Renishaw Finds - Revisited

After a tip off from a fellow brick collector, here are the finds of that day. Although Renishaw is in Derbyshire, bricks found were mostly from Yorkshire. The D & S Clarke brick that I found was not very well pressed & hard to read, so I have used one I photographed previously.                

D & S Clarke are recorded at Greasborough Road, Masborough, Rotherham in Kelly's & Whites Trade Directories from 1893 to 1935.

               

Brightside Brick & Tile Co. are recorded in Whites & Kelly's from 1901 to 1908 at Meadow Hall Road, Sheffield. 

George Robinson, Wortley Road, Masbrough near Rotherham is recorded in Kelly's 1893 & White's 1901 editions. Then in Kelly's 1905 to 1919 editions, the works are recorded as G. Robinson (Exors. of), so George had passed away & the company was being run in his name by his Executors. 

This brick was made at Hazel Colliery & Brickworks formally known as Cottam No.2 pit in Barlborough. Hazel Colliery had been reopened together with a brickworks in 1909 by a local consortium. The colliery closed in 1914, but the brickworks continued until 1917 as the Barlborough Brick Co. Ltd. The brickworks is recorded in the 1912 edition of Kelly's Trade Directory as Barlborough & Cottam Brick & Tile Co. Ltd. Barlborough, Chesterfield. I then found from the London Gazette that the company went into liquidation on the 14th March 1912, hence the renaming of the brickworks to Barlborough Brick Co.

Please note the wrong spelling of Cottam, this was very common to find misspellings or letters reversed on bricks at this period of time.

West Melton, nr Rotherham

Parkgate, Rotherham

HBC - Hoyland Brick Co, Barnsley. 

Believed to been made at the Skier Springs brickworks.

Revisited - 11.11.14

Although I had been told that all the bricks had been crushed, I called in while I was in the area, finding that they are still in the process of clearing the site & there were still a few bricks to be found.

The Killamarsh Brick Co. Ltd near Sheffield is recorded in Kelly's  from 1899 to 1912 editions.

EFW - Earl FitzWilliam of Wentworth Woodhouse, owned the Skier Springs brickworks at Hoyland, Barnsley. The works was started in 1877 by James Smith & was always known locally as Smith's Brickworks. The Earl owned large areas of land & many collieries in South Yorkshire & he took over the works in the early 20th century operating it until 1919.

Attercliffe Brick Co. Ltd. is recorded in White's & Kelly's trade directories at Copster Road, Attercliffe in 1901, then at Darnall Road, Sheffield in 1905 & 1908 editions.

S.B.Co. Sheffield Brick Co. is recorded in Kelly's & White's from 1893 to 1974 editions with works at Rutland Road, Aizlewood Road & Botham Street, Sheffield. From the web I have found the company had works at Wadsley Bridge & the Wincobank Brickworks on Shiregreen Lane. 
The Rutland Road brickworks was where the company had it's Head Office & is recorded to be the company's last operational brickworks in 1970. 

The works at Wincobank is recorded as being owned in 1901 by Frank Nelson, builder & brick manufacturer at the Higher Wincobank Brick Works in the parish of Ecclesfield, before S.B. Co. took over the site & his bricks could be the ones stamped Winco.

The works at Wadsley Bridge on Halifax Road had been owned by Mrs. Elizabeth Birley in 1916 who had taken over the site from Charles Keyworth, who operated the New Patent Plastic Brick Co. there in the 1890's.

 1950's Adverts.

Photograph of a fully loaded S.B.Co. lorry can be seen Here.

W. S. Ironi was the trade mark belonging to The Woodside Brick Company on Chesterfield Road in Sheffield. The company has produced different frog designs in the their bricks stamped either Woodside or variations of the brick above with numbers, which up to No. 7 have been found. The works are recorded in Kelly's & White's from 1901 to 1968 editions & a photograph of the works dated 1965 can be seen Here.
A Homebase store is now built on this site.

Recorded in Kelly's from 1919 to 1968 editions, Coupe Brothers works was on Darnall Road in Sheffield. This may have been on the same site on Darnall Road operated by the Attercliffe Brick Company recorded in 1905 & 1908.

William Wright, Kettle Bridge Brick Works, Ribston Road, Attercliffe, Sheffield. White's T.D. 1908.

Edward Reddish is recorded in White's Trade Directory in 1901 at Beighton in Sheffield.

George Carr, brickmaker on Lovetot Road, Attercliffe, Sheffield is recorded in Kelly's from 1879 to 1908 editions.

Crosby - Bricks & Statues

While on holiday in North Wales this year, I visited David of Penmorfa fame. We had pre-arranged a visit to Crosby to look for bricks on the beach, the tide is forever turning new ones over. They had been dumped there as landfill after the Second World War clearance of bomb rubble from Liverpool. Also on the beach are the Antony Gormley statues, what a strange sight, they are so real from a distance when the water is around them.
So here are are a few photos of that day.

As Seen on TV

Last November I went to Ripley Reclaim at Ripley, Derbys. looking for bricks & after I had looked round & found a few bricks that I wanted, the owner showed me 3 brown glazed bricks which had come from a dividing pillar to some public toilets. One said Ladies, one Gents & the other was just glazed. The owner said he wanted £20 each for the bricks (amounting to £60) & he would not split them. I only wanted the plain brick which had the name of the company stamped in the frog. The Ladies & Gents bricks did not have any names stamped in them. By the way, I was not prepared to pay that sort of money for them even if he had split them so I could just have the named brick. The most I have ever paid is £3.50 & that was for a fancy brick. So he let me photograph the named brick. I did not bother with the other two. I now wish I had now.




So now fast forward to a few weeks ago, a chap at work said, did you watch Drew Pritchard, Salvage Hunter on Challenge TV, last night. He had been to Ripley Reclaim to film his program & it included 3 glazed bricks. So that night I found it was being repeated & I recorded it. Yes, sure enough it was the same 3 bricks with the plain brick having Elland Road, Leeds on. The owner asked Drew for £30 each for them & same again as he told me he told Drew that they came as a set & he would not split them. In the end Drew bought all 3 for £75. When Drew took them to his showroom, he asked his wife to photograph only the Ladies & Gents bricks for his web site, saying they would make good book ends & not to bother with the other brick which he did not want ! THAT WAS THE BRICK I WANTED ! Never mind at least I can tell this story. The estimated value for the resale of the Ladies & Gents bricks to used as book ends was £180 !  Whether Drew has ever sold them for that price I do not know.


Update 30.12.15. 
I have had quite a few visitors via the Waccoe forum website (followers of Leeds United who's football ground is on Elland Road) reading this post recently & this has prompted me to add these photos of the same designed brick which I found in Derbyshire earlier this year after a tip off from a fellow collector on where to find one. So by just being patience one turned up for me not too far away & it only cost me the petrol to go & get it. I then came across a variation from the same company (Wortley Fire Clay Co.) also with Elland Road on it at Cawarden Reclamation Yard, which I have also added. The Wortley Fire Clay's brickworks was on both sides of Elland Road next door to the football ground & can be seen in the top left hand corner of this map. http://maps.nls.uk/view/100947089

Brick Sculpture at Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

Brick sculpture made of bricks & industrial odds & ends at the side of the Llangollen Canal & next to the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Trevor.

                                                                                  

 View of & on the Aqueduct.

What a way down.   

Hold onto that rail tightly ! I did.                         

  J.C. Edwards old brick & tile works at Trevor. This is all what’s left of it !