In this post I start with some of the brickmakers who operated in the Garrison Lane, Saltley & Bordersley Green areas of Birmingham. Two direct descendants of John Bond & Henry Chare have contacted me with info on their respective forebears & their info is included in this post. Also I have found that several brickmakers & companies moved works several times & piecing this article together has been challenging at times. In some entries I written about individual brickmakers or companies & then in others I have written about the brickmakers who worked at that particular works. I then round off my article with the timeline to each of the ten brickworks featured in this post.
John Bond
Photo by Ray Martin.
From Gale's family tree the earliest brickmaker recorded is Thomas Bond who was born in Armitage, Staffs. in 1785. Pigot's Staffs.1841 trade directory records Thomas as brickmaker in Armitage, Rugeley & then in Pigot's Warwickshire 1841 & 42 editions it records Thomas as brickmaker in Birmingham with the address of Wellington Road, Handsworth. I can only assume in 1841 that Thomas was in the process of moving to & starting a new brickworks in Birmingham. The location of this works is unknown, but could have been on Wellington Road (houses are built on this road today) or it may have been the Dark Lane works ? Gale tells me that Thomas was also a dealer in coal & a maltster. Brickmaking, delivering coal & the processing of malt/brewing beer all went hand in hand as brickmaking was only done during the summer months, the processing of malt for brewing beer took place in the winter & delivering coal was also done chiefly during the winter months. Thomas had a son called John & he is our first of three John's who followed one another (father to son) as brickmaker/brickworks owner at the Bond's family brick making business in Birmingham.
All three John's worked their brickyards in the "summer style" same as Thomas Bond had done in the 1840's. That is only making bricks during the summer months & in the winter months they was gainfully employed preparing malt & brewing beer. The introduction of machinery in the 1860’s to make bricks changed this old method still being used by the Bond's to an all year activity, but even the third John carried on with the summer method right up to him preparing to leave for America shortly after 1908.
Trade directories list the name of John Bond in Kelly's 1849 to 1875 editions. There is no John Bond listing in the 1876 edition, but starts again in Kelly's 1878 to 1905 editions. You would think that when the second John, John Thomas Bond joined his father at the works, the listing would read "John Bond & Son" but Gale has inform me that the brickyard just passed from one John on to the next. So as you will read the second John took over the works from his father, with his father then concentrating as being a Maltster. The third John took over the running of the works aged 19 when his father died at the age of 41 in 1880. The census only records the third John as Brickworks Manager & then in the next census as Brick Manufacturer, so I am assuming that this John did not train as an actual brickmaker, but just ran the works instead.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1889.
So back to the Dark Lane brickworks (also coloured lilac on the map above) & this works continues to be listed in trade directories up to 1852, but this Dark Lane works is still shown operational on the 1889 map. I can only assume from later directory listings for the later built Watery Lane brickworks accessed via Keeley Street that the Dark Lane/Kingston Road works was also accessed via Keeley Street up to it's closure. We find that the 1902 map no longer shows the buildings of the Dark Lane brickworks & it now shows an extension to the clay pit where these buildings had stood. So the Dark Lane works must have closed sometime between 1889 & 1900. The 1902 map showing this change can be seen in the Parkfield Brick Co. entry later in the post.
As well as listing the Dark Lane brickworks in Slater's 1852 edition there is the listing of a second brickworks on Garrison Lane (coloured yellow on the map above) & this was John's new works which he named the Globe Brick Works (orange). Trade directories from 1852 to 1873 only list this works as Garrison Lane, but maps do show it as the Globe Brick & Tile Works. John then sold his Globe Brick Works to a consortium of local business men in 1875 who then named their company the Globe Brick Co. after the name of the works. More can be read about the Globe Brick Co. later in the post.
I now write about where John lived & the 1849 to 1862 trade directories, the 1851 & 1861 census all record John Bond & his family as living on New Bond Street & this road was just a stones throw away from his brickworks & was situated on the other side of Watery Lane. During this ten year period the house number changed three times from 84 to 86 then to 83, so I can only assume he was renting these houses & as his family expanded they moved to larger house. Kelly's 1867 edition gives his home address as 98, Coventry Road (lime green cross on the red coloured road shown on the 1889 OS map above) & this is where he lived until his death in 1880. Modern maps reveal that this address may now be under the roundabout at the junction of Watery Lane & Coventry Road.
The 1861 census also reveals as well as being a brickmaker & maltster John was also an innkeeper around this time & Slater's 1862 edition records the name of this inn as the Dolphin. A search on the web has revealed that this coaching inn was on Warwick Road & was demolished in 1930.
I now move on to the opening of John's (b.1810) third brickworks listed in Morris's 1862 edition as being on Watery Lane & then in later trade directories listed as Keeley Street/ Watery Lane. This works (coloured pink on the map below) was accessed via Keeley Street (light green) from Watery Lane (dark green) & was built adjacent to his Dark Lane works (works lilac & as Kingston Road on this 1889 map). This Keeley Street/Watery Lane works is listed in trade directories from 1862 to 1905 & was owned by all three of the John Bond's. I write about John's son, John Thomas Bond (b. 1839) & then his grandson, John Bond (b. 1861) a little later.
Kelly's 1867 & 1868 editions list John Bond (b. 1810) as brickmaker at 98, Coventry Road, Birmingham & as said this was his home address.
During my research I found that a Edwin Bond is listed in Slater's 1852 edition as beer retailer & brick maker, Great King Street & Gale has told me that John (b.1810) & Edwin were brothers, so it appears Edwin may have worked alongside John at his brickworks around 1852. I next found in the London Gazette dated 28th April 1857 that Edwin, brickmaker & retail brewer & previously living at the Travelers Rest, Great King Street was declaring himself bankrupt. Another notice in the London Gazette dated 29th May 1857 then records Edwin was an Insolvent Debtor & was unable to pay his debts. Edwin must have sorted his finances out because Kelly's 1867 & 1868 editions now list Edwin Bond as brickmaking again at a yard on Chester Street, Birmingham. With only having access to the 1881 map, I am unable to show you the location of this yard as it is not shown on this map. This venture into brickmaking was again short lived as the London Gazette once again records Edwin as a working brickmaker at a yard on Chester Street declaring himself bankrupt again on 28th of May 1869. Then on the 24th of December 1869 the London Gazette records that Edwin was out of business & employment & a Order of Discharge was issued on the 22nd December 1869, so Edwin was no longer responsible for his debts. A very sorry end, I wonder if he had turkey with all the trimmings for Christmas dinner ?
Now back to John Bond & the last trade directory entry that I have for the 1st John Bond is in White's 1875 edition recording him with his home address of 98, Coventry Road. Kelly's 1876 edition does not list any Bond's in the brick makers section, so I think this when his son John Thomas Bond (b.1839) took over the running of the business. Kelly's 1878 edition records John Bond & not John Thomas Bond as brickmaker at Keeley Street/Watery Lane, but the entry may have stayed in his father's name. Also as previously wrote the Keeley Street works included the adjacent Dark Lane/Kingston Road works to at least 1889.
John Thomas Bond is recorded in the 1861 census as a maltster, aged 23 & living at home with his parents at 83, New Bond Street. The 1871 census now lists him as Brick Master aged 32 & living with his wife Harriet & their children at 82, Kingston Road. John & Harriet had married in 1865. The 1889 map above shows a row of terrace houses on Kingston Road (lilac) backing onto the brickworks & there is the possibility that Bond bricks were used to build these houses especially with John Thomas possibly living in one of them. Today this row of terraced houses has been replaced with modern dwellings, so finding the location of the original number 82 Kingston Road is now not possible to do.
As previously wrote the exact date when John Thomas took over the running of the brickworks from his father could have been in 1876, but with the 1871 census recording him as "Brick Master" I am thinking that John Thomas had trained & worked alongside his father for several years to attain this status before fully taking over in 1876. By 1880 John Thomas & his family had moved to 23, Cattell Road (coloured orange on the map above). Today this address no longer exists & has been replace with retail outlets next to Birmingham City's football ground.
