Belper, Brassington, Loscoe, Wirksworth & Whatstandwell Brickworks

Belper

W. Brown

W. Brown of Becksick Lane in Belper is listed in Kelly's 1855 edition. Becksick Lane is not on maps today, but I have found Becksitch Lane & it could have been a misspelling of Becksitch when Becksick was entered in the directory.
The reverse of this brick is very lightly stamped, but you can just make out the 1st E, the L & part of the R of Belper. 

For the location of W. Brown's 1855 brick yard, please see 1878 map in the Park Foundry entry & I have coloured this yard dark purple next to Smedley's Eagle Iron Foundry (light purple). A web article states that the Smedley Brothers had purchased a brickworks on Becksitch Lane in 1855 & then built the Eagle Foundry next to it in 1856, hence me coming to the conclusion that this was W. Brown's yard & I write about the Smedley Brothers after the Robinson entry.  

Edward Robinson

Photos by Ian Brownson.

Edward Robinson was a Builder & Contractor from the 1830's to the 1860's in Belper living on Campbell Street. There are no trade directory entries for Edward Robinson to identify the location of his brickworks, but with there being a Brick Field marked on the 1878 OS map shown in the Park Foundry entry which I have coloured blue on Becksitch Lane, I am thinking this was were Edward Robinson made his bricks around 1860 before the Smedley Brothers took over this site for their new Park Foundry, then at a later date established a second brickworks. Their first being on the other side of their foundry.

Park Foundry Co.

© Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1878.

I first start with some early history of the Park Foundry Co. which had been started by the Smedley Brothers, Frederick, Alfred & James in 1856 with the building of their Eagle Iron Foundry (light purple) next to a brickworks (dark purple) on Becksitch Lane which they had purchased in 1855. The brothers produced stationary steam engines, steam boilers, heavy castings, cast iron lamp posts & are well known for making Brighton & Morecambe's seaside piers. With the Brothers taking over this brickworks coloured dark purple on the 1878 map above, I believe that they continued manufacturing bricks for their own & local use, as a web article states that they made bricks from clay which had come from their Boiler Yard on Becksitch Lane (marked as Iron Foundry & coloured yellow on the map above) & I think that the Brick Field which I have coloured blue was the source of this clay. The Belper example below was more than likely made at this yard possibly between 1860 & 1900.

Photo by MF from the Phil. Sparham Collection.

 © Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1898.

The Brothers had opened a second ironworks, the Park Foundry (coloured yellow on both the 1878 & 1898 maps) on New Road, Belper in 1858 & by 1898 a new brickworks had been established next to Park Foundry to replace the Eagle Foundry brickworks. The 1898 map also shows that the company had established a second brickworks (coloured blue) on the land which the 1878 map shows just as a Brick Field. This blue coloured brickworks is then marked as disused on the 1913 map. 

The Park Foundry Company are listed as brickmakers in Kelly's 1899 & 1900 editions & below are two examples of the bricks made at the Park Foundry works. 

Park Foundry Brick Co. 

Photo by Frank Lawson.

This one has the letters reversed, a mistake made by the person who made the mould plate.

Photo by Phil Burgoyne.

It is unknown if this PFB brick above stands for Park Foundry Brick or Park Foundry, Belper. The second option is my 1st choice. The 1938 map still shows the buildings & claypit of the yellow coloured brickworks, but not named as such, so my only conclusion is that brick production had ceased around 1938.

The Park Foundry Co. is recorded in 1949 as being part of the Radiation Company of Birmingham making the Siesta stove at Belper & trading under the Parkray name. 

Loscoe

J. Milward

O. Smedley

H. Gaunt

The Loscoe Brickworks on Heanor Road was near to Loscoe Colliery, with bricks being produced there between 1864 & 1976. The location of the works is shown on this map dated 1900.

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

The Loscoe Colliery was sunk in 1830's by Goodwin & Griffin. Then in 1840 it was taken over by E.D. Whittingham & then in 1856 by the Butterley Co. with the pit closing in 1933.
It appears that Loscoe brickworks operated as a separate concern, but may have used the clay shale from the mine. 
The brickworks had been run by three families, Milward's, Smedley's & Gaunt's by the time it closed in 1976.
My first Kelly's trade directory is for J. Milward in 1864, whether this was the year when the yard first opened I do not know, but the Milward's are then listed at Loscoe in Kelly's 1876 & 1887 editions with Jacob Milward as brickmaker.

