coal merchants in Loughborough. My first newspaper reference in 1883 is to them owning a depot at the New Wharfs on Derby Road, Loughborough next to the canal. This 1883 advert also records they could supply every description of the well known Whitwick Forest coal from their Loughborough & Shepshed depots. In 1884 they were Agents for red, white & blue bricks, Ensor & Co.'s sanitary pipes & fire bricks, Edward Smith & Co.'s Encaustic Tiles & Breedon Lime. In 1886 they were the Sole Agents in supplying Mr. Wain's well known Heather pressed bricks. Slates, quarry tiles & chimney pots had also been added to the list of materials that could supply. An 1888 advert advertises they always had plenty of stock of bricks, tiles, chimney tops, slates, quarry tiles & lime available at their two railway depots in Loughborough & Shepshed.

The first newspaper reference I have to the Gibbs Brothers being brick manufacturers comes from the Leicester Chronicle dated Saturday 28th of October 1893, when the brothers at a grand dinner event at the Railway Hotel formally opened their new brickworks. Situated next to Shepshed railway station & occupying four & a half acres I have coloured this brickworks green on the 1901 OS map above. With all new modern machinery provided by Mr. J. Jones of Loughborough, expected brick production from their two kilns was estimated to be 100,000 bricks per week. The drying shed used steam to dry the bricks & steam was also used to propel the trucks bring clay from the pit. The notice goes on to say the L & N. W. Railway Company had arranged to provide a siding into the works, therefore all parts of the country could be reached by the firm. Mr. J.B. Cooke of Ruabon had been brought in as Manager of the works, so I am assuming Mr. Cooke had previously worked for one of the well-known Ruabon works & had a good track record in producing bricks having worked in the trade for 35 years. This newspaper article reports that before work commenced on building the brickworks the brothers had test pits sunk, the first being in the spring of 1893 to establish the depth & quality of the clay. More pits were to follow with all results coming back satisfactory. In one pit a depth of 12 yards was reached & good quality clay was still not exhausted.

The next newspaper article dated October 1897 records Mr. J. Pope as foreman at the Shepshed brickworks in the matter of finding a John Cumberland aged 73 sleeping in the drying shed. Kelly's 1899 edition lists the Gibbs Brothers as brickmakers at the Railway Station, Shepshed, this being the Charnwood Brickworks. The Station Works was re-named the Charnwood works in 1899 & shared an access with the railway station from Charnwood Road. Today with the station now gone the brickworks is accessed via a road called Old Station Close. Kelly's trade directories continue to list the Gibbs Brothers with the address of the Station Brickworks. Then in January 1911 the London Gazette records Alfred Gibbs was leaving the Partnership & the company of Gibbs Brothers, Brick & Tile Manufacturers & Building Material Merchants of Loughborough would continue to be run by William & Horace Gibbs, Alfred was retiring. The 1919 OS map below shows the Gibbs Brothers had established a new clay pit on the south side of Ashby Road & a tramway had been built under Ashby Road to bring the clay to the works. The other field that I have coloured is now the extent of the clay pit in 2023.

Kelly's 1932 edition is the last entry for the Gibbs Brothers operating the Station Brickworks, however newspaper articles reveal that William & Horace Gibbs on the 1st of January 1935 had entered into a partnership with several other brick manufacturers to form a new company to run their five brickworks & William Gibbs was to be a director in this new company.  

On the 1st of January 1935 United Tile Manufacturers Ltd. of Hanley, Stoke was formed to acquire & amalgamate four long established businesses with five brickworks in North Staffordshire, Leicestershire & Yorkshire which produced high quality facing bricks & roof tiles. The Station Works at Shepshed being the Leicestershire works which now operated under the name of the Charnwood Brick & Tile Co. (references - newspaper job adverts). United's other works being Silverdale Tileries & the New Rose Vale Brick & Tile Works, both in Stoke & the Yorkshire works were in Strensall & Roecliffe. As wrote William Gibbs became one United Tile's directors. The other directors being - Edmund Hodgkinson, New Rose Vale Brick Co. - Robert Green, owner of the two Yorkshire Works - Cyril Fullard Entwistle MP, director & chairman. Shares in United Tile were being offered to the general public from the 11th of March 1935. A newspaper article dated August 1935 reports John William Hodgkinson was the manager of the Shepshed works. Kelly's 1936 & 41 editions record United Tile Manufacturers Ltd. are listed under that name as operating the Shepshed works. In June 1941 Edmund Hodgkinson of Chesterton, Deputy Chairman of United Tile Manufactures Ltd. passed away & I am wondering if there was a family connection to John W. Hodgkinson, manager at Shepshed. 

Leicester Evening Mail - Monday 24 July 1939 

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

The 1943 Ministry of War Directory records the Shepshed works was closed for the duration of the war & was not used by the Ministry to store armaments. 

By 1950 it appears United Tile was in financial trouble with a April 1950 newspaper article reporting Moira Colliery Ltd. had withdrew their offer to buy United Tile's shares as their offer had not been accepted by the required 90% of share holders. Next the Yorkshire Post dated 1st of September 1950 reveals United Tile Manufacturers Ltd. with five brick & tile works was being sold as a going concern, four of the works were freehold & one was leased. The article goes on to say offers are invited for all the works collectively or individual works could be purchased. The sale of the works was being administrated by C.C. Bullock, Receiver for Debenture Holders, Bourner, Bullock & Co. of Hanley, Stoke. With concentrating on the Shepshed works in this post, I have not followed up on what happened to the other four works. 