John Thomas Bond died at the age of 41 at 23, Cattell Road on the 24th June 1880 leaving his wife Harriet & his eldest son John aged 19 (b.1861) to take over the running of the brickworks. John Thomas left £3000 pounds in his Will & today this equates to nearly £340,000 thousand pounds. The Bond family were then hit by another death in the family, John Bond (b.1810) our first John brickmaker died on the 30th August 1880 at 98, Coventry Road, leaving £20,000 thousand pounds in his Will. Today this equates to Two & a Quarter Million Pounds. WOW ! I expect even after death duties & being shared between all of his children & grandchildren, each member of the Bond family would have been fairly well off. With John Thomas dying first it was left to John's (b.1810) youngest son Mark Lawrence Bond to execute the Will. It appears Mark Lawrence Bond did not take up brickmaking as he is recorded in the 1871 census as a maltster living with his father at 98, Coventry Road & then as a maltster & hop merchant in 1878. I have found that by 1884 Mark Lawrence & still a hop merchant was living at 110, Heathfield Road, Handsworth & I assume he had purchased this house with his share of his father's will.
So after his father's & grandfather's deaths in 1880 the third John Bond aged 19 was throw in at the deep end in the running of the family's two brickworks on Keeley Street/Watery Lane. It appears that John's mother Harriet took a role in running the brick company as we find in the 1881 census that Harriet is listed as Head of the family & both John & Harriet are listed as Lime & Brick Merchants. This census entry is backed up with the entry in Kelly's 1882 edition of J. & H. Bond & Co. Lime & Brick Merchants, Watery Lane. This 1882 trade directory also lists John Bond as brickmaker in the Brick Manufacturers section. These entries are listed again in Kelly's 1883 edition, but as well as listing J. & H. Bond & Co. there is a separate listing of "Bond Harriet (Mrs), brick merchant, see Bond John & H." Kelly's 1884 edition only lists John Bond as brick maker & then on the next line as lime & brick merchant. Although Gale has not got the year Harriet died we think that she had passed away by 1884, unless she had transfered the full running of the company over to John. John married Claire Phillipa Neilus on the 7th August 1883 at St. Annes Church, Bradford Street. The witnesses where Mark Lawrence Bond (John's uncle) & Ada Thomas.
Going back to Kelly's 1880, 82 & 83 editions there is the entry for Bond & Co. Brick & Tile Makers, Burbury Street, Lozells Road. The owners of this Bond & Co. will have been our Bond family. I only have access to the 1900 map for this area of Birmingham which shows houses had been built on Burbury Street & Lozells Road by 1900, but I have found from researching another brick company Derringtons, that later maps show houses built on the address given as their brickworks address & a web article records that they built a temporary brickworks to use the onsite clay, thus having to transport bricks to site to build those houses & I firmly think this is what happened in the case of Bond & Co. setting up a temporary brickworks up on Burbury Street in 1880. With the date of 1880 there is the option of John Thomas Bond setting up this venture before his death, but more than likely John & Harriet started the company with them both being recorded as J. & H. Bond & Co., Lime & Brick Merchants in the 1881 census & Kelly's 1882 edition.
Update 18.3.18 - I previously wrote that I had found that Mark Lawrence Bond was only recorded as a Maltster & not as a brickmaker, but I have just been sent a page from A.H. Stephenson's 1933 book entitled, Trade Association of Birmingham Brick Masters that records Mark Lawrence Bond as signing an agreement at a Brick Masters meeting on the 27th of March 1882 to set the price of common bricks at 24 shillings per thousand & their carriage not less than 3 shillings per mile. Twenty two more Birmingham Brick Masters or their representatives who attended this meeting signed this document & one of them was Mark's nephew, John Bond (b.1861 & our third John Bond). So I can only conclude with Mark Lawrence Bond being at this meeting as well as John that Mark may have been a brick maker after all, unless he signed this document in his capacity as being a partner in company of Bond & Co. which I think he may have had an interest in. If he was an actual brickmaker I can only assume that he worked at the family's Watery Lane works in the summer months ? I can now additionally add that Mark L. Bond & Co. are listed as brickmakers in Hulley's 1881 Directory, so Mark was taking an active roll in Bond & Co. & was representing this company at the signing of setting the prices of bricks.
Gale has records of the Company's accounts in 1890 & theses ledgers show that the company had assets of £9687 & they had made a profit of £1959 in 1890, so the brickworks was doing extremely well. Today in 2018 this profit of £1959 equates to the purchasing power of £240,000 pounds/$333,000 dollars. The 1891 census records John as Brick Manager & living with his wife Claire & family at 347, Green Lane, Birmingham, but soon after & with the family reaping their rewards from the company's profit they had moved home & they are recorded in the 1901 census as living in a very grand house called Homelea, 82, Agnes Road, Moseley. This house was about three miles from John's Watery Lane works. John is now recorded with the much grander title of Brick Manufacturer in the 1901 census, so things were on the up for the Bond family.
Update 18.3.18 - I have just being sent some pages of an article written by A.H. Stephenson which appeared in a 1933 edition of the British Clayworker journal. Stephenson had been the manager & owner up to his retirement in 1929 of the Globe Brick Co. Stephenson reveals that after John Garlick had gone bankrupt in 1884 & his City Brickworks on Anthony Road, Saltley had been derelict for many years, it was rented by "Johnny" Bond. Now this works is not listed in trade directories in John Bond's entry of owned brickworks, but there is the entry of City Tileries & Brick Works, Anthony Road, Saltley with John Lewis as manager in Kelly's 1892 to 1905 editions & this company will have been owned by John Bond. I can now confirm that John Bond did own the City Tileries & Brick Works Co. from information in Birmingham Archives. A document dated the 9th of March 1885 records John Bond, builders merchant & brickmaker of Watery Lane, leasing 5 acres of land for 21 years at Saltley from Charles Bowyer, Baron Norton of Norton-in-the-Moors, Stafford, so this document confirms Stephenson s account of Johnny Bond taking over the lease at John Garlick's yard. As you will read shortly the 1905 date of the last entry of City Tileries & Brick Works Co. also coincides with John Bond's last Watery Lane works entry in Kellys 1905 edition. Kelly's 1908 edition now records John Lewis & Son, City Works, Anthony Road, Saltley, so it appears that Lewis moved up from manager to lease owner of this works taking over from John Bond. I write more about the City Brick Works in Birmingham Brickworks - part 2.
The first brick in this entry reads John Bond, Patent, Birmingham & I am taking it that John was using Patented machinery which he had purchased to make these bricks, but the one above "Bonds Patent" implies John owned his own patent (machine or process), but I cannot find a patent listed to John Bond, brickmaker of Birmingham on the web. The nearest match I have found is Patent number 2237 - improvement to brick & tile machinery taken out on the 22nd September 1863 by James & John Bond, Machinists, trading as Bond Brothers, Longridge near Preston, Lancs. I date the brick above as being made anytime between 1860 & 1900, so these Lancastrian Bonds may have been John Bond's relation & he was using their patented machinery ?
John Bond is last listed at his Watery Lane brickworks in Kelly's 1905 edition & Gale tells me that it is around this time that the Bond family started to have financial problems. Gale's mother who has now passed away, told her that "John had a fight with his neighbour over access to water to make his bricks." We do not know if this was a physical fight or a fight in the law courts with this neighbour. If it was a problem that needed to be sorted out in a law court, I am thinking this is when the Bond family had financial problems. As to who this neighbour was is unknown by Gale, my theory is that it was the owner of the two buildings which I have coloured brown on the map above at the end of Keeley Street (light green) & this owner had put in the water supply to his & the brickyard site, therefore denying John access to water for reasons we may never get to know. As we do not know if John actually owned the freehold on his Watery Lane brickworks, there is the option that the works had been built on land leased from local land owner Charles Digby (owner of the nearby Garrison Farm Estate).
Update 2.5.18.
New info supplied to me by Stuart Mugridge has come to light while he was delving into Birmingham Archives records & we can now discount Charles Digby as the owner of the Watery Lane land. Stuart found documents which records John Bond (b.1810) taking out an agreement with the Blue Coats School in Birmingham for the lease of land at Watery Lane in 1860 for brickmaking. The school leased the Watery Lane clay mine to John Bond of Coventry Road on the "Royalty" terms of 2 shillings & 9 pence per thousand bricks made. The Archives have further agreements signed by the School & all three John Bond's up to 1903 recording the same Royalty agreement & documents showing the amount of bricks produced & the royalties therefore paid.