Owen Smedley is the next recorded as brickmaker at Loscoe in Kelly's 1891 edition through to the 1925 edition, with the addition of a second works at Greenwich, Ripley in the 1908 to 1912 editions. I have yet to find a brick made by Owen Smedley at Loscoe or Greenwich, however I have found one made by Owen at his earlier Duffield works as per Kelly's 1881 edition & this brick can be seen in this post.

https://eastmidlandsnamedbricks.blogspot.com/2016/08/derby-brickworks-part-2.html

Then Harry Gaunt then takes over the works & is listed as brickmaker in Kelly's 1928 edition. Trade directory listings continue in Harry's name until the last one available in 1941. Harry died in June 1956. His works was then taken over by the Robinson Brick Co. in Sheffield. Also found Harry Gaunt owned two more brickworks in Chesterfield & Alfreton. The Alfreton Works situated just off Mansfield Road & next to Alfreton Colliery is listed in the 1943 Ministry of War list of brickworks as being operated by Harry Gaunt. The Alfreton works closed in 1958 under Robinsons. I have not been able to track down the Chesterfield works. 

Photo by Mick Farmer.

Copyright © North East Midland Photographic Record. All rights reserved & reproduced with the permission of Picture the Past.

http://www.picturethepast.org.uk/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;DMAG000819&pos=3&action=zoom&id=24653

Round coal fired kiln at Loscoe in September 1974.

Copyright © North East Midland Photographic Record. All rights reserved & reproduced with the permission of Picture the Past.

http://www.picturethepast.org.uk/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;DMAG000820&pos=2&action=zoom&id=24654

Picture showing the inclined lift from the clay pit & a round kiln on the right in September 1974.

From my findings the Loscoe brickworks closed in 1976 whether it was still owned at this date by Robinsons is unknown. After the brick yard had closed, the clay pit was filled in & is now an open space. Bungalows & houses were built at the end of the former clay pit & where the brickworks buildings had stood there is now a builders merchant's yard. Then on the 24th of March 1986 with the build up of methane gas, a bungalow on Clarke Avenue was totally destroyed, fortunately without loss of life, but the three occupants were badly injured. Two other properties were affected by the explosion & were unfit to live in. Actions were then taken to vent the gas safely.

Wirksworth

Buckley & Co.

Front & Reverse of Buckley & Co. Steeple House from the Phil. Sparham Collection.

William Buckley, brickmaker of Steeple Grange, near Wirksworth, Derbys. is recorded in Drake's Trade Directory for 1862 & then in White's 1870 Trade Directory, Mrs Buckley is listed as brickmaker at Steeple Grange.  Steeple House also known as Steeple Grange House was were they lived.

I have sent these 2 photos to the Wirksworth website, which has since found more details about William & they can be read at this link.  http://www.wirksworth.org.uk/X650.htm

 © Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1879.

Although marked as the Blackrock Brick & Tile Works on the 1879 map above, this is the location for William Buckley's yard as recorded in 1862 & 1870. I have also coloured Steeple House green to show it's location in Steeple Grange & it's proximity to his works.

W. Hunt

Photographed at Derby Silk Mill Museum.  

All I have found for W. Hunt is that he is listed in Kelly's 1855 edition at Bolehill, Wirksworth.

Whatstandwell

M. Shaw

Wigwell Brick Co.

Photographed at Derby Silk Mill Museum.

Mathew Shaw is listed as brickmaker in Kelly’s 1887 & 1891 editions at The Wigwell Brickworks, Whatstandwell, Derby & with him residing at Carr Cottages. Then in Kelly’s 1895 edition the entry is The Wigwell Brick & Tile Co. Limited, Whatstandwell, Matlock Bath with William C. Shaw as manager.

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

1900 map showing location of The Wigwell Brick & Tile Works, but marked as disused. So it look likes this works was only in production for around ten years.

Photo added 14.1.17. After a tip off by a fellow collector I collected this W.B. Co. brick from a field in Codnor Gate, Derbyshire & I think it was made by the Wigwell Brick Co. with it being found not to far from where it was made in Whatstandwell.

In March 2023 Richard Bull sent me this image of a W. B. Co. brick made of fireclay, so a quick search in old newspaper has revealed that in 1893 the Wigwell Brick Co. were advertising they could supply all kinds of bricks, also Silica & Fireclay. Apply William C. Shaw.

Photo by Richard Bull.

Sheffield Daily Telegraph - Thursday 05 October 1893. 

Image © THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Brassington

Swann Ratcliffe & Co.

© Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1923.

Swann Ratcliffe & Co. are listed in the Fire Brick Manufacturers section in these Kelly's editions, 1912, 25, 32, & 41 at Brassington, Wirksworth, Derbys. Cope’s 1937 edition also lists Swann Ratcliffe & Co. (Brassington) Ltd. at Brassington, Wirksworth, Derbys. A 1933 newspaper article records the company made refractory products to the highest standards for the Sheffield steel industry. Mr. C.A. Longbottom is listed as chairman of the company together with directors, Messrs H.R. York of Nantwich & Captain W.E. Longbottom. Bernard Rush was the General Manager. Info from the Brassington website records that the brickworks was employing 16 men in 1962. It goes on to say that the brickworks closed in 1971. 

