Up to yet, I have found that the Staffordshire Knot symbol has been used by seven different brick companies on their bricks & all are featured in this post together with information found on each company.
Ketley Brick Co.
First of all I wish to thank Richard Davenhill, Chairman of Hinton, Perry & Davenhill, owners of Ketley Brick & Dreadnought Tiles for the information received about his company. This info has filled in many blanks & it's at this point that I tell you that today's Ketley Brick Company at Pensnett was established in 1964 by Hinton, Perry & Davenhill owners of Dreadnought Tiles after taking over the original Ketley Brick Co. which had been established around 1880 in Kingswinford. In this 1964 take over H, P & D (formed in 1902) purchased the Ketley name, the business & it's tax losses, but not it's brickworks site which was sold by it's owner W.E. Skelding (Ted) for the purpose of building houses. Several key employees transferred to H, P & D's Dreadnought brick & tile works on Dreadnought Road, Pensnett & Ted Skelding took up the position of running the new company's sales department, a job he did until the mid 1980's. It was after this 1964 take over that H, P & D traded as Ketley Brick & Dreadnought Tiles. Found on Ancestry that William Edward (Ted) Skelding was the son of William Timmins Skelding, Managing Director of the original Ketley Brick Co. in 1908. William Timmins Skelding's father was Charles Skelding & I write about him & W.T. later.
So the original Ketley Brick Company is first recorded at Kingswinford in Kelly's 1880 edition with William Wood as Manager. In Kelly's 1892 edition the company is now listed as the Ketley Blue Brick Co. Limited at Kingswinford with W.T. Skelding as Manager. In the 1908 edition W.T. Skelding is now listed as Managing Director & the company has been renamed the Ketley Brick Co. Ltd. It's in Kelly's 1932 edition that the Company is first recorded with having a brickworks at Nagersfield, Brierley Hill, as well as at Kingswinford. Both these two works continue to be listed in the last two available editions of Kelly's in 1936 & 1940.
I continue with the history of Ketley's after showing the locations of their two works in Kingswinford (old & new) & their Nagersfield works at Brierley Hill.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1901.
I do not have written evidence on the location of Ketley's first Kingswinford brickworks, but I am assuming that the works which I have coloured yellow on the 1901 OS map above & marked as the Ketley Brick Works was the brickworks owned by the Ketley Brick Company. This brickworks situated next to the canal is also shown on the 1882 OS map, so this works ties in with Ketley's first trade directory entry in 1880. The access road to the works was called Green Lane (coloured green), but was later renamed Ketley Road. The 1882 OS map also shows a house called Ketley House which was situated on Green Lane at it's junction with Dudley Road. So was the brickworks named after this house & was it's owners also called Ketley & they owned the land the brickworks was built on ? It's one to see if there are any land documents recording that a Mr. Ketley of Ketley House owned this land. This Mr. Ketley may have even been the brickworks first owner ? It's one to delve into another day.
The 1914 OS map shows that the Green Lane brickworks was still there, but marked as disused. It may have just been closed for WW1, but with talking to Richard Davenhill, he has told me that the location of Ketley's brickworks in 1964 was on Bromley Lane & I have coloured this works orange on the 1901 OS map above & Bromley Lane dark green. I am assuming that the clay reserves for red & blue bricks at the Green Lane works had nearly been exhausted & with not being able to purchase or lease more land W.T. Skelding then purchased the Bromley Lane brickworks sometime in the 1890's & had transfered all production to the Bromley Lane works by 1914. Searching trade directories has revealed that Richard North is listed as the owner the Bromley Lane brickworks in Kelly's 1868 to 1888 editions, then it's B. Wood in Kelly's 1892 edition at the Bromley brickworks, so this ties in with W.T. Skelding talking over the Bromley Lane works in the 1890's. Richard North also operated the Lays Brickworks at nearby Brockmoor, Brierley Hill between 1868 & 1888.
I slightly digress to tell you that in John Cooksey's book about firebrick manufacturers, he records the Green Lane brickworks as being owned by J.T. Price, now John Thomas Price did not form his own company until 1913, so it appears Price re-opened this Green Lane Works sometime after 1914. Price also owned the nearby Kingswinford Works on Dudley Road (coloured red on the 1901 map above) & the Cricket Field Works & Leys Works both in Brierley Hill. The re-opened Green Lane works may have only been in production for a few years making firebricks from the lower quality clay still found on the Green Lane site as we find by 1930 the brickworks had gone & the site was now Ketley Quarry. It was in 1930 that local brickmaking company, Hinton, Perry & Davenhill who operated the Dreadnought Brick & Tile Works at Pensnett purchased the much extended Ketley Quarry (ref. 1938 OS map) for it's new clay reserves which had been found on land previously not worked. Richard tells me that extracting clay from this quarry has just ceased. Today's map shows that the quarry now extends the length of Ketley Road (Green Lane) from the old brickworks site & canal to Dudley Road. Also the remaining outbuildings of the once Ketley House (previously demolished) on the corner of Ketley Road & Dudley Road have now been demolished.