I can also add this info with just having access to A.H. Stephenson 1933 book. Stephenson writes about his good friend "Johnny" Bond & Bond's agreement for the lease of the brickmaking land at Watery Lane from the Blue Coat School. Stephenson then goes on to tells us about John Bond having to go to the Bankruptcy Court, no date is given, but this may have been around 1905 as this date matches in with Gale's family account of John Bond being in financial trouble & John's last 1905 trade directory entry recording him brickmaking at Watery Lane. So if John Bond was unable to make bricks because of not having access to water then he would not have been able to pay the Blue Coat School their royalties, therefore Bond ending up at the Bankruptcy Court. Stephenson continues to tell us that the Watery Lane Brickworks then reverted to "Old John's" daughter & Johnny Bond's Aunt, Emma Cartwright, wife of wealthy Iron Master, Thomas Cartwright. It appears the Watery Lane brickworks then stood idle for a few years because Stephenson then writes that after John had liquidated his debts, he had another go at brickmaking at the Watery Lane works & the Parkfield works with John's new company now being called The Parkfield & National Brick Co. I write about this new company in the next entry, headed Parkfield Brick Co./ Parkfield & National Brick Co. Also in this next entry I continue with Gale's information about John Bond (the 3rd John, b.1861), Gale's Great Grandfather & his family living in America.
Going back to John Bond (b.1810) being at his Dark Lane yard (now Kingston Road) in 1849 which was adjacent to his later Watery Lane yard, that this Dark Lane yard may have also been on land leased from the Blue Coat School, but I do not have documents confirming this, but what I can say is that Stephenson writes that shortly after the Watery Lane Works closed, the Trustees of the Blue Coat School then had the clay pit filled in & a Corporation park called Kingston Hill Park was established on the site. Today this park also covers the area once occupied by the Dark Lane works, hence me coming to the conclusion that this land was also owned by the Blue Coat School.
Before I move on to the Parkfield Brick Co., I sent Gale a John Bond brick which she is now proudly displaying on her mantlepiece in her New York apartment.
As well as listing the Dark Lane brickworks in Slater's 1852 edition there is the listing of a second brickworks on Garrison Lane (coloured yellow on the map above) & this was John's new works which he named the Globe Brick Works (orange). Trade directories from 1852 to 1873 only list this works as Garrison Lane, but maps do show it as the Globe Brick & Tile Works. John then sold his Globe Brick Works to a consortium of local business men in 1875 who then named their company the Globe Brick Co. after the name of the works. More can be read about the Globe Brick Co. later in the post.
This Garrison Lane example was made at John's Globe Brickworks between 1852 & 1875.
I now write about where John lived & the 1849 to 1862 trade directories, the 1851 & 1861 census all record John Bond & his family as living on New Bond Street & this road was just a stones throw away from his brickworks & was situated on the other side of Watery Lane. During this ten year period the house number changed three times from 84 to 86 then to 83, so I can only assume he was renting these houses & as his family expanded they moved to larger house. Kelly's 1867 edition gives his home address as 98, Coventry Road (lime green cross on the red coloured road shown on the 1889 OS map above) & this is where he lived until his death in 1880. Modern maps reveal that this address may now be under the roundabout at the junction of Watery Lane & Coventry Road.
The 1861 census also reveals as well as being a brickmaker & maltster John was also an innkeeper around this time & Slater's 1862 edition records the name of this inn as the Dolphin. A search on the web has revealed that this coaching inn was on Warwick Road & was demolished in 1930.
I now move on to the opening of John's (b.1810) third brickworks listed in Morris's 1862 edition as being on Watery Lane & then in later trade directories listed as Keeley Street/ Watery Lane. This works (coloured pink on the map below) was accessed via Keeley Street (light green) from Watery Lane (dark green) & was built adjacent to his Dark Lane works (works lilac & as Kingston Road on this 1889 map). This Keeley Street/Watery Lane works is listed in trade directories from 1862 to 1905 & was owned by all three of the John Bond's. I write about John's son, John Thomas Bond (b. 1839) & then his grandson, John Bond (b. 1861) a little later.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1889.
Kelly's 1867 & 1868 editions list John Bond (b. 1810) as brickmaker at 98, Coventry Road, Birmingham & as said this was his home address.
During my research I found that a Edwin Bond is listed in Slater's 1852 edition as beer retailer & brick maker, Great King Street & Gale has told me that John (b.1810) & Edwin were brothers, so it appears Edwin may have worked alongside John at his brickworks around 1852. I next found in the London Gazette dated 28th April 1857 that Edwin, brickmaker & retail brewer & previously living at the Travelers Rest, Great King Street was declaring himself bankrupt. Another notice in the London Gazette dated 29th May 1857 then records Edwin was an Insolvent Debtor & was unable to pay his debts. Edwin must have sorted his finances out because Kelly's 1867 & 1868 editions now list Edwin Bond as brickmaking again at a yard on Chester Street, Birmingham. With only having access to the 1881 map, I am unable to show you the location of this yard as it is not shown on this map. This venture into brickmaking was again short lived as the London Gazette once again records Edwin as a working brickmaker at a yard on Chester Street declaring himself bankrupt again on 28th of May 1869. Then on the 24th of December 1869 the London Gazette records that Edwin was out of business & employment & a Order of Discharge was issued on the 22nd December 1869, so Edwin was no longer responsible for his debts. A very sorry end, I wonder if he had turkey with all the trimmings for Christmas dinner ?
Now back to John Bond & the last trade directory entry that I have for the 1st John Bond is in White's 1875 edition recording him with his home address of 98, Coventry Road. Kelly's 1876 edition does not list any Bond's in the brick makers section, so I think this when his son John Thomas Bond (b.1839) took over the running of the business. Kelly's 1878 edition records John Bond & not John Thomas Bond as brickmaker at Keeley Street/Watery Lane, but the entry may have stayed in his father's name. Also as previously wrote the Keeley Street works included the adjacent Dark Lane/Kingston Road works to at least 1889.
John Thomas Bond is recorded in the 1861 census as a maltster, aged 23 & living at home with his parents at 83, New Bond Street. The 1871 census now lists him as Brick Master aged 32 & living with his wife Harriet & their children at 82, Kingston Road. John & Harriet had married in 1865. The 1889 map above shows a row of terrace houses on Kingston Road (lilac) backing onto the brickworks & there is the possibility that Bond bricks were used to build these houses especially with John Thomas possibly living in one of them. Today this row of terraced houses has been replaced with modern dwellings, so finding the location of the original number 82 Kingston Road is now not possible to do.
As previously wrote the exact date when John Thomas took over the running of the brickworks from his father could have been in 1876, but with the 1871 census recording him as "Brick Master" I am thinking that John Thomas had trained & worked alongside his father for several years to attain this status before fully taking over in 1876. By 1880 John Thomas & his family had moved to 23, Cattell Road (coloured orange on the map above). Today this address no longer exists & has been replace with retail outlets next to Birmingham City's football ground.
John Thomas Bond died at the age of 41 at 23, Cattell Road on the 24th June 1880 leaving his wife Harriet & his eldest son John aged 19 (b.1861) to take over the running of the brickworks. John Thomas left £3000 pounds in his Will & today this equates to nearly £340,000 thousand pounds. The Bond family were then hit by another death in the family, John Bond (b.1810) our first John brickmaker died on the 30th August 1880 at 98, Coventry Road, leaving £20,000 thousand pounds in his Will. Today this equates to Two & a Quarter Million Pounds. WOW ! I expect even after death duties & being shared between all of his children & grandchildren, each member of the Bond family would have been fairly well off. With John Thomas dying first it was left to John's (b.1810) youngest son Mark Lawrence Bond to execute the Will. It appears Mark Lawrence Bond did not take up brickmaking as he is recorded in the 1871 census as a maltster living with his father at 98, Coventry Road & then as a maltster & hop merchant in 1878. I have found that by 1884 Mark Lawrence & still a hop merchant was living at 110, Heathfield Road, Handsworth & I assume he had purchased this house with his share of his father's will.