Photo by MF, courtesy of Newark & Sherwood Museum Services.

Advert from the Sheffield Independent dated 15th of September 1933.

Image © Johnston Press plc./British Library Board.

In 2022 these two Swann bricks turned up. Whether the company operated just as Swann before 1912 is unknown, but it looks highly likely. Ian Suddaby found his in Scotland.

Photo by Chris Graham & reproduced with the permission of the "Old Bricks" website.

Photo by Ian Suddaby.

Kilburn & Horsley Brickworks

Kilburn

I have not been able to find the maker of these first two Kilburn bricks, but I date them around 1880's/90's, so they may have been made by the Small Brothers. 

Found on the web that there were three brickworks in Kilburn, one was close to the colliery & was situated behind the Station Hotel (now a day nursery) on Brickyard Lane. This area is now marked on modern day maps as Rawson Green with the main part of Kilburn village situated to the south-east. I have also found that there was a glass works located near to this brickworks. The second brickworks was in the centre of Kilburn opposite the Hall in 1876 & was owned by Thomas Foulkes. The third was at Lower Kilburn in the 1930's. So I first write about the Small Brothers then Thomas Foulkes & then the yard at Lower Kilburn.

Photo by Frank Lawson.

T. H. & G. Small

Thomas Henry & George Small. Photo by Frank Lawson courtesy of Derby Museum.

The Brickyard Lane brickworks was associated with Kilbourne Colliery, which had been sunk by & on land owned by John Ray of Heanor Hall between 1828 & 1830. I do not have any detailed information about the brickworks other than it was part of the colliery. John Ray then leased the colliery & brickworks to Thomas Henry & George Small in 1854. The Small brothers also held leases on Stanley Kilbourne Colliery & South Normanton Colliery. Following the death of John Ray in 1867 the ownership of the colliery passed to his son the Reverend George Ray, but after finding himself in financial difficulties the Reverend sold the colliery to the Small Brothers in April 1876. By April 1891 the Small brothers were themselves in financial difficulties & the mortgage on the colliery was re-assigned back to the Reverend George Ray. So now back as lease holders of the colliery, the Smalls were found guilty of not pumping water out of part of their mine which had encroached into Drury-Lowes Denby mine & the Kilburn Colliery Company went into Liquidation in 1893. Kilburn Colliery was then sold to Messrs. Sheard, Hurst & Fell in 1896.

Reverse of T.H. & G. Small. Photo by Frank Lawson courtesy of Derby Museum.

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

This 1900 map shows the location of Kilburn Colliery marked in purple & it's brickworks was situated on the other side of the main road which I have marked in yellow at Rawson Green, Kilburn. Kilburn village is just off the bottom of this map.

Abraham Bell

Photo by Alan Bell.

In a June 1911 auction at the Station Hotel, Kilburn, Abraham Bell (senior) of Sycamore House, Kilburn purchased a large piece of land for £575 on Brickyard Lane which included the former brickworks site last worked by the Small Brothers in 1893. The 1900 map shows there was nothing left of the former brickworks. I have coloured Abraham's Sycamore House yellow on the 1938 OS map below.

In February 1912 Abraham Bell retired from his job at Mr. Drury Lowe's Denby Colliery which he had been employed at for more than 30 years, 23 years of which as Underground Manager. Alan Bell then tells me his ancestor Abraham Bell then established a brick & pipe works on the land he had purchased, however I have not been able to establish in what year this was. It was with Alan & his brother Colin Bell asking for information on his ancestor on Facebook that I did some research, but sadly finding very little on Abraham Bell & his brickworks. The 1913 map does not show a brickworks on the site, so I have come to the conclusion that it was not built until after WW1 with there being a shortage of men to operate it. 

I have used the 1938 map below to show the location of the works which was slightly north of the Small's brickworks which this map now shows had houses built upon it. Abraham was followed by his son Abraham junior at the works & sadly that is as much as I have been able to find out about the Bell family, however it appears by March 1937 the Bell family had sold their brick & pipe works to the British Pipe & Fire Clay Co. & Mr. Henry Beswick is recorded as Chairman & Managing Director. Several 1941 newspaper adverts record the company requiring clay fettlers & youths for the works. It appears by May 1942 with the shortage of men due to WW2, the British Pipe & Fire Clay Co. closed their works & were advertising in the Derby Daily Telegraph the freehold to the works which comprised of kilns, buildings for the production of sanitary pipes, bricks & tiles & 7 acres of land which contained valuable deposits of fire-clay. It appears no one purchased the works & today houses are built on the site.  

© Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1938.

Thomas Foulkes

Thomas Foulkes is listed in Kelly's Trade Directory as brickmaker in Kilbourne in 1876. The reverse of this brick is stamped Kilbourne which is the old spelling of Kilburn & with it being only lightly stamped it is hard to read. 

Update 7.4.16. I have now found the location of Thomas's brickworks & it is shown as the old brick yard on the OS map below which was surveyed 1879/80.

 © Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey, surveyed 1879/80.

Photo by Adrian Watson.

This Kilburne brick is only lightly stamped on the other side & is unreadable, hence not being able to establish it's maker. I did originally think it was made by Thomas Foulkes, but Thomas's bricks are stamped Kilbourne.  

Lower Kilburn

© Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of Ordnance Survey 1934.

Barbara & Les Green of Kilburn have told me about a brickworks at Lower Kilburn, the location of which I have marked in yellow on this 1934 map & was just down the road from the brickworks at Horsley. 

Update 6.4.16 - I have now found that this works is shown on a revised 1938 map & it is actually in the next field behind the houses.

© Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1938.

Barbara as a child lived very close to this brickworks & she remembers walking along a footpath which was at the side of a stream that flowed passed the brickworks. Barbara continues to tell me that the brickworks was owned & worked by Bill Landers in 1931. Today his son Vernon (aged around 85) still owns the land where this small brickworks was. 

Photo from Les Green's collection of the kiln at the Lower Kilburn brickworks taken around 1930 & Les thinks Bill Landers could be one of the three men in this photo. 

Many Thanks to Les Green for allowing me to photograph & use the images from his 1934 O.S. map in this post.

Horsley

© Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of Ordnance Survey 1934.

I have not been able to find much information about the brickmakers who operated in Horsley, only trade directory entries for two of them & all of these bricks have Horsley stamped on the reverse. So it is possible that these three brickmakers all made their bricks on the same site as shown on the 1934 map above at the years recorded in Kelly's Trade Directories.

Bardill & Son

Photo by Frank Lawson.

William Bardill is listed in Kelly's 1876 edition at Horsley, however info found for Bardill & Bailey indicates William Bardill had finished brickmaking by January 1874 & it appears Kelly's was not updated with this info. 

Bardill & Bailey

Bardill & Bailey rev. Horsley.

At a date unknown William Bardill went into partnership with Thomas Bailey at Horsley, however this partnership was dissolved by mutual consent on the 12th of January 1874 & all debts due to or owing to the said late firm would be received or paid by William Bardill alone. Thomas Bailey then took over the Horsley works & continued to produce bricks, tiles & earthenware.    

Bailey

Bailey rev. Horsley.

With Thomas Bailey now operating the Horsley works on his own from January 1874 he is first listed in Kelly's 1881 edition. Entries for Thomas Bailey at Horsley then continue to Kelly's 1908 edition.

J. Sherlock

Photo by Frank Lawson.

I do not have any information about J. Sherlock other than the reverse of his bricks are stamped Horsley & one is shown below. Whether he produced his bricks before or after Bardill & Bailey at the same works needs further investigation.

Photo by Frank Lawson.

Update 25.4.16
I have been contacted by Tim Sherlock a descendant of J. Sherlock & Tim has told me that his first name was Joseph & he was born in Kilburn & worked in Horsley. 
From the web I have found an article about Joseph's retirement in 1935 & it covers his early life in Kilburn, first as an apprentice brickmaker to his father. Then at the age of 20 he succeeded his father as foreman of the works before moving to the North West & then to Yorkshire. You can read the companies & the improvements to kiln flues that he invented at this link.
http://conisbroughanddenabyhistory.org.uk/article/retirement-of-mr-joseph-sherlock-conisbrough-a-famous-brick-maker/

As to the exact location of Joseph's works this is still unknown as Tim has told me that he worked in Horsley same as marked on the brick, but the article says he followed his father as foreman of the works at Kilburn. As I have no trade directory entries for Sherlock I can only assume that both Joseph & his father worked for someone else possibly Bardill & Bailey at Horsley & made bricks in their own name. There is only one brickworks marked on old maps in Horsley & I have attributed this works to Bardill & Son then to Thomas Bailey. The alternative is that the Sherlock's worked for the Small Brothers at Kilburn, but why stamp your bricks Horsley ?

If any new information comes to light on any of the above brickmakers, it will be added at a latter date.

Many Thanks to :-
Frank Lawson - photos
Derby Silk Mill Museum
NLS/Ordnance Survey - maps
Barbara & Les Green - info, photos & maps
Tim Sherlock - info