So from my next finds it appears Solihull company, Proctor & Lavender were the next owners of the Shepshed brickworks. I do not have the exact date when this took place, but it was certainly by December 1951 when a newspaper advert records the Charnwood Forest Brick & Tile Works Ltd. were operating this works, a company owned by Proctor & Lavender. Previously this works operated as the Charnwood Brick & Tile Co. under United Tile.  

So on to the beginnings of Proctor & Lavender who were formed in the 1920's by  Arthur Herbert Proctor & Harold Thomas Lavender as Coal & Builders Merchants in Solihull. On the 1st of May 1928 the London Gazette records Arthur Proctor had retired & Harold Lavender was to continue to operate Proctor & Lavender. Harold formed a Limited Company with his wife, Winifred in May 1941 as Builders Merchants, & Coal & Coke Dealers. Then in October 1946 Harold Lavender became a director in the Coleford Brick & Tile Co. in Gloucestershire with a view to taking control of this company by increasing his share holding which appears to have happened by 1950 when Proctor & Lavender are recorded in a newspaper article as Brick & Tile Manufacturers. It appears after moving to a new brickworks called the Forest of Dean Brickworks near Cinderford in 1950 this brickworks run by Proctor & Lavender was still operating under the name of the Coleford Brick & Tile Co. Harold Lavender died in 1953 & from information received from Chris Sheldon (Harold's great-grandson) Winifred became Chairwoman & Jack Clift ran the company of Proctor & Lavender. 

As wrote the Shepshed works now operating under the name of the Charnwood Forest Brick & Tile Works Ltd. had come under the control of Proctor & Lavender by December 1951 & below is a company advert from the Architects Journal dated 1957. According to newspaper articles both of Proctor & Lavender's works only produced hand-made facing bricks.

It appears from a newspaper article that by August 1972 Proctor & Lavender had taken over the running of the Coalville Brick Co., another company who only manufactured hand-made bricks. In this article P & L's Managing Director Mr. Jack P. Clift was commenting on securing several contracts to supply one million hand-made bricks from their three works, Shepshed, Coalville & Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. If this take over date of the Coalville works surfaces I will update the post.

The next reference I have found to Proctor & Lavender still being brick manufacturers is in 1973. Tony Coleman a past director at P & L has informed me that the company in the early 1970's decided to sell off their three brickworks & then continue as Brick Factors. Tony also tells me the brick above was made at the Coleford Works. The one below found by Jason Alsop in 2023 may have also been made in Coleford. 

Photo by Jason Alsop.

The purchaser of Proctor & Lavender's three works was Jack Clift, chairman & managing director at Proctor & Lavender & the takeover appears to have taken place in late 1973 when Jack Clift stood down as chairman & managing director of Proctor & Lavender, however he did become a non-executive director afterwards at P & L. A September 1974 newspaper article records Sid Mills was Works Director at the Charnwood Forest Brick & Tile Works Ltd. The name of the company had continued the same after Clift had taken over. Then a 5th of December 1974 article records the Charnwood Forest Brick Works & the Forest of Dean Brickworks were both owned by the Charnwood Brick Holdings Group. Jack Clift was Managing Director of this holding company & his son John Clift was a Director. John's cousin Ceri Evans was running the Forest of Dean Works. There was no mention of the Coalville works in this article which was to close in November 1975. 

In March 1990 Jack Clift retired handing over the Charnwood works to his son John, who then became MD of the Charnwood Forest Brick & Tile Works Ltd, while Ceri Evans became MD of the Coleford Brick & Tile Co. operating the Forest of Dean Works. Both these brick companies were still owned by Charnwood Holdings Ltd. with Ceri Evans now elevated to the position of MD.

Leicester Daily Mercury - Tuesday 30 July 1991 

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

This advert records Charnwood was established in 1899, however we know the Gibbs Brothers established this brickworks in 1893 & 1899 was the year the works changed it's named from the Station Works to the Charnwood Works, however certain articles & directories carry on to record it as the Station Brickworks. The brick below may have been made at anytime between 1899 & 1999.

Since the Clift's took ownership of Charnwood in 1973 I have found at least three newspaper articles recording that with sale of bricks being slow to sell, the company had to either make staff redundant or was at the risk of closing altogether, however new brick orders were received at the eleventh hour & the company prospered once again. Other articles also reported on the highs of the company when they won a very large contract to supply bricks to Japan & in them winning prestigious awards from the building industry. With all these highs & possibly more lows John Clift in February 1999 decided to sell the Charnwood Forest works which employed 42 people to Michelmersh Holdings of Romsey, Hampshire. John remarked in the Loughborough Echo that he felt the brickworks will be better off under a larger umbrella were economies of scale can be used. It should cut down on overheads making the firm more efficient & more successful. In the deal Michelmersh would retain the Charnwood Forest name & it's workforce.

It is thought this brick if fairly modern & made by Michelmersh.

Michelmersh are still operating the Charnwood Brickworks in 2023, but I have been reliably informed hand made brick production ceased in December 2022 & the works now concentrates on the production of Hathern Terra Cotta wares & FabSpeed pre-fabricated brick components. As to the Coleford Brick & Tile Works it is now owned by Gryhonn Concrete Products of South Wales.