So after his father's & grandfather's deaths in 1880 the third John Bond aged 19 was throw in at the deep end in the running of the family's two brickworks on Keeley Street/Watery Lane. It appears that John's mother Harriet took a role in running the brick company as we find in the 1881 census that Harriet is listed as Head of the family & both John & Harriet are listed as Lime & Brick Merchants. This census entry is backed up with the entry in Kelly's 1882 edition of J. & H. Bond & Co. Lime & Brick Merchants, Watery Lane. This 1882 trade directory also lists John Bond as brickmaker in the Brick Manufacturers section. These entries are listed again in Kelly's 1883 edition, but as well as listing J. & H. Bond & Co. there is a separate listing of "Bond Harriet (Mrs), brick merchant, see Bond John & H." Kelly's 1884 edition only lists John Bond as brick maker & then on the next line as lime & brick merchant. Although Gale has not got the year Harriet died we think that she had passed away by 1884, unless she had transfered the full running of the company over to John. John married Claire Phillipa Neilus on the 7th August 1883 at St. Annes Church, Bradford Street. The witnesses where Mark Lawrence Bond (John's uncle) & Ada Thomas.
Going back to Kelly's 1880, 82 & 83 editions there is the entry for Bond & Co. Brick & Tile Makers, Burbury Street, Lozells Road. The owners of this Bond & Co. will have been our Bond family. I only have access to the 1900 map for this area of Birmingham which shows houses had been built on Burbury Street & Lozells Road by 1900, but I have found from researching another brick company Derringtons, that later maps show houses built on the address given as their brickworks address & a web article records that they built a temporary brickworks to use the onsite clay, thus having to transport bricks to site to build those houses & I firmly think this is what happened in the case of Bond & Co. setting up a temporary brickworks up on Burbury Street in 1880. With the date of 1880 there is the option of John Thomas Bond setting up this venture before his death, but more than likely John & Harriet started the company with them both being recorded as J. & H. Bond & Co., Lime & Brick Merchants in the 1881 census & Kelly's 1882 edition.
Update 18.3.18 - I previously wrote that I had found that Mark Lawrence Bond was only recorded as a Maltster & not as a brickmaker, but I have just been sent a page from A.H. Stephenson's 1933 book entitled, Trade Association of Birmingham Brick Masters that records Mark Lawrence Bond as signing an agreement at a Brick Masters meeting on the 27th of March 1882 to set the price of common bricks at 24 shillings per thousand & their carriage not less than 3 shillings per mile. Twenty two more Birmingham Brick Masters or their representatives who attended this meeting signed this document & one of them was Mark's nephew, John Bond (b.1861 & our third John Bond). So I can only conclude with Mark Lawrence Bond being at this meeting as well as John that Mark may have been a brick maker after all, unless he signed this document in his capacity as being a partner in company of Bond & Co. which I think he may have had an interest in. If he was an actual brickmaker I can only assume that he worked at the family's Watery Lane works in the summer months ? I can now additionally add that Mark L. Bond & Co. are listed as brickmakers in Hulley's 1881 Directory, so Mark was taking an active roll in Bond & Co. & was representing this company at the signing of setting the prices of bricks.
Gale has records of the Company's accounts in 1890 & theses ledgers show that the company had assets of £9687 & they had made a profit of £1959 in 1890, so the brickworks was doing extremely well. Today in 2018 this profit of £1959 equates to the purchasing power of £240,000 pounds/$333,000 dollars. The 1891 census records John as Brick Manager & living with his wife Claire & family at 347, Green Lane, Birmingham, but soon after & with the family reaping their rewards from the company's profit they had moved home & they are recorded in the 1901 census as living in a very grand house called Homelea, 82, Agnes Road, Moseley. This house was about three miles from John's Watery Lane works. John is now recorded with the much grander title of Brick Manufacturer in the 1901 census, so things were on the up for the Bond family.
Update 18.3.18 - I have just being sent some pages of an article written by A.H. Stephenson which appeared in a 1933 edition of the British Clayworker journal. Stephenson had been the manager & owner up to his retirement in 1929 of the Globe Brick Co. Stephenson reveals that after John Garlick had gone bankrupt in 1884 & his City Brickworks on Anthony Road, Saltley had been derelict for many years, it was rented by "Johnny" Bond. Now this works is not listed in trade directories in John Bond's entry of owned brickworks, but there is the entry of City Tileries & Brick Works, Anthony Road, Saltley with John Lewis as manager in Kelly's 1892 to 1905 editions & this company will have been owned by John Bond. I can now confirm that John Bond did own the City Tileries & Brick Works Co. from information in Birmingham Archives. A document dated the 9th of March 1885 records John Bond, builders merchant & brickmaker of Watery Lane, leasing 5 acres of land for 21 years at Saltley from Charles Bowyer, Baron Norton of Norton-in-the-Moors, Stafford, so this document confirms Stephenson s account of Johnny Bond taking over the lease at John Garlick's yard. As you will read shortly the 1905 date of the last entry of City Tileries & Brick Works Co. also coincides with John Bond's last Watery Lane works entry in Kellys 1905 edition. Kelly's 1908 edition now records John Lewis & Son, City Works, Anthony Road, Saltley, so it appears that Lewis moved up from manager to lease owner of this works taking over from John Bond. I write more about the City Brick Works in Birmingham Brickworks - part 2.
The first brick in this entry reads John Bond, Patent, Birmingham & I am taking it that John was using Patented machinery which he had purchased to make these bricks, but the one above "Bonds Patent" implies John owned his own patent (machine or process), but I cannot find a patent listed to John Bond, brickmaker of Birmingham on the web. The nearest match I have found is Patent number 2237 - improvement to brick & tile machinery taken out on the 22nd September 1863 by James & John Bond, Machinists, trading as Bond Brothers, Longridge near Preston, Lancs. I date the brick above as being made anytime between 1860 & 1900, so these Lancastrian Bonds may have been John Bond's relation & he was using their patented machinery ?
John Bond is last listed at his Watery Lane brickworks in Kelly's 1905 edition & Gale tells me that it is around this time that the Bond family started to have financial problems. Gale's mother who has now passed away, told her that "John had a fight with his neighbour over access to water to make his bricks." We do not know if this was a physical fight or a fight in the law courts with this neighbour. If it was a problem that needed to be sorted out in a law court, I am thinking this is when the Bond family had financial problems. As to who this neighbour was is unknown by Gale, my theory is that it was the owner of the two buildings which I have coloured brown on the map above at the end of Keeley Street (light green) & this owner had put in the water supply to his & the brickyard site, therefore denying John access to water for reasons we may never get to know. As we do not know if John actually owned the freehold on his Watery Lane brickworks, there is the option that the works had been built on land leased from local land owner Charles Digby (owner of the nearby Garrison Farm Estate).
Update 2.5.18.
New info supplied to me by Stuart Mugridge has come to light while he was delving into Birmingham Archives records & we can now discount Charles Digby as the owner of the Watery Lane land. Stuart found documents which records John Bond (b.1810) taking out an agreement with the Blue Coats School in Birmingham for the lease of land at Watery Lane in 1860 for brickmaking. The school leased the Watery Lane clay mine to John Bond of Coventry Road on the "Royalty" terms of 2 shillings & 9 pence per thousand bricks made. The Archives have further agreements signed by the School & all three John Bond's up to 1903 recording the same Royalty agreement & documents showing the amount of bricks produced & the royalties therefore paid.
I can also add this info with just having access to A.H. Stephenson 1933 book. Stephenson writes about his good friend "Johnny" Bond & Bond's agreement for the lease of the brickmaking land at Watery Lane from the Blue Coat School. Stephenson then goes on to tells us about John Bond having to go to the Bankruptcy Court, no date is given, but this may have been around 1905 as this date matches in with Gale's family account of John Bond being in financial trouble & John's last 1905 trade directory entry recording him brickmaking at Watery Lane. So if John Bond was unable to make bricks because of not having access to water then he would not have been able to pay the Blue Coat School their royalties, therefore Bond ending up at the Bankruptcy Court. Stephenson continues to tell us that the Watery Lane Brickworks then reverted to "Old John's" daughter & Johnny Bond's Aunt, Emma Cartwright, wife of wealthy Iron Master, Thomas Cartwright. It appears the Watery Lane brickworks then stood idle for a few years because Stephenson then writes that after John had liquidated his debts, he had another go at brickmaking at the Watery Lane works & the Parkfield works with John's new company now being called The Parkfield & National Brick Co. I write about this new company in the next entry, headed Parkfield Brick Co./ Parkfield & National Brick Co. Also in this next entry I continue with Gale's information about John Bond (the 3rd John, b.1861), Gale's Great Grandfather & his family living in America.
Going back to John Bond (b.1810) being at his Dark Lane yard (now Kingston Road) in 1849 which was adjacent to his later Watery Lane yard, that this Dark Lane yard may have also been on land leased from the Blue Coat School, but I do not have documents confirming this, but what I can say is that Stephenson writes that shortly after the Watery Lane Works closed, the Trustees of the Blue Coat School then had the clay pit filled in & a Corporation park called Kingston Hill Park was established on the site. Today this park also covers the area once occupied by the Dark Lane works, hence me coming to the conclusion that this land was also owned by the Blue Coat School.
Before I move on to the Parkfield Brick Co., I sent Gale a John Bond brick which she is now proudly displaying on her mantlepiece in her New York apartment.
Photo by Gale Rundquist Chen.
Photo by Adrian Chapman.
In June 2024 Adrian Chapman found this John Bond, Dudley, Staffs cill brick in his next doors garden in Erdington, Birmingham. I have not been able to find a John Bond brickmaking in Dudley in trade directories or newspaper articles, so there's an outside chance this brick was made by this Bond family at a Dudley brickworks which at present is unknown.
Parkfield Brick Co. / Parkfield & National Brick Co.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1902.
The Parkfield Brick Works (coloured blue on the 1902 map above) on Bordesley Green Road (light blue) is recorded in a web article as being opened for C.P. Bond in late 1880's & with new information coming to light in February 2022, I have re-written this entry. A newspaper article dated June 1888 has revealed that John Bond opened this Parkfield brickworks in the early 1880's, the exact date of which is unknown. Then in September 1885 John issued a deed of assignment to his wife Claire Philippa Bond who then leased the works from him & operated it under the style of C.P. Bond & Co., but with John running the day to day operations of the works. Claire's new company with capital of £200 pounds commenced to operate this works in November 1885. After telling Gale about Claire she replied with this information saying she had found from her many family letters & papers that Claire had been named as owner of this company for financial reasons. Gale goes on to say from family memories of Claire that "She was not a business type person & had received a Classical education, writing to her friends in Latin & Greek." This last bit of information proved to be correct because in January 1887 after trade had been satisfactory up to then, a customer was unable to pay £387 pounds which was owed to the company & Claire took as security 15 unfinished houses at Sparkhill & 5 houses in Green Lane. With this customer not being able to pay the Green Lane houses were sold & the Sparkhill houses were mortgaged so they could be finish & then sold, but the sale of these houses did not happen & this left Claire heavily in debt. After negotiating a 16 month period of grace with her creditors & then still not being able to clear her debt, Claire was declared bankrupt. This Birmingham Post article does not reveal what happened next, but we do know from later findings the Parkfield Brickworks continued to be operated by John Bond. I am therefore assuming John & other family members raised the cash to pay Claire's debt.
We next find in Kelly's 1890 to 1905 editions this works was operated by the Parkfield Brick Co. owned by John Bond as confirmed in A.H. Stephenson's 1933 book.
As previously wrote in the Watery Lane entry in 1905 John started to get into financial difficulties which resulted in the lease of the Watery Lane being transferred to John's Aunt, Emma Cartwright. This transfer arrangement had been structured by John's father in the event of John getting into such difficulties. John senior & Emma were brother & sister & Emma was married to a very wealthy Iron Master. Stephenson writes he had no idea what Emma Cartwright would do with the brickworks which then stood idle. It also appears with John being debt that the Parkfield works also stood idle.
It appears around 1908 John had got his life back on track & info from A.H. Stephenson's book records John had established a new company called the Parkfield & National Brick Co. with this new company being listed in Kelly's 1908 edition as owning the Parkfield works & the Watery Lane works now renamed as the National Works, Watery Lane. I can only assume Emma had transferred the Watery Lane works back to John. A photo of a brick made at P. & N. Brick Co.'s Watery Lane works is shown a little later.
This 1908 entry for the National & Parkfield Brick Co. is also the last listing for the company. Information found in Albert Stephenson's 1933 book reveals that Johnny Bond's new venture, the Parkfield & National Brick Co. did not last very long & in the same year 1908, John sold his two brickworks to a firm of Contractors called Messers. Pattinson & Wells. We know from the 1913 map that Pattinson & Wells did not keep the Parkfield brickworks open for very long because the site is void of buildings in that year. A brick similar to a Parkfield brick, but without the Parkfield name stamped in it, is shown later & my thoughts are that Pattison & Wells made this brick before they dismantled the works & machinery for scrap, followed by levelling of the land for future use. As previously wrote in the Watery Lane entry the Watery Lane brickworks after it had been dismantled & the site cleared by Pattison & Wells, the Trustees of the Blue School, owners of this land had the clay pit filled in & a public park called Kingston Hill Park was established.
Photo by Ray Martin.
Photo courtesy of the Harold Hands Collection.
A National Brick Works, Watery Lane example made around 1908 by the Parkfield & National Brick Co.
Photo by Angel Rose.
In December 2020 Angel Rose sent me this image & requested info for her Saltley brick. I soon came to the conclusion that this brick had been made at the Parkfield brickworks with it having the words Parkfield & Co. removed from the mould plate. So it appears after all that Pattinson & Wells did keep the works operational for short while after their 1908 acquisition before dismantling the plant for scrap & clearing the site.
Now on to Gale's information about John Bond & his family's new start in America which took place sometime between 1908 & 1910. After selling his works John & his wife Claire went to live in New York joining their son John Monague Bond who had emigrated to America in 1905. When in England John Montague Bond had been an engineer at the Dartmouth Navel Academy, then on emigrating to America John Montague Bond (Gale's Grandfather) registered his name as Montague John Bond on his Declaration of Intention papers. He was affectionately known as Monty by his family. Then after marrying Gertrude Abbott in New York in 1907 (she had come from England with her sister in 1906). Montague John & Gertrude then traveled to Western Canada where Monty was employed by a Canadian railway company as a design engineer working on the construction of a railway tunnel through the Rocky Mountains. By 1909 Monty, Gertrude & their first child Dorothy where living in Seattle & in 1910 John was now working for the Standard Clay Co. as a construction engineer at their two plants in Tacoma, Washington State. Monty then took on the role as ceramic engineer at the same company, experimenting on the manufacturing properties of clay products. Also at the same time Monty formed his own construction company to build houses in Vancouver & he invested in the Spindle Oil & Gas Co. Ltd. Calgary. It was also in Calgary that Monty started to build a brickworks for his father John Bond (b.1861) to run. John & his wife Claire where living in New York at the time & there was a planned move to the West Coast when the brickworks had been finished.
Things were going just fine for the Bond family when tragedy struck, Montague John in his position as engineer at the Standard Clay Co. was inspecting a boiler at their Bayne, Washington plant when he fell from height breaking his neck which resulted in his death. He was aged just 31 & this tragic event took place in 1916. Monty's wife Gertrude & her three young girls (Gale's Mum Irene being the youngest) then moved to New York to be with John & Claire. John Bond died aged 59 in New York in 1920 & according to Gale's Mum (now sadly passed away) told Gale "that he died a broken man as a result of the loss of his son."
This website shows photos taken in 2011 of the derelict Bayne Brickworks where Monty died.
http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/bayne-brick-works.html
From Gale's info it appears that six of John & Claire's seven children emigrated to America with their second son Raymond moving to America in 1909 & establishing a company to mine uranium. A very enterprising family this Bond family turned out to be !
Many Thanks Gale for all of your family's history which has enriched this post.
The Globe Brick Co. (coloured orange) was established by a newly formed consortium of local businessmen in around 1875 to purchase John Bond's Globe Brickworks on Garrison Lane (yellow) naming their company after the name of the brickworks. This consortium consisted of Edward Townley, W.R. Willis, Walter Dauncey & R.C. Wright with A.H. & F.S. Stephenson joining the Board at a later date.
At first this new company stamped their bricks Globe Brick Co., Garrison Lane - Late Bond. With the Late Bond referring to the works being previously being owned by John Bond who carried on producing bricks at his Watery Lane works until at least 1905.
White's 1875 edition lists the Globe Brick Co. first as the Globe Patent Brick & Quarry Works, Garrison Lane with Walter Dauncey recorded as manager. Walter Dauncey up to 1875 had been employed by the Adderley Park Brick Co. 1875 also sees Walter Dauncey's young nephew Albert H. Stephenson join him at the works. Albert had original planned to become a bank clerk on leaving school, but while he was waiting for a vacancy to arise his uncle said "come & help me in the office" & what started as a temporary office job lasted for 54 years working at the Globe Brick Co.
It's in Kelly's 1876 edition that it actually names the company as the Globe Brick Co. with Walter Dauncey as Manager. Albert H. Stephenson writes his 1933 book on Birmingham Brickmakers that the Company before the end of it's first trading year found that the demand for it's bricks was so good that a second plant was put down adjacent to the first works & this new works was operational in 1877. Please see the 1889 map above for this second works, also coloured orange. Kelly's 1879 to 1890 editions now records Walter Dauncey as Manager/Partner.
Going back to Stephenson's book & he writes that when he came of age (21) in 1881 he purchased shares in the Globe Brick Co. It was also found around this time by the Company that architects where designing more elaborate buildings which required ornamental moulded bricks & to meet this demand a dedicated mill was set up to grind & prepare the selected clay for these best "facings bricks". These ornamental bricks where used in the main entrance & stairway of the Midland Institute Lecture Theatre, also in the Public Library next door. Stephenson then became works manager in 1889 & in 1892 he re-started the No.2 works which had stood idle for ten years. In 1896 Stephenson also introduced brick making machinery & this was followed shortly afterwards by a continuous kiln & steam drying sheds. In Kelly's 1892 to 1921 editions we find Albert Henry Stephenson is listed as either manager or secretary. In 1903 Stephenson purchases enough shares in the Company to give him a controlling influence & by 1918 he had purchased to remainder. The works was closed for the duration of WW1 with many of it's leading hands signing up to go to war. After coming home from the war Albert's son, F.S. Stephenson joined him at the works, with him later taking over as manager in 1929 when Albert Stephenson retired from the Globe Brick Co. after completing 54 years at the works. According to a web article the Globe Brickworks closed in 1931. I have a gap in trade directories after 1921 & the next one I have available is the 1932 edition & the Globe Brick Co. is no longer listed. The next available map in 1937 only shows the outline of the disused clay pit.
As well as managing then owning the Globe Brick Co. a web article records that in 1917 Albert H. Stephenson purchased another brickworks in Greet from the Lewis family, calling his new company the Burbury Brick Co. & I will hopefully write about this company together with the Lewis family in my Birmingham Brickworks part 4 post at a later date. There is a copy of A.H. Stephenson s 1933 book, Trade Associations of Birmingham Brick Masters in Birmingham Archives from which some of the info in entry comes from.
Included in this entry is information received from Henry Chare's great, great grandson Hugh Chare, who lives in Hawaii.
After Henry Chare had made his money in the furniture trade which included producing window blinds. He purchased the Crown Brickworks at Bordesley Green possibly around 1875. Henry is listed in Kelly’s 1878 & 1879 editions at Upper Saltley & at Bordesley Green Road, Saltley in their 1880, 82 & 83 editions, both of these two locations are the same works, which is shown on the 1889 OS map below coloured yellow. This new venture did not last very long & after selling the works to the newly formed Atlas & Crown Brick Co. in 1883 Henry returned to the furniture trade.
Just to note the Atlas Brickworks was just to the south-west of the Crown Brickworks (marked as the Atlas & Crown Brickworks on the 1889 map below) & both these two yards operated under the style of the Atlas & Crown Brick Co. from 1883 & I cover this company next along with the many other brickmakers who previously operated the Atlas Brickworks on Garrison Lane.
Hugh writes ;- My great great grandfather Henry Chare owned the Crown brickyard (coloured yellow on the 1889 map above) for a while & it was situated nearly opposite Denbigh Street (red) on Bordersley Green Road (green). Apparently his bricks were not of the highest quality because in the monthly meetings of the brick masters to set prices, Henry was always granted an exception to offer them at a lower price. He tried continuous kilns, but the output was just not as good as from batch kilns. Henry had previously made his money selling furniture and during the “Alfred Humpage” boom days (a speculator who purchased & developed land) he decided to try making bricks. Sadly that did not go as well as he had hoped for and he then sold the business and went back to furniture. The last Chare furniture store was in Knowle, only closing within the past five years (around 2013). Window blinds had been part of the business, but my family’s recollections were more of the furniture end of the business. Before furniture, in the 1850’s they had been needle makers, so, perhaps there was a segue there of some kind. My father and his cousin both recalled a bridge in Small Heath Park being built of Chare bricks.
Many Thanks for your e-mail Hugh.
Things were going just fine for the Bond family when tragedy struck, Montague John in his position as engineer at the Standard Clay Co. was inspecting a boiler at their Bayne, Washington plant when he fell from height breaking his neck which resulted in his death. He was aged just 31 & this tragic event took place in 1916. Monty's wife Gertrude & her three young girls (Gale's Mum Irene being the youngest) then moved to New York to be with John & Claire. John Bond died aged 59 in New York in 1920 & according to Gale's Mum (now sadly passed away) told Gale "that he died a broken man as a result of the loss of his son."
This website shows photos taken in 2011 of the derelict Bayne Brickworks where Monty died.
http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/bayne-brick-works.html
From Gale's info it appears that six of John & Claire's seven children emigrated to America with their second son Raymond moving to America in 1909 & establishing a company to mine uranium. A very enterprising family this Bond family turned out to be !
Many Thanks Gale for all of your family's history which has enriched this post.
Globe Brick Co.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1889.
The Globe Brick Co. (coloured orange) was established by a newly formed consortium of local businessmen in around 1875 to purchase John Bond's Globe Brickworks on Garrison Lane (yellow) naming their company after the name of the brickworks. This consortium consisted of Edward Townley, W.R. Willis, Walter Dauncey & R.C. Wright with A.H. & F.S. Stephenson joining the Board at a later date.
Globe Brick Co. - Late Bond - 6 x 6 quarry tile by Ray Martin.
White's 1875 edition lists the Globe Brick Co. first as the Globe Patent Brick & Quarry Works, Garrison Lane with Walter Dauncey recorded as manager. Walter Dauncey up to 1875 had been employed by the Adderley Park Brick Co. 1875 also sees Walter Dauncey's young nephew Albert H. Stephenson join him at the works. Albert had original planned to become a bank clerk on leaving school, but while he was waiting for a vacancy to arise his uncle said "come & help me in the office" & what started as a temporary office job lasted for 54 years working at the Globe Brick Co.
It's in Kelly's 1876 edition that it actually names the company as the Globe Brick Co. with Walter Dauncey as Manager. Albert H. Stephenson writes his 1933 book on Birmingham Brickmakers that the Company before the end of it's first trading year found that the demand for it's bricks was so good that a second plant was put down adjacent to the first works & this new works was operational in 1877. Please see the 1889 map above for this second works, also coloured orange. Kelly's 1879 to 1890 editions now records Walter Dauncey as Manager/Partner.
Going back to Stephenson's book & he writes that when he came of age (21) in 1881 he purchased shares in the Globe Brick Co. It was also found around this time by the Company that architects where designing more elaborate buildings which required ornamental moulded bricks & to meet this demand a dedicated mill was set up to grind & prepare the selected clay for these best "facings bricks". These ornamental bricks where used in the main entrance & stairway of the Midland Institute Lecture Theatre, also in the Public Library next door. Stephenson then became works manager in 1889 & in 1892 he re-started the No.2 works which had stood idle for ten years. In 1896 Stephenson also introduced brick making machinery & this was followed shortly afterwards by a continuous kiln & steam drying sheds. In Kelly's 1892 to 1921 editions we find Albert Henry Stephenson is listed as either manager or secretary. In 1903 Stephenson purchases enough shares in the Company to give him a controlling influence & by 1918 he had purchased to remainder. The works was closed for the duration of WW1 with many of it's leading hands signing up to go to war. After coming home from the war Albert's son, F.S. Stephenson joined him at the works, with him later taking over as manager in 1929 when Albert Stephenson retired from the Globe Brick Co. after completing 54 years at the works. According to a web article the Globe Brickworks closed in 1931. I have a gap in trade directories after 1921 & the next one I have available is the 1932 edition & the Globe Brick Co. is no longer listed. The next available map in 1937 only shows the outline of the disused clay pit.
As well as managing then owning the Globe Brick Co. a web article records that in 1917 Albert H. Stephenson purchased another brickworks in Greet from the Lewis family, calling his new company the Burbury Brick Co. & I will hopefully write about this company together with the Lewis family in my Birmingham Brickworks part 4 post at a later date. There is a copy of A.H. Stephenson s 1933 book, Trade Associations of Birmingham Brick Masters in Birmingham Archives from which some of the info in entry comes from.
Henry Chare
Included in this entry is information received from Henry Chare's great, great grandson Hugh Chare, who lives in Hawaii.
After Henry Chare had made his money in the furniture trade which included producing window blinds. He purchased the Crown Brickworks at Bordesley Green possibly around 1875. Henry is listed in Kelly’s 1878 & 1879 editions at Upper Saltley & at Bordesley Green Road, Saltley in their 1880, 82 & 83 editions, both of these two locations are the same works, which is shown on the 1889 OS map below coloured yellow. This new venture did not last very long & after selling the works to the newly formed Atlas & Crown Brick Co. in 1883 Henry returned to the furniture trade.
Just to note the Atlas Brickworks was just to the south-west of the Crown Brickworks (marked as the Atlas & Crown Brickworks on the 1889 map below) & both these two yards operated under the style of the Atlas & Crown Brick Co. from 1883 & I cover this company next along with the many other brickmakers who previously operated the Atlas Brickworks on Garrison Lane.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1889.
Hugh writes ;- My great great grandfather Henry Chare owned the Crown brickyard (coloured yellow on the 1889 map above) for a while & it was situated nearly opposite Denbigh Street (red) on Bordersley Green Road (green). Apparently his bricks were not of the highest quality because in the monthly meetings of the brick masters to set prices, Henry was always granted an exception to offer them at a lower price. He tried continuous kilns, but the output was just not as good as from batch kilns. Henry had previously made his money selling furniture and during the “Alfred Humpage” boom days (a speculator who purchased & developed land) he decided to try making bricks. Sadly that did not go as well as he had hoped for and he then sold the business and went back to furniture. The last Chare furniture store was in Knowle, only closing within the past five years (around 2013). Window blinds had been part of the business, but my family’s recollections were more of the furniture end of the business. Before furniture, in the 1850’s they had been needle makers, so, perhaps there was a segue there of some kind. My father and his cousin both recalled a bridge in Small Heath Park being built of Chare bricks.
Many Thanks for your e-mail Hugh.
Updated 18.3.21. Please note that the bridge in Small Heath Park no longer exists. The small pond has now been filled in & grassed over & the pathway bridge which divided these two ponds has been removed.
Hugh has sent me this image of Henry's letterhead stamp advertising the company & has been flipped so it can be read - Very ornate !
Atlas Brickworks, Garrison Lane
In this entry I cover the many brickmakers & companies who owned this Works. The Atlas Brickworks (coloured yellow on the 1889 map below) on Garrison Lane (orange) was started by William Mansfield in the mid 1860's & was established on land near to Bordesley Green which had not previously been worked for it's clay. This land originally formed part of the Garrison Farm Estate with it's owners the Digby family dividing up their arable farmland for brickmaking after they found that good quality clay was in plentiful supply during the construction of the canal & railway across their land in the 1830's & 40's. The Digby family then rented out this land & in some agreements took a royalty on how many bricks were produced.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1889.
Before establishing his new Atlas brickyard (coloured yellow on the 1889 map above) in the mid 1860's William Mansfield had previously owned the Garrison Farm Brickworks (pink) situated at the end of Garrison Street (red) & before that another yard on Garrison Lane, the location of which is unknown. So I cover William Mansfield's two earlier works in the Garrison Farm Works entry later in the post.
So back to Mansfield's new Atlas Works on Garrison Lane & William Mansfield is first listed in Kelly's 1867 & 68 editions at the Atlas Works, Cattell field, Garrison Lane, Birmingham. Kelly's 1872 edition lists Mansfield as owning the Atlas Works & a second works at Acocks Green. Up to yet no bricks stamped Wm. Mansfield, Atlas Works, Garrison Lane have been found, but I have photographed a floor tile made at his Garrison Lane works.
Mansfield went bankrupt in 1872 & his Garrison Lane brickworks was purchased by George Savage. Advert in the Birmingham Post dated 2nd of April 1873 - Wanted, Engine Driver who is accustomed to grinding clay. Apply George Savage, Atlas Works, Garrison Lane. On the 15th of May 1873 Savage signed a contract with William Barnett Ensor, engineer of West Bromwich, for the erection of a steam engine & clay mill at his Atlas Brickworks. There is only one trade directory listing for George Savage at Garrison Lane & that is in White's 1875 edition.
Savage only briefly owned this works because Alfred Humpage, a builder & property/land speculator persuaded Savage to sell him the works & this takeover may have taken place in 1875. It is unknown if Ensor completed the new buildings before Humpage took over. Humpage then set about producing bricks for the several buildings that he was involved in building in the centre of Birmingham. Bricks stamped Savage/Atlas or Humpage/Atlas have yet to be discovered.
Sometime in 1876 Alfred Humpage sold half of his Atlas Brickworks to Thomas Gough & the brick above was made during this partnership. A few months later Humpage left this partnership & sold his share to Jacob Sames & the partnership of Gough & Sames was formed. With Humpage being a canny speculator & being able to sniff out a new deal, he then invested the money received from Sames into purchasing land at West Bromwich which he then sold almost immediately to the newly formed Wood & Ivery Co. Limited, with them needing to expand their works. Alfred Humpage is then listed in the Brick & Tile Makers section of Kelly's 1879 edition at the Albion Vitrified Blue Brick Co., West Bromwich, office address of Imperial Chambers A, Colmore Row, Birmingham, but no address for his works. With there being no more brickworks marked on the 1881 map in the Albion area, I have come to the conclusion that Humpage did a deal with Wood & Ivery to make his blue bricks, but I have no proof of this theory. The Victorian Society's web page lists a number of buildings in the centre of Birmingham that Alfred Humpage in 1879 was involved in building, mainly situated on or around Corporation Street. Humpage came to a sticky end when he went bankrupt in September 1883, sighting a downturn in the building trade for his situation. I think he had done a deal too many & his luck ran out.
As said Gough decided to quit the brick trade leaving Sames to carry on his own with Sames absorbing all the liabilities which were to be incurred. Sames piano business was very profitable so he was able to take care of any losses at the time. Jacob Sames is listed in Kelly's 1878, 79, 80 & 83 editions at the Atlas Works, Garrison Lane.
From information found on the web, Sames lacked the business skill to run the brickworks & this is where things went downhill for him. Accounts were not kept up to-date & together with a market downturn in the need for bricks, Jacob Sames's brick business went into receivership in 1883 with the winding up of the company taking place on the 17th January, 1884. In this Receivership Notice Jacob Sames is recorded as previously residing in Rednall, Kings Norton, but now living at 57, Whitmore Street, Small Heath which is only a short distance from his former brickworks.
We next find in 1883 that both the Atlas Works previously owned by Jacob Sames & the Crown Works next door previously owned by Henry Chare were purchased by the newly formed Atlas & Crown Brick Co. & this new company is first listed in Kelly’s 1884 edition at Garrison Lane, Small Heath (yellow on the 1889 OS map above) & Bordesley Green Road, Saltley (green) with Evan Thomas listed as Managing Partner. Kelly's 1888 & 1890 editions also records this entry. Then in 1892 to 1900 editions the works are now recorded as Bordesley Green, Small Heath & Bordesley Green Road, Saltley. The listing of works being on Garrison Lane then Bordesley Green (name of the road) is because the entrance to the Atlas Works was on the junction to where these two roads met (see map above). Just to note as there may be some confusion, Bordesley Green (name of the road) runs west to east & is coloured purple on the map above & Bordesley Green Road coloured green runs north to Adderley Park.
It may have been around 1901 that the Atlas & Crown Brick Co. closed both it's works as the 1902 map no longer shows any buildings on either site, only the outline of the clay pits are still shown.
Britannia Brick Works
The first trade directory entry that I have for the owner of the Britannia Brickworks (coloured green on the 1889 map above) which was accessed via Landor Street (light green) is for James Price & he is listed in the 1862 edition of the Corporation of Birmingham Directory at Landor Street. Kelly's 1867 edition now lists J. Price as a Brick Merchant on Chester Street. This street runs adjacent to the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal, so this address will have been Price's storage yard, with him making good use of the canal to distribute his bricks.
This brick may have been made by James Price at his Britannia Brickworks, but trade directories also list a Mary Price, Coventry Road (home) as brickmaker in the 1862 Birmingham Corporation Directory. Then I have several entries for Edward Price as brickmaker & these are Kelly's 1849 & 50 editions at Dark Lane (now Kingston Road). Then White's 1855 edition & Morris 1862 edition lists Edward with the address of Coventry Road (home). So are James, Mary & Edward all related with Mary being the wife of James & Edward being James Price's father ?
My next find for the owner of Britannia Works is listed in White's 1875 edition & it names John James as the brickmaker, but we first find in Morris's 1862 edition that John James is listed as brickmaker with the address of 4, St. James Place, Vauxhall Road, Birmingham & this will have been his home address as this house still exists today. Then in the 1862 edition of the Birmingham Corporation Directory John James is listed as brickmaking on Garrison Lane. Kelly's 1867 & 68 editions also records John James as brickmaking on Garrison Lane & the exact location of his yard is unknown. A web article reveals that brickmakers in the 1850's & 60's regularly moved from one yard to another.
White's 1875 & Kelly's 1878 edition now reads, John James, Landor Street (coloured light green on the 1889 map above) & as said this is the Britannia Works (green) & this works was accessed via a road which ran under a railway bridge from Landor Street. Today this road under the railway forms part of Adderley Road South.
John James is not listed in Kelly's 1879, 80 & 82 editions, but is next listed as brickmaker in Kelly's 1883 & 84 editions with the address of Park Road, Saltley. This Park Road address will have been where he lived as the 1887 map only shows four houses built on this road at this date & there are no indications (remains of a clay pit) to suggest that there had been a brickworks on this road, so I am thinking that up to 1884 John was still making bricks at his Britannia Works. Today Park Road is called Ash Road.
After 1884 there are no more trade directory entries naming the Britannia Brickworks as being owned by any brickmaker or company until Kelly's 1904 edition. It is unknown if this brickworks continued under James until 1904 or if it had been mothballed.
We then find in Kelly's 1904 edition that the Midland Brick Co. who had previously owned a works on Garrison Lane which closed due to the clay being worked out are now listed as operating the Britannia Brickworks together with the Garrison Farm Brickworks, with both works now being accessed via Garrison Street.
The last trade directory entry that I have listing the Midland Brick Co. as owning both the Britannia & Garrison Farm Works is in Kelly's 1915 edition. Kelly's 1921 edition then lists the Midland Brick Co. as only owning the Garrison Farm Works from now on & the next map available online in 1938 no longer shows the Britannia Brickworks, so one can only assume that the Britannia works closed not long after 1915. A.H. Stephenson in his book gives the closure date of the Britannia Works as being just after WW1 (1918). I write more about Midland's Garrison Farm Brickworks under that heading later in the post. I have found that the Birmingham Wheels Adventure Park was constructed on these two former brickworks sites in the 1970's.
I next write about the Midland Brick Company's earlier Garrison Lane Works & this is followed later in the post by the Midland Brick Company's Garrison Farm Works & it's many previous owners.
The Midland Brick Co.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1889.
The Midland Brick Co. is listed in trade directories as to operating it's Garrison Lane (coloured orange) brickworks (yellow) in Kelly's 1878 to 1892 editions. An article by A.H. Stephenson which appeared in a 1933 edition of the British Clayworker journal reveals that Frederick Welch Barrows was the owner of the Midland Brick Co. As you can see this brickworks is sandwiched between the Birmingham Canal & the Midland Railway (Bristol to Birmingham Branch Line) which was ideal for transporting it's finished bricks via the canal, but the availability of on site clay was at premium.
With the Midland Brick Co. not being listed in the 1895 directory I can only assume that this works had closed due to onsite clay not being available. The next trade directory entry for the Midland Brick Co. is in Kelly's 1904 edition & we find that the company had relocated to the Garrison Farm Brickworks (pink) & Britannia Works (green) on Garrison Street (red). So this now begs the question of what happened to the Midland Brick Co. between 1893 ish & 1904. If I get to know the answer I will update the post.
I have covered the Midland Brick Company being at the Britannia Works earlier in the post & I continue with the history of the Midland Brick Co. at their Garrison Farm Works & Garrison Farm's previous owners after I have written about Thomas Jelliffe who also had a connection to the Garrison Farm Works in the guise of William Mansfield.
During my research on Thomas Jelliffe I have found that his surname in trade directories is spelt with an e & without, but his bricks are spelt with an e, so I am taking it that with an e is the correct spelling. The first trade directory entry that I have for Thomas Jelliffe, brickmaker, Garrison Lane is in Kelly's 1849 edition. Kelly's 1850 edition again lists him with the same entry, but in Whites 1850 edition the listing is Thomas Jelliffe, Patent brick, tile & quarry tile manufacturer, Garrison Lane. This White's entry together with a web article has given me the location of his works & I have coloured it purple on the 1889 OS map below.
Slater's 1853 edition has revealed as well as being a brickmaker on Garrison Lane, Thomas Jelliffe is listed as coal dealer at Bordesley Street Wharf. Then White's 1855 edition records Thomas Jelliffe again on Garrison Lane, but further down there is the entry for the Patent Brick Co. Garrison Lane. I can only assume Jelliffe was the owner of the Patent Brick Co. & had registered that company name with him being listed as Patent brick, tile & quarry tile manufacturer in White's 1850 edition.
I have also found in Kelly's 1849 edition, Kelly's & Whites 1850 editions & Slater's 1853 edition that a William Jelliffe is listed as brickmaker, shop keeper & beerhouse at 65, Garrison Lane. I can only assume he was Thomas's brother & was at the same works.
I next find in a web article that Thomas Jelliffe & William Mansfield combine their two works & traded as the Atlas Patent Brick & Quarry Co. This may have been around 1860 as we find William Mansfield owned the Garrison Farm Brickworks around this date. The article goes on to say that Thomas Jelliff then left this partnership in 1861 leaving Mansfield to run both yards. Morris's 1862 trade directory then reveals that Thomas Jelliffe had passed away & the entry reads, William Mansfield, Atlas Patent Brick Works, Garrison Street & the late T. Jelliff's Brick & Quarry Tile Works, Garrison Lane. The 1862 edition of the Birmingham Corporation Directory also lists Mansfield on Garrison Lane running Jelliffe's yard. An example of a Mansfield late Jelliffe brick made at Garrison Lane is shown next.
I have covered the Midland Brick Company being at the Britannia Works earlier in the post & I continue with the history of the Midland Brick Co. at their Garrison Farm Works & Garrison Farm's previous owners after I have written about Thomas Jelliffe who also had a connection to the Garrison Farm Works in the guise of William Mansfield.
Thomas Jelliffe
During my research on Thomas Jelliffe I have found that his surname in trade directories is spelt with an e & without, but his bricks are spelt with an e, so I am taking it that with an e is the correct spelling. The first trade directory entry that I have for Thomas Jelliffe, brickmaker, Garrison Lane is in Kelly's 1849 edition. Kelly's 1850 edition again lists him with the same entry, but in Whites 1850 edition the listing is Thomas Jelliffe, Patent brick, tile & quarry tile manufacturer, Garrison Lane. This White's entry together with a web article has given me the location of his works & I have coloured it purple on the 1889 OS map below.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1889.
Slater's 1853 edition has revealed as well as being a brickmaker on Garrison Lane, Thomas Jelliffe is listed as coal dealer at Bordesley Street Wharf. Then White's 1855 edition records Thomas Jelliffe again on Garrison Lane, but further down there is the entry for the Patent Brick Co. Garrison Lane. I can only assume Jelliffe was the owner of the Patent Brick Co. & had registered that company name with him being listed as Patent brick, tile & quarry tile manufacturer in White's 1850 edition.
I have also found in Kelly's 1849 edition, Kelly's & Whites 1850 editions & Slater's 1853 edition that a William Jelliffe is listed as brickmaker, shop keeper & beerhouse at 65, Garrison Lane. I can only assume he was Thomas's brother & was at the same works.
Photo by MF courtesy of the John Baylis Collection.
I next find in a web article that Thomas Jelliffe & William Mansfield combine their two works & traded as the Atlas Patent Brick & Quarry Co. This may have been around 1860 as we find William Mansfield owned the Garrison Farm Brickworks around this date. The article goes on to say that Thomas Jelliff then left this partnership in 1861 leaving Mansfield to run both yards. Morris's 1862 trade directory then reveals that Thomas Jelliffe had passed away & the entry reads, William Mansfield, Atlas Patent Brick Works, Garrison