The 1948 OS map below shows Ketley's Nagersfield Brickworks at Buckpool, Brierley Hill which the company were running by 1932. This works was closed by Ketley in the late 1940's.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1948.
The timeline for the Nagersfield brickworks is as follows :-
1860 Kelly's - Howard Mathews & Co.
1872 Kelly's - William Richardson
1876 to 1880 Kelly's - Charles Skelding senior d.1883, Kelly's 1884 - Charles Skelding (junior), Kelly's 1888 Skelding Brothers (Charles junior & William Timmins Skelding)
1896 Kelly's - J.T. Wood & Brothers
1932 Kelly's - Ketley Brick Co. - Brickworks closed in the late 1940's.
There are still gaps in this timeline, so if any new info comes to light it will be add in due course.
I now fill you in on the Skelding family. Charles Skelding (1823-1883) operated the Nagersfield Brickworks & Colliery between 1876 & 1883. In the 1871 census Charles is recorded as a clay miner & so were his two eldest sons Benjamin (b.1845) & Charles junior (b.1849). After Charles senior's death Charles junior ran the business until his younger brother William Timmins Skelding (1862-1934) joined him & they are listed as the Skelding Brothers in Kelly's 1888 edition. It may have been around 1872 that J.T. Wood took over the Nagersfield Brickworks as we find William Timmins Skelding is the Manager at the Ketley Brick Co. Kingswinford in 1872. William T. then became MD of Ketley's in 1908. William T.'s son William Edward (Ted) Skelding (1910-1994) joined him at Ketley's. After running Ketley's Ted then transfered over to the "New" Ketley Brick Co. in 1964, retiring in the mid 1980's. So the Skelding family were brickmaking for over one hundred years.
Now back to the Ketley Brick Co. & they continued to produced red & Staffordshire blue bricks at their Bromley Lane works until their business, but not their works as previously wrote was purchased in 1964 by local firm Hinton, Perry & Davenhill Ltd., owners of the Dreadnought Brick & Tile Works on Dreadnought Road, Pensnett (works coloured purple & road brown on the 1900 OS map above). Up to Skelding closing his Bromley Lane works he was still operating coal fired down-draft kilns & although H, P & D still had some of these kilns they had built two 18 chamber gas fired kilns. Richard tells me that after the takeover all of Ketley's production was moved to his Dreadnought Works which could easily handle the extra capacity. Also as previously wrote, Hinton, Perry & Davenhill in 1964 added the company name of The Ketley Brick Company to it's portfolio, a company which is still in production today at the Dreadnought Works, Pensnett producing bricks & pavers under the Ketley name & roof tiles under the Dreadnought trade name which was registered in 1907.
The brick below & the one at the top of this entry will more than likely have been made by the original Ketley Brick Co. between 1880 & 1964.
As a footnote Richard Davenhill tells me that before the 1964 take over of Ketley, Hinton, Perry & Davenhill at their Dreadnought Works only produced small batches of bricks & they were not stamped with any name & with the company being primarily roof tile manufacturers their tiles are stamped Dreadnought a trade name which was registered in 1907. Richard continues, if the Dreadnought name is on a straight line they were made before 1950 & if the Dreadnought name is in a circle shape they are post 1950.
More history on Ketley Brick can be read at this link. https://www.ketley-brick.co.uk/ketley_story.html
Barnett & Beddows
Barnett & Beddows as partners operated the Atlas Brickworks (coloured yellow on the OS 1900 map below), which was situated off Stubbers Green Road (lilac) in Aldridge. The duo also operated other brickworks in the Aldridge area in their own own name. John Beddow owned three works; Barnfield, not named as such on the map below, but I am taking it was next to Barnfield Bridge & the buildings of which may be included in his second works, Victoria, his third works was Northywood (all coloured purple). Edward Barnett owned the Springfield Works (coloured green).
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1900.
According to the late Martin Hammond (British Brick Society) the partnership of Barnett & Beddows had been formed in 1890 with the duo first being listed at the Atlas Works in Kelly's 1900 edition. Kelly's 1900 edition reveals that Edward Barnett passed away in 1900 with the listing for his Springfield Works as Edward Barnett (exors of). So it appears that the company name of Barnett & Beddows continues after Edward Barnett's death. It is unknown if another Barnett was involved in the running of the company, John Beddows on the other had two sons who carried on his side of his business after his death. I mention at this point that Edward Barnett is first listed as brickmaking in Kelly's 1872 edition at Aldridge & Walsall Wood & John Beddows is first listed as brickmaking with his father or brother, William at Aldridge & Great Bridge, Tipton in Kelly's 1860 edition.
Barnett & Beddows continue to be listed at the Atlas Works in Kelly's up to it's last edition in 1940. I then found that Barnett & Beddows closed their Atlas Works in 1988 & the site together with Springfield Brickworks site & Coppy Hall Colliery site was later taken over by Wienerberger who built their Sandown Brickworks there in the early 2000's. This Wienerberger works is still going strong today.
As a footnote, the Atlas name still lives on today in the form of it being the name of Ibstock's brickworks which is situated across the road from Wienerberger's works on Stubbers Green Road. (just off the bottom of the map shown above). The Atlas name is also used by Ibstock as a Trade Mark on their bricks.
Sneyd, Burslem
Photo by Ray Martin.
The Sneyd Colliery & Brickworks Co. Nile Street, Stoke had it's origins in 1844 when it was owned by C & J May. In 1876 the company was purchased by William Heath, Arthur Dean & William Anthony Marsden Tellwright. The company became a limited company in 1881 & the manger of the works at this date was Mr. S. Webster Dean. The Sneyd Colliery brickworks manufactured fire-clay bricks, their renowned high quality white & coloured glazed bricks together with red & Staffordshire blue bricks. The Sneyd brick above may have been made in the 1940's with Sneyd Collieries Ltd. being recorded in Durham Mining Museum's listings as producing common bricks in 1940. Only fire-clay bricks & glazed bricks are recorded as being made by the company at other dates in this list. The brickworks closed in 1962.
On the 1899 OS map below I have coloured the brickworks yellow & Nile Street red.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1899.
Kelly's 1880 edition.
Photo by David Kitching.
Photo by David Kitching.
With these two Staffordshire Knot bricks being found in Stoke they are strongly thought to have been made at the Sneyd Colliery Brickworks.
The majority of this information has been taken from an article by David Kitching, custodian of the Penmorfa Brick site. During the later part of the 19th century John Howard Ketley was the principal partner involved in several undertakings in connection with extracting clay, manufacturing tiles & bricks as well as manufacturing coal briquettes from calcining mine dust. It has been established that from 1907 J.H. Ketley operated Knutton Tileries Co. Ltd. from a site alongside the North Staffordshire Railway line which ran from Newcastle to Silverdale (works coloured green on the 1922 OS map below). The company is first listed in Kelly's 1908 edition as Knutton Tileries Co. Ltd., Knutton, Newcastle under Lyme with William A. Benson as manager. In 1917 Knutton Tileries dropped the Co. & were then known as Knutton Tileries Ltd. until the company was wound up on the 2nd of June 1936 after the business had been acquired by G.H. Downing in 1932. So we know that the brick above was made between 1907 & 1917 with it being stamped with "Co.".
I have to note that there is no connection with John Howard Ketley & the Ketley Brick Co. at Kingswinford.
Knutton Tileries Co.
The majority of this information has been taken from an article by David Kitching, custodian of the Penmorfa Brick site. During the later part of the 19th century John Howard Ketley was the principal partner involved in several undertakings in connection with extracting clay, manufacturing tiles & bricks as well as manufacturing coal briquettes from calcining mine dust. It has been established that from 1907 J.H. Ketley operated Knutton Tileries Co. Ltd. from a site alongside the North Staffordshire Railway line which ran from Newcastle to Silverdale (works coloured green on the 1922 OS map below). The company is first listed in Kelly's 1908 edition as Knutton Tileries Co. Ltd., Knutton, Newcastle under Lyme with William A. Benson as manager. In 1917 Knutton Tileries dropped the Co. & were then known as Knutton Tileries Ltd. until the company was wound up on the 2nd of June 1936 after the business had been acquired by G.H. Downing in 1932. So we know that the brick above was made between 1907 & 1917 with it being stamped with "Co.".
I have to note that there is no connection with John Howard Ketley & the Ketley Brick Co. at Kingswinford.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1922.
The entrance road to the works which I have coloured green is today Brock Way & the road shown bordering the northern edge of the works no longer exists.
Knutton Tileries in 1932.
Wood & Ivery
The Albion Brickworks at Greets Green, West Bromwich is recorded as being owned by George Wood in Kelly's 1868 & 1872 editions. Situated on Albion Road, I have coloured this works yellow & Albion Road red on the 1902 OS map below. The works had it's own wharf on the Birmingham Canal. This map also shows that the Albion brickworks was situated adjacent to Joseph Hamblet's renowned blue brick works.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1902.
George Wood is then joined by J.W. Ivery at the Albion Brickworks & this partnership is first listed in Kellys 1872 edition. Hoping that I have found the correct J.W. Ivery on Family Search website, John William Ivery was the son of John Robert & Caroline Henrietta Ivery & he was christened on the 23rd of January 1853 in Old Swinford, Worcs.
From the 1876 advert for the Albion Brick & Tile Works shown below, it states underneath the Wood & Ivery Company heading, Late George Wood. So after George’s death the Albion Works continued to operate under the Wood & Ivery company name.
My next find on the web is an index page to a Prospectus for Wood & Ivery dated 19th of August 1876 in which it records that the company owned two works, the Albion Works, West Bromwich & one on the Radnall Fields Estate in Oldbury. I have coloured W & I's Radnall Fields works green on the 1902 OS map of Oldbury below. The 1914 OS map however names the Radnall Fields brickworks as Radnor Field Brick Works.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1902.
Kelly's 1880 Trade Directory.
With this Kelly's 1880 entry recording J.W. Ivery as General Manager, fellow brick collector Ray Martin spotted this W & I Staffordshire Knot coping brick in Sutton Coldfield. I have also seen this stamp mark on an extremely large coping brick in a reclamation yard, but the imprint was not as good as this one. Many thanks, Ray.
Photo by Ray Martin.
Photo by Ray Martin.
In the 1890's Wood & Ivery, produced between 200,000 and 300,000 blue bricks a week at it's Albion Brickworks (British History Online) & in 1894 or 1895 the BBS Journal records that Wood & Ivery had received an order for 10 million bricks from the Great Central Railway. So the 1890's appears to have been a boom time for Wood & Ivery as the Company won many gold medals for their bricks at many trade shows around the world during this decade.
The entry in Kelly’s 1904 edition is the last listing for Wood & Ivery at the Albion Works, but the Radnall Fields Works is still listed in Kelly's 1908 edition, so I am taking it that Wood & Ivery first closed the Albion Works & the Radnall Fields Works had closed by 1912 as there are no entries in Kelly's 1912 edition for Wood & Ivery. However the Radnall Fields Works is still shown operational on the 1914 & 1938 maps, but who owned it at these dates is unknown. Also the 1938 map only shows the remains of the clay pit at the Radnall Brick Works site which was to the south of the Radnall Fields Works (see 1902 above).
I end this entry with two more examples of Wood & Ivery's Staffordshire Knot bricks.
Photo by Ray Martin.
Hathern Brick Co.
The Hathern Station Brick and Terra Cotta Company near Loughborough, Leics. was established in 1874 by George Hodson & James F. Hodson. The first trade directory listing for the company appears in Kelly's 1876 edition. The brickworks was actually situated next to Hathern Railway Station on the edge of Sutton Bonnington village. The business flourished & 'Hathernware' & glazed faience wares were exported worldwide during the first three decades of the twentieth century with many cinemas being faced and decorated with the products from this works. Although the company survived into the 1970's when restoration projects began to provide much needed business, a takeover by Ibstock finally led to closure of the works in summer 2004. The Hathern name is now owned by Michelmersh Brick Holdings PLC & the company's terra cotta & faience wares are made at their Charnwood works in Shepshed.
December 1907 advert.
Hathern also produced blue bricks at their Cliff Brickworks in Kingsbury near Tamworth, Staffs. which was operational between 1882 & 1969. Today this former Cliff Brickworks site is the clay pit to Wienerberger's massive blue brick works which was built on the former Whateley Colliery & Brickworks site. I have coloured the Cliff Brickworks green & it's access road red on the 1901 OS map below.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1902.
The Cliff Brickworks in 1928.
D. Parson & Sons
Many Thanks to David Kitching for some of the info contained within this entry.
D. Parson & Sons
Not been able to find much about brickmakers David Parsons & Sons other than the company is listed in Kelly's 1896 to 1924 editions as owning Stour Colliery & Brickworks situated in Cradley Heath & that David Parsons had purchased Stour Colliery from Corngreaves Iron Works, which was run by the Hingley family. From bricks found Parsons produced red house bricks & Staffordshire blue bricks.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1938.
I have coloured Parson's brickworks yellow & his colliery green on this 1938 OS map, but who owned them at this 1938 date is not known as the last trade directory entry for Parsons is 1924. The road which I have coloured red & went to the brickworks is today's access road to the Lodge Forge Industrial Estate, however the site of the brickworks is now part of the Portersfield Trading Estate & has industrial units built upon it.
As a footnote I have found entries in Kelly's 1876 to 1892 editions for brickmakers Parsons & Cooper at Cradley Heath, whether there is any connection to David Parsons or where their brickworks was in Cradley Heath, I do not know.
I wish to thank the following people for their help, info, maps, adverts & photos.
Richard Davenhill
David Kitching
Ray Martin
National Library of Scotland/Ordnance Survey
Graces Guide
Britain from Above
