James Oakes, Pipe & Brickworks, Jacksdale

I have covered Riddings bricks in my Riddings Wall post, but after finding different Ridings bricks from different periods, I decided to show these different designs & expand the history of the company started by James Oakes, born 1788. The company continued with many changes under the Oakes family until 1972, when the pipe & brickworks were purchased by Hepworth, which then closed in 1987. As there were a number of James in the Oakes family, please see the family tree at the end of this post.

We first find James Oakes (born 1788) was working for Thomas Saxelbye, Richard Forrester, Nathaniel Edwards, all of Derby & William Whylde of Southwell & these gentlemen were all partners in Thos. Saxelby & Co. Ironfounders at the Derwent Foundry in Derby, who in 1802 established the Alfreton Iron Works in Riddings. The name of Alfreton was used rather than Riddings with the town of Alfreton being known more nationally. The Alfreton Ironworks was situated at Pye Bridge next to the Cromford Canal & lay within the 300 acre Riddings Estate, Somercotes belonging to Lancelot & Christopher Rolleston. In 1804 Joshua Lomas replaced William Whylde on the board, but left the partnership the following year. At the beginning of 1805 the board took the decision to transfer all of Saxelbye & Co. iron production from it's Derwent Foundry in Derby to their Alfreton Works & George Mushet was appointed manager.  In 1808 the company purchased the Riddings Estate at auction which included Riddings House from the Rolleston family. 1808 sees David Mushet leave the company, selling his shares to James Oakes, who is then appointed manager of the Works. In that same year Thomas Saxelbye also sells his shares to James. James then becomes a full partner in Saxelbye & Co. in 1810.  

1817 sees James purchasing the whole company & estates at auction. He also purchased Richard Forrester's shares to become the sole owner of the Riddings Ironworks. James then proceeds to expand his company in opening several collieries.

 © Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1877.    

James then moved his family to Riddings House (coloured green) which came with the purchase of the Alfreton Iron Works. The house & pleasure grounds were set in 80 acres of land in Riddings, Derbyshire, which then became the family home for future generations. James Oakes passed away in 1845. 

In 1846 a brickworks was built next to the Ironworks & is coloured yellow on the map above. This brickworks is no longer shown on the 1899 OS map & new buildings now occupy the site. I then found a new brickworks had been established at Selston Colliery which was sunk in 1874 by James Oakes. I have therefore come to the conclusion that the brickworks at Alfreton Works closed in the 1880's or early 1890's & brick production was moved to the Selston Colliery yard. Today recycling companies, scrap metal yards & a variety of other industries occupy this site now called the Pye Bridge Industrial Estate.

In 1847 James Oakes (born 1816) noticed a black oily substance coming from the walls of his coal mine, which with the help of his brother-in-law, Lyon Playfair who was a chemist, sent a sample to his friend James Young for testing. Then Playfair with the assistance of Edward Meldrum set up a refinery next to James pit to refine the crude oil into paraffin for lamps, yielding 300 gallons per day. Thus creating the World's 1st oil refinery. This only lasted two years as the crude oil dried up.

As wrote James Oakes sank Selston Colliery in 1874 at nearby Pye Hill which is just over the Derbyshire border in Nottinghamshire & the 1880 OS map below shows the associated brick yard, which I have coloured purple. Riddings House & The Alfreton Ironworks are just to the left of this map.

© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1880.    

We then find by 1900 a larger brick & pipeworks had been built next to Selston Colliery which had now been renamed Pye Hill No. 2 Colliery & I have coloured this larger Pye Hill brickworks purple on the 1913 OS below. It's at a later date that Pye Hill Colliery together with it's brick & pipe works fall within the boundaries of Jacksdale village, Notts. All of the Company's bricks made at this larger works continue to be stamped Riddings. 

 © Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1913.   

We find later members of the Oakes family expanded the company with a joint venture with the Butterley Company in forming the Riddings & District Gas Co. in 1888. By 1914 the company also owned sand & iron ore quarries, manufactured gas & water pipes, cylinders, did specialist work for power stations & produced tar macadam for roads. In 1920 Stanton Iron Works Co. purchased the company's foundries & ironstone works, leaving the coal & clay works to continue under the Oakes Family. In 1947 with the pits being nationalised, the clay works changed its name to Oanco. The company was then purchased by Hepworth Ceramics in 1972. The pipe & brickworks finally closed in 1987. Today green fields with newly planted trees now cover the site of James's pipe & brickworks in Jacksdale & only finding his Riddings bricks reminds us of his rich industrial past & this blog of course !

