In July of this year, I was just getting close to Congleton to visit my cousin, when I came across an old entrance wall to a house knocked down & men building a new house at the side of it, I could not resist a look at the old wall. After looking at the bricks with one of the workmen, (their was only one named brick & that was a PB - Potteries Brick Co Ltd), he said he was one of the owners of Cheshire Reclamation in Macclesfield & I was welcome to go & look around the yard. So when I told my cousin about the meeting, she said she had been there with her husband many years ago & we would go there another day. These are some of the bricks found that day.
Jabez Thompson operated two brickworks in Northwich, one was on Manchester Road & is recorded in Kelly's 1896 edition. The second on Warrington Road (now Aldi) is recorded in Kelly's 1902 & 1914 editions. Jabez had joined his father John who was a brick yard owner, joiner, timber merchant, salt works owner & merchant in operating the Road Brick & Terra Cotta Works & the Alliance Salt Works. Jabez went on to concentrate on the running of the brickworks with his brother John junior then going into partnership with his father in the salt works. After his father's death Jabez became co-owner of the Lion Salt Works at Marston with his brother John junior. John junior continued to be in charge of the running of the salt works & Jabez carried on brickmaking.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced by permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1900.
Jabez Thompson's Warrington Road works is marked in green & their are two brickworks marked on Manchester Road (yellow) & I do not know which of the two belonged to Thompson. He may have owned both ?
The Enfield Brick & Terra Cotta Works was established between Henry Street & Whinney Hill, Huncoat, Accrington in 1887.
Huncoat Plastic Brick & Terracotta Co. was on Yorkshire Street, Huncoat, Accrington & was in production from 1894 to 1992.
In the 1824 edition of Baines Trade Directory, Brownbill & John Withnell are recorded as brickmakers at Eaves Lane, Chorley. The Withnell family were also timber merchants & builders. John is recorded as an original shareholder in the Chorley Gaslight Company. A lot of Withnell bricks are stamped 1912 Company, so I am not sure if they are the same company established by John in 1824 ?
John Ryder is recorded in Slater's Directory as brickmaker on Ashton Road, Openshaw, Manchester in 1886 & then again in 1895. Below is another brick by him stamped Ryder, Openshaw.
These initials are more than likely the person who purchased the brick for a building, eg a church, rather than a makers stamp.
Henry Doulton well known for producing sanitary ware & porcelain, owned two brickworks. One in St. Helens, Lancs. possibly on Boundary Road & the other, The Springfield Brick & Tile Works was on Springfield Lane in Rowley Regis, West Midlands. It was in production from the 1840's to the late 1960's or early 1970's, with the works being demolished in the 1970's. In Rowley Regis both Henry's pipework factory & the brick & tile works were situated on the Dudley No. 2 Canal which he used to transport his goods. This example could have been made in St. Helens ?, as I have a reference that they made blue bricks at Springfield's.
I have only been able to find that this brickworks was next to the railway station in Shawforth & it went into liquidation on the 15th August 1910.
The County Brick & Tile Co. at Rakehead, Stackstead, Lancs went into liquidation on the 26th May 1900 after 13 years of production & was owned by Thomas Ratcliffe. Seventeen years after the disused brickworks had closed the 114ft chimney, constructed with 90,000 bricks was pulled down.
Three animal prints & 1 heel print possibly a childs.
The only reference I have found is that the works was taken over by J & A Jackson of Manchester in 1975 & from the article it had closed by 2000.
In 1825 William Ingram founded his company in Wortley, Leeds to extract, coal, ironstone & fireclay from his property. The fireclay site covered 7 acres & employed between 400 & 500 workers. He was later joined by his sons Robert, Henry & Frederic in the company. In 1889 William's company (bricks are stamped Ingham, Ingham & Sons - Wortley or Wortley Fire Clay Works, Elland Road) was formed with several other Leeds area refactories into the Leeds Fireclay Company which included Burmantofts, Edward Brook & Sons, Oates & Green Ltd & Joseph Brooke & Sons.
John Hughes born c 1807 was followed by his son Elijah Forrester Hughes in his brick making business in Corbridge, Stoke on Trent. Elijah is recorded in the 1872 edition of Kelly's Trade Directory as a brickmaker.
