In this post I cover brickmakers who operated in Bagworth, Desford, Ellistown, Heather, Nailstone,
Heather Colliery Brickworks
Heather Brick & Terra Cotta Co.
Coronet, Heather
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1901.
This entry covers the four companies which operated the Pisca Lane brickworks in Heather, which I have coloured red on the 1901 OS map above.
The 1881 OS map shows Heather Colliery & it's associated brickworks was accessed off Pisca Lane (brickworks coloured red on the 1901 map above - colliery a little further north), but there are no trade directory entries for this brickworks at this date. It is not until 1891 when the colliery & brickworks was re-opened as the New Heather Colliery Co. that this company is listed in the Brick Manufacturers section of Kelly’s 1891 edition with Henry Slater Wooley recorded as proprietor. Henry Wooley lived at Highfield House on Station Road (coloured blue). This house still stands today. I suspect the brick below will have been made by the New Heather Colliery Co.
Photo by Peter Harris.
Heather Colliery closed in 1896 due to flooding & low coal reserves, but we find the brickworks had been sold off before then with Kelly’s 1895 recording the Heather Brick & Terra Cotta Co. proprietor, Henry J. Ford now owned this brickworks.
The Contractors Merchants & Estate Managers Compendium 1901.
This Heather Brick & Terra Cotta Co. entry continues in trade directories until Kelly's 1922 edition when the entry now records Ford had purchased Wains Brick & Terra Cotta Works (coloured yellow) after Wains had closed down. I cover Andrew Wain's works next. Ford continues to run both works up to c1930 with Kellys 1928 edition being the last entry for the Heather Brick & Terra Cotta & Wains Co. (red & yellow works). We next find the Coronet Brick & Terra Cotta Co. in Measham, purchased both these works around 1930. Kelly's 1932 edition is the first directory listing Coronet's Heather works.
Photo by Mike Chapman.
This BCM Heather brick will have been made at the Pisca Lane works when owned by Coronet. The Coronet 1937 advert below records Coronet's three works & that BCM stands for British Commercial Monomarks, a company established in 1925 to provide manufacturers with a London address & mail forwarding services. It was an early form of the Post Code we use today, but companies & individuals back then had to pay for this service. It was with this advert being forwarded to me by Paul & Cynthia that I was able to reveal to the brick fraternity that BCM stood for British Commercial Monomarks & not British Clay/Ceramic Manufacturers as thought for many years without any written evidence turning up for this explanation of the initials. So another thumbs up to me for bring this evidence to the brick fraternity. If you would like to learn more about BCM please visit Mark Cranston's article. It is unknown in which year this Pisca Lane Works closed under Coronet.
The Architects Compendium 1937.
Andrew Wain, Heather
Wain's Ltd.
Coronet, Heather
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1901.
Andrew Wain (b.1843) established his brickworks around 1880 with Kelly’s 1881 to 1891 editions recording him at Mill Lane, Heather (coloured yellow on the 1901 OS map above).
Andrew died in January 1894 & the entries in trade directories for this works are then Andrew Wain "exors of the late” in Kellys 1895, 99 & 1900 editions. Andrew had three young sons, Arthur b.1876, Walter Andrew b.1878 & Thomas Bertram b.1881. Whether Arthur was one of the exors with him being 18 is unknown & I have not been able to find later census for him to see if he took over the running of the company. However the 1901 census for Walter Andrew Wain records him aged 22 & a Brick Manufacturer, so it appears Walter was running the brickworks. The 1911 census records Walter now aged 32 as a retired brick manufacturer & that explains Kelly's 1908 entry for the Mill Lane works with it being operated by Wain's Limited. I am assuming Walter had sold the works to this new Limited Company. Walter's younger brother, Thomas became an Architect & appears not to have been involved with the brickworks.
This is a 2 inch smooth faced paver.
Photo by Carwyn Tywyn.
Photo by George Denny.
I then found in Kelly's 1922 edition that Henry Ford owner of the Heather Brick & Terra Cotta Co. was now operating this Mill Lane works as well & the entry reads Heather Brick, Terra Cotta & Wains Co. Heather. This entry is repeated in Kelly's 1925 edition. Kelly's 1928 entry is the last for Ford's company at this works. Around 1930 Ford sold his two Heather works to the Coronet Brick & Terra Cotta Co. based in Measham. Kelly's 1932 is the first directory listing Coronet at Heather, but it only lists one works, this being the Mill Lane works & now listed as being on Station Road. After checking maps they reveal Mill Lane & Station Road met at the entrance of this brickworks, even today Google Maps record this section of road as Station Road, but factories on this part of the road give their address as Mill Lane. Kelly's 1936 & 1941 editions also only list the Station Road works, but we know from the 1937 Coronet advert shown earlier that Coronet were operating two brickworks in Heather, this one & the one on Pisca Lane. The year Coronet closed this Mill Lane/ Station Road works is unknown.
John French Neal
National Brick Co.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1901.
The first reference found relating to this green coloured brickworks appears in the London Gazette dated 9th of July 1897, in which John French Neal & John Thomas Jacques were dissolving their partnership on the 5th of July 1897 & had operated as Neal & Jacques, Brickmakers, in Heather, Leicestershire. All debts due to & owing by the said company would be received & paid by John F. Neal. It is unknown in which year Neal & Jacques had established their brickworks, but they are not listed in Kelly's 1895 edition & this works is not shown on the 1881 OS map. John French Neal then went on to run this works on his own with Kelly's 1899 & 1900 editions recording John French Neal at 2a, Halford Street, Leicester, offices; works, Heather.
As you can see on the 1900 OS map above this works had road access from Newton Road & footpath access from Mill Lane, both are coloured green. It's not until the 1927 map that it shows this works had road access via Station Terrace (blue dotted line) from Mill Lane. Again I found some anomalies because later company's operating this works give their address of Station Road when it was actually off Mill Lane. I then found in the 1970's after the disused railway line had been removed, a new road was built to access this works, coloured purple. This road is still there today & it will give access to whatever they build on this former brickworks site. As I have digressed I now return to John French Neal & after finding two badly damaged bricks made by Neal I came across this mint example at 4 Oaks Reclamation.
John French Neal b.1860 is listed in the 1901 census as a Brick Manufacturer, aged 41, wife, Clavender (nee Pearson m. 1882) & with one son John P. Neal, aged 18, living at Bardon Hill House, Bardon. The 1901 edition of the Directory of Clayworkers records Neal was making Red hand-pressed bricks, facing bricks, tiles & terra cotta. I next found Bennett's 1901 trade directory records the partnership of Neal & Jacques, Brick Manufacturers in Heather once more & this find is followed by a Derbyshire Records Office reference from the web which reveals that in 1901 Neal's business had been incorporated as Neal & Co. Limited. So from this info it appears Neal & Jacques joined forces again & then started a new company called Neal & Co. This Derbyshire Records Office article then states in 1903 the company changed it's name to the National Brick Company Limited.
I next found three London Gazette Notices which record John French Neal had declared himself bankrupt on the 25th of March 1904 or had a bankruptcy petitioned declared against him on the 24th May 1906. Neal is listed as Brick & Tile Manufacture & a Builders Merchant's Traveller with him having a second home in Kilburn, London. Now I do not know how this affected the National Brick Co. as this notice does not name this company. My only thought's are that Neal himself was declaring himself bankrupt rather than the Company. The notice dated 30th of April 1907 which records Neal had declared himself bankrupt also tells you that he is now deceased, so John died some time between May 1906 & April 1907. I can only assume other directors/shareholders were running the National Brick Co. which may have included John Thomas Jacques as you will next read next was still associated with the company.
Kelly's 1908 edition records The National Brick Co. Heather, Ashby-de-la-Zouch with John T. Jacques as manager. This entry is repeated in Kelly's 1912 & 16 editions.
After WW1 we find Kelly's 1922 & 25 editions now record John T. Jacques as Managing Director of the National Brick Co. Heather. Kelly's 1925 edition also records National were now operating the Hermitage Brickworks in Whitwick as well, previously owned by H.R. Mansfield. The 1932 to 41 directories list both brickworks with the address for the Heather Works is given as Station Road & as previously wrote this works was actually accessed off Mill Lane.
My next find is the 1959 advert below in which it states the Star Brick & Tile Company of Ponthir, Newport, South Wales was an Associated Company. Star was a large concern & owned several brickworks in South Wales. We then find at a date unknown National & Star amalgamated forming the National Star Brick Co.
The next change at the National Star Brick Co. is when Butterley/Hanson Group purchased it in 1971. It appears Butterley continued to operate this new Group in it's own name with the Brickworks of Wales website stating National Star Limited of Newport, South Wales were still operating under this name in 1978. Whether the Heather & Whitwick works were still operating under the National Star name is unknown, but I suspect these two works changed their name to Butterley with them being close to Butterley's headquarters in Ripley, Derbyshire. Butterley's Heather Works closed in 2012 & the site is awaiting to be redeveloped, but it is unknown when the Hermitage Brickworks in Whitwick closed.
Nailstone Colliery
Sunk in 1862 Nailstone Colliery & it's associated brickworks was run by Joseph Joel Ellis in the 1870's up to 1875. Ellis then went on to sink Ellistown Colliery & establish a brickworks there. In 1875 Nailstone Colliery was next leased to Joseph Thornton, but with his death in 1879 the leasehold to the colliery was advertised in the Leicester Journal dated 9th May 1879, with the Auction taking place on the 30th May 1879. A For Sale Notice for the supply of coal in a March 1880 newspaper reveals the new owners of the colliery as the Nailstone Colliery Company. A mining reference records the Nailstone brickworks was still in operation in 1923, but another reference records the brickworks & it's kilns were derelict by 1930.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1900.
Nailstone Colliery was a good distance from the village in an area called Nailstone Wiggs & today in 2025 with the site completely levelled an extremely large distribution warehouse is being built for Aldi. There are also plans to establish a nature reserve on the site.
Bagworth Brick Co.
The Bagworth Brick Co. Ltd was established in 1899 & this info comes from a notice by the company requiring a Manager to oversee the erection of their new brickworks & to then take charge of the running of it which appeared in the 30th of June 1899 edition of the Stamford Journal. The advert goes on to say, must have good experience in the workings of a continuous kiln & with good knowledge of machinery. Apply by letter with references & stating salary required to the Bagworth Brick Co, Ltd, 8, Imperial Buildings, Leicester.
Wright's 1903 edition is the first directory recording the Bagworth Brick Co. A 1910 newspaper article records Mr. Burkett was the brickworks manager & the works was producing 20,000 bricks per day. Trade directories continue record the Bagworth Brick Co. up to Kelly's 1922 edition, however the London Gazette reveals the Bagworth Brick Co. Ltd was struck off the Joint Stocks Register on the 30th of March 1920, therefore the company was dissolved from that date with it not being officially wound up, therefore the 1922 directory entry is incorrect. I then found the brickworks in Kelly's 1925 to 1941 editions was now being run by the New Bagworth Coal Co., Whether the Bagworth Brick Co. had any connection to Bagworth Colliery during it's existence is unknown with them being on two separate sites as shown on the 1901 map below.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1900.
Ellistown
Photo by Frank Lawson.
I first note Joseph Joel Ellis born 1807, residing in London in 1871 is also referred to as Colonel J.J. Ellis in newspaper articles. So from these newspaper articles I found Joseph Joel Ellis leaseholder & operator of Nailstone Colliery had purchased Ibstock Lodge Farm at auction which took place on the 29th of April 1873. Plans were then implemented to sink a new colliery & build a brick & pipe works on the land. An 8th of May article reveals Ellis had paid £32,081 for the farm, however the article goes on to say that when the farm was put up for auction in 1869, the reserve of £8,800 was not met & an offer of £7,000 was declined. The sale of the farm had resulted with the death of it's owner, Mr. Kenny. With finding more auctions for the sale of farm land in the area all boasting rich seams of coal & other minerals, I have come to the conclusion that's why Ellis had to pay more to get the farm which cover 150 acres in 1873. A further adjoining 650 acres of land was also purchased by Ellis.
The Leicester Daily Post dated 3rd of July 1873 reports on the Grand Ceremony which took place at the farm on the 2nd of July 1873 & was attended by most of the Ellis family, several dignitaries & many locals from the surrounding area. Then at 2pm Mrs. Marguerite Ellis used a very ornate silver spade to turned the first sod for the sinking of the new colliery. Mr. Ellis then made a speech in which he said cottages would be built for his workers same as he had provided for his workers at Nailstone. A place of worship would also be built for the spiritual needs of his workers. Ellis then announced the colliery & cottages would be known as Ellistown & this news was met with loud applause. Originally Ellis was to name his new colliery & cottages Ellistone, but it appears he changed his mind when making his speech. Eight houses were built next to the colliery for senior staff & two rows of cottages called Ellistown Terrace & West Ellistown Terrace were built for the miners & brickyard workers on the main road to the south of colliery. Sadly neither the cottages or the Methodist Church no longer exist. After the speeches & the blessing of the site by Rev. Dr. Watts, the Ellis family & their guests retired to a specially erected marquee to enjoy a sumptuous banquet provided by Mrs. Marsden of the Dog & Gun in Leicester. After the meal entertainment of singing & dancing took place until 6pm. Mr & Mrs Ellis & family then boarded their special train to much applause taking them to Leicester, were they took the London train. The article this information came from states the sinking of the colliery was to take place immediately. However the sinking to the first coal took three years & this was first down to the surface rainwater from the fields which kept filling up the shafts & had to be constantly pumped out, then they hit hard rock which at first they could not break through until dynamite was used to clear a way through. The water which was pumped out was not wasted as it was sold & piped to the local water board to be cleaned & used as drinking water.
The colliery was fully operational bring coal to the surface in April 1877 & Mr. Thomas Millership is recorded as the manager of Ellistown Colliery. Thomas had previously been the manager of Mr. Ellis' Nailstone Colliery. A newspaper notice records Mr. J.J. Ellis had given up the lease to Nailstone Colliery on the 21st of August 1876 & would no longer be responsible for any debt or liability at the said colliery which was now back in the hands of the Mortgagee & unpaid Vendor.
When they were digging the shafts at Ellistown they came across a very thick lay of fire-clay 1000 feet down from the surface & you will soon read this fire-clay was put to good use when the brickworks was up & running in 1879. The 1881 OS map below shows two brickworks had been established with the left works having a tramway into the clay pit from which red house bricks were made. The second works on the right produced refractory products, fire bricks & earthenware pipes & fittings made from the fire clay found in the mine.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1881.
Joseph Joel Ellis died on the 10th of July 1885 aged 78 & his colliery, brickworks & farm estate was then managed by Trustees under orders of the Court of Chancery until 1936. It appears three of his sons were Trustees, these were Isidore Lewis Ellis b.1850, Walter L.J. Ellis b.1852 & George H. Ellis b.1854 & all three brothers were involved in the running of the colliery & brickworks right from the start. Joseph had three more sons & two daughters, but they are not mentioned in newspaper articles relating to the colliery or brickworks, so they may not have been involved in the running of the business.
For many years myself & fellow brick collectors had searched high & low to find any evidence to what the container / beaker symbol represented which Ellistown used as their Trade Mark on their bricks. No one appeared to have found a satisfactory answer & it was with me writing this entry that I have found the answer in a newspaper article. I had originally thought the container was a coal bucket, but why should it have a pouring spout. My next thought was a milk ladle with Ellis continuing to run the farm, but it had no handle. I was miles away from the answer.
An article in the American Register dated 19th of July 1894 reporting on the exhibits at the International Health Exhibition held in London states Colonel J.J. Ellis of Ellistown was displaying a splendid selection of sanitary stoneware & fire clay products. The fire-bricks are made from clay taken from a bed 1,000 feet below the surface of the earth (from Ellis's coal mine). The fire clay is largely used in the manufacture of crucibles for the steel-makers in Sheffield. A few examples of the Colonel's fine red bricks made from surface clay on his estate were also on display. Although Joseph Ellis had passed away it appears the company was still operating under his name.
So there you have it, I think I can say for certain the Trade Mark symbol is a Crucible, it certainly looks like one on reflection. The entry in Kelly's 1881 edition reads Ellistown Collieries (fire), J.J. Ellis proprietor, Ellistown, Leicester, so it appears in the early days of this brickworks Ellis was certainly making good use of the abundant fire clay found in his mine. The advert in Kelly's 1891 shown below shows the crucible more clearly than the image on bricks which is less distinctive.
Kelly's 1891 edition.
The entry in Kelly's 1891 edition now reads Ellistown Collieries, Brick, Pipe & Fire Clay Works, Ellistown. This same entry is then repeated in trade directories up to Kelly's 1932. The 1891 census records William Valance was the manager of the sanitary pipe works.
In January 1895 Walter Ellis celebrated 25 years of being involved in the running of Nailstone & Ellistown Collieries. At the Head Offices of Ellistown Colliery Walter was presented with a set of solid silver dessert stands by Mr W. Spencer & they were inscribed, " Presented to Walter L.J. Ellis Esq., by the officials & workmen of the Ellistown collieries, brick & pipe works as a small token of the respect & esteem in which he has always been held by them during the twenty five years control of the collieries & works." Also present at the presentation were Isidore Ellis, brother, Mr. E.D. Spencer & Mr. G.H. Light, general manager plus others.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1900.
The 1900 OS map above shows how much the brickworks had expanded.
Walter Ellis died on the 31st January 1909 aged 58. His obituary records he was a solicitor.
Kelly's 1912 edition.
Isidore Lewis Ellis died on the 15th of May 1930 aged 79.
In 1936 with the Orders of the Court of Chancery on J.J. Ellis' Estate now expired, the colliery & brickworks were separated into two companies & Kelly's 1936 edition now reads Ellistown Brick, Pipe & Fireclay Works & Estates Ltd. Ellistown. In 1938 Mr. Robert Kirton is recorded as the brickworks manager.
In September 1947 the Ellistown Brick, Pipe & Fireclay Works & Estates Ltd. were selling four of it's farms which totalled 371 acres & it appears from my next newspaper job advert find in March 1950 the company was trading as the Elistown Brick & Pipe Works & had dropped the words Fireclay & Estates. A March 1957 job advert now records the company as the Ellistown Brick & Pipe Co. Ltd.
Photo by Mike Chapman.
In November 1960 the Ellistown Brick & Pipe Co. had completed the purchase from the National Coal Board it's Newbold Pipe Works as a going concern for a sum of £130,000. Then in December 1961 Ellistown purchased the whole of the share capital of the Woodville Sanitary Pipe & Fire Brick Manufacturing Co. who were producing similar products as the Ellistown group of companies. In May 1964 Chairman Mr. N.E. Webster announced that Ellistown's new £200,000 tunnel kiln was nearly up to full production & fulfilling orders in their very full order book.
The last reference found to the company operating as the Ellistown Brick & Pipe Co. Ltd appears in a share interim article dated September 1966, then by February 1967 the company was operating as the Ellistown Pipe Co. Ltd. So in the famous 1966 World Cup words of Kenneth Wolstenholme, "They think it's all over, it is now", It was certainly the end of brickmaking by Ellistown at the end 1966.
In April 1968 the Hepworth Iron Co. announced they had purchased four million shares in the Ellistown Pipe Co. & after an agreement with the Ellistown's directors & share holders the company was absorbed into the Hepworth Group, trading as Ellistown Pipes Ltd. The next change came in 1986 when pipe making ceased & Hepworth Building Products then refitted the Ellistown works as a brick works once more, opening it in 1988. An example of one of their bricks is shown next.
In September 1999 the Ellistown brick factory was purchased by Ibstock who continue to this day in making bricks at Ellistown. As of 2025 excluding the break of 22 years when only pipes were made, bricks have been made at Ellistown for 124 years & still counting.
Desford Colliery Brickworks
Desford Brick Co.
Desford
Desford Colliery was sunk in the late 1890's by it's owners the Desford Coal Co. Ltd. & the first reference found to the colliery's associated brickworks is in November 1911 when a clay getter had a narrow escape when a clay wall collapsed upon him burying his legs. Luckily he survived without any broken bones. I have coloured the colliery's brickworks green on the 1930 OS map below. I write later about the new works coloured yellow.
The Desford Coal Company continued to run both the colliery & brickworks (green) until February 1929 when the newly formed Desford Brick Co. Ltd. with a Share Capital of £35,000 in £1 shares acquired the brickworks & it's buildings from the Desford Coal Co. which continued to operate the colliery. The directors of this new brick company were A.M. Lamb, Birkdale; J. Stone, Liverpool; Major E.F. Pilkington, Manchester; Sir Edward Marchant, Colston Bassett Hall, Nottingham & E.E. Bramall, Leicester. The Desford Brick Co. then set about building a new brickworks next to the old & I have coloured this new brickworks yellow on the 1930 map below.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1930.
A September 1938 newspaper article records the death of Ernest Edward Bramall aged 73 who had started Desford Colliery some 40 years earlier & was it's Managing Director. Ernest was also a director of the newly formed Desford Brick Co.
On the 1st of January 1947 Desford Colliery like many more collieries around the country came into the hands of the Government & were to be now run by the National Coal Board. In this change it appears NCB also took over the running of Desford Brick Co's brickworks. No bricks stamped Desford made between 1911 & 1946 have so far not turned up, but examples made by the National Coal Board have.
Photo by David Kitching.
Photo by Darren Haywood.
In 1966 the NCB built a new ultra modern automated factory at Desford called Desford No. 2 Works roughly in the same area as the yellow works & was capable of producing a million bricks per week. This new brickworks cost a million pounds to build, however I then read in January 1970 this new Desford No. 2 Works was to be mothballed within six weeks. This was due to a downturn in the need for bricks in the market & with the works having vast stocks (18 million bricks) which they could not shift. The older Desford No. 1 Works was to remain open due to the fact that it was less expensive to run when a lower amount of bricks were being produced. The article continues to say the No. 1 Works would be too expensive to run on reduced quotas. The majority of the staff were to lose their jobs, but a few manual workers would be kept on to take care of the works so that it could be soon made ready to re-open if the demand for bricks improved. At this date Desford's two works were being run by the Midland Brick Co. a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Coal Board. The reason why the NCB formed this company was to make ready twelve brickworks in the Midland's area ready to be sold to a private buyer. In November 1973 the Butterley Brick Co. / Hanson at a cost of 2.2 million pounds purchased seven of these twelve brickworks with the ultra modern Desford factory being one of them. I have not been able to find out if Desford was still mothballed in 1973, but it was certainly Butterley's flagship works after the take over with it's coal-fired tunnel kiln. In 1988 Butterley - Hanson spent 4 million pounds in building a new kiln, installing new machinery alongside the existing plant.
In 2007 Hanson sold all it's brickworks to Heidelberg Cement of Germany who continued to operate the many works as Hanson Brick. The next change came in 2015 when Hanson Brick was sold to Forterra who continue to run the Desford Works to this day. In 2025 Forterra announced with changes to how they produced bricks, output would increase to 180 million bricks per year with the building of a more efficient tunnel kiln & other innovative production methods, one being using solar panels to produce 16% of the works electricity. The Company's website says these improvements are designed to keep Desford as the largest brick factory in Europe.
It appears after 1973 when Butterley took over & right up to the present day the works bricks have not been stamped with the Desford name, unless anyone knows differently, if so please get in touch. Thanks.