 Photo supplied by Martyn Taylor-Cockayne

View of one of the round kilns & pipe yard at Pye Hill.

  Photo supplied by Martyn Taylor-Cockayne

Workers loading or unloading the rectangular kiln at Pye Hill.

Photo from the Frank Lawson collection 

Photo supplied by Martyn Taylor-Cockayne

Front cover of Oakes catalogue around 1903/4.

  Photo supplied by Martyn Taylor-Cockayne

Please note the truck has the address of Jacksdale, Notts. on it's door, so we know the brickworks was classed as being in Jackdale by 1937.

View of the pipe & brickworks from the south east in 1946.

 View of the pipe & brickworks from the north west in 1946.

This is probably the newest brick made of the ones shown.

A variation found in Huthwaite.

I acquired this wall coping brick in August 2021. 

 © Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of Ordnance Survey 1959.            Image supplied by Martyn Taylor-Cockayne.

1959 map showing the pipe & brickworks, a rectangular brick kiln is marked next to the railway line & it maybe the one in the photo shown above being loaded/unloaded by the men. This map also shows the works had many down-draft round kilns. 

In March 2018 Will Moss found me this Riddings "Blue" brick in Brinsley & it came from the footings of a demolished building. I say blue brick, but it's not a true blue brick made with Etruria marl clay as found in the West Midlands because where this brick is chipped you can see the red clay underneath & this bluish effect is only on the surface. These blue bricks would have been made with local clay & fired at a higher temperature to achieve this bluish effect. The weight of this brick is also heavier that it's red counterpart & may well have been suitable for the underground footings of buildings & been impermeable to water. Will also found a Eastwood blue brick on the same piece of land & this brick also shows where it is chipped that it is red under the surface. Other local bluish bricks that I have found are by Sherwood Colliery, Butterley Brick Co. Kirkby, Shipley & Brinsley. Needless to say that these East Midlands "Blues" did not match their West Midlands counterparts for quality & therefore did not capture a share of the blue brick market.

I have found on the web three possible entries for James & his descendants, as the information does not quite add up, it may not be accurate. Fortunately today we are more accurate with our information.

James Oakes' Family Tree 

James Oakes married Sarah Haden 19 May 1814 at the Church of Saint Michael, Derby.

James & Sarah's children.

Sarah Anne christened 3-5-1815 in Alfreton

James junior christened 6-4-1816 in Alfreton

Mary christened 3-3-1818 in Alfreton

Richard Haden christened 29-11-1819 in Alfreton

Margaret christened 23-8-1821 in Alfreton

Charles Henry christened 7-1-1826 in Alfreton

1841 Census for Alfreton

Living at Riddings House - James 50, wife Sarah 50,

Children - Sarah 25, James 25, Thomas 20, 

Margaret 15 & 6 servants.

The ages of the children match up, but is Richard now known  as Thomas ?

In this next entry from Kelly's Trade Directory 1891, Richard Haden Oakes / Thomas Oakes is now Thomas Haden Oakes esq. J.P., Lord of the Manor & living at Riddings House.

Charles Henry & James jnr. Oakes living at Holly Hurst.

Charles Henry Oakes together with John Wales Laverack are managers at Riddings Colliery & Robert Knowles is the manager at the Iron Works.

An accurate family tree supplied by Martyn Taylor-Cockayne.

James's descendants no longer live at Ridding House, which is now a nursing home.

Many Thanks to Martyn Taylor-Cockayne for supplying me with photos, maps & information of James's Iron & Brickworks.

Jacksdale's history past & present can be read on Martyn's website.

http://www.jacksdale.org.uk/about-us 

Riddings Wall

A fellow brick collector in Ironville, told me about this wall on West Street, Riddings, Derbys. After asking the owner for permission to take photos, here are the results, with info. The wall is the house's boundary wall to the road, about 4 houses down West Street, so it very easy to find, but parking the car you have to go much further down the street because of yellow lines. They are nearly all local bricks & was constructed by the previous owner of the property.

Riddings bricks where made in Jacksdale, Notts, by James Oakes & Co. (Riddings Collieries) Ltd. He owned several collieries, a very large iron works, situated next to the Cromford Canal and on another site next to Pye Hill Colliery, he manufactured clay pipes and bricks. The Oakes family lived at nearby Riddings House, an 80 acre estate in Riddings, Derbyshire. Nothing is left to see, on either site, to remind us of these glory days of manufacturing, only his bricks!

The Alfreton Brick Company were in operation by 1895 & their brickworks was situated off Alma Street on land which today is partly industrial and part Alfreton Town's football ground. Sometime between 1916 & Kelly's 1922 edition when they are listed as the Alfreton Brick and Tile Co. Ltd., works; Mansfield Road, Alfreton, the company had relocated to James Lawrence's works on Meadow Lane, just off Mansfield Road in Alfreton. The last trade directory for A. B. & T. Co. is Kelly's 1928 edition.

Edwin Glossop's brickworks at Ambergate had its own railway siding connecting the main line at nearby Bullbridge, to transport his bricks wide & far. Clay for his bricks was transported via tramway from quarries up the hill to the east of his works. The brickworks is last recorded on a map for 1980. Houses are now built where Edwin's brickworks once stood.

Link to photo of works.  

http://www.archive-images.co.uk/index.gallery.php?gid=191&img=16

Charles James Saunders was the owner of Collieries near Chesterfield & produced bricks at Storforth Lane, Hasland between 1887 to 1941 & at Newbold between 1887 to1908. I have a mining reference to him owning a pit near Alfreton called Brockwell in 1937, were he could have made this brick, but I have also found that there is a Brockwell Lane in Chesterfield, so this could be the location for his pit ?

Salterwood pit & brickworks was near Denby, Derbyshire & was owned by the Denby Iron & Coal Company. The pit closed in 1920 & the brickworks remained open until a date unknown (around 1970's/80's) & was owned by the Butterley Brick Company when it closed.

Updated 21.3.15. 

I now believe this brick was made by the Park Foundry Company in Belper, who are listed as brickmakers in Kelly's 1899 edition. It may have only been around 1899 that the company made bricks as it's core business was to be in producing solid-fuel appliances. 

The Park Foundry Co. was founded in 1850 & was registered in 1900. The company is then recorded in 1949 as being part of the Radiation Company making the Siesta stove at Belper.

The company later traded under the Parkray name & was then taken over by Tube Investments, then Hepworth. The Belper stove works closed in 2003.

A report from the London Gazette 1892, states that Solomon Beardsley and William Pounder, brickmakers of Ilkeston, are dissolving their company by mutual consent from the 29th day of January, 1892. All debts due to and owing by the said late firm will be received and paid by the said Solomon Beardsley.—Dated this 29th day of January 1892. 

Also, Solomon Beardsley of St Mary Street, Ilkeston is recorded in Kelly's Trade Directory for 1888 as brickmaker.

T. Slack of Green Hillocks, Ripley, was a brick and tile maker between 1860 and 1864.

John Bakewell, brickmaker of Birchwood, Somercotes, is first recorded in  Whites 1857 Directory followed by Kelly's 1864 edition through to the 1900 edition. It's in Kelly's 1904 edition that it is first recorded as J. Bakewell & Son & then again in 1908. In the 1912 edition the owners of the works are now recorded as Bakewell Bros. with another works at South Normanton near Alfreton. The 1916 edition onwards only records the Somercotes works & 1925 is the last entry for the brothers.

William Henry Slater and Joseph Slater had two brickworks, one on Uttoxeter Old Road, Derby, operating between 1860 and 1887 and in Denby between 1874 and 1941. 

James Lawrence is recorded in the 1911 census as a brickmaker - employer in Alfreton, previously he had been a miner & I have established he owned the Mansfield Road Brickworks (actually on Meadow Lane & next to the colliery) from the mid 1890's to possibly the early 1920's when the Alfreton Brick Company are first listed at this works in Kelly's 1922 edition.

This could have been made by Charles Shelton & Son of Waingroves, Ripley who is recorded in Kelly's Trade Directory for 1891. I have found another one of his bricks stamped with Ripley in the reverse & is very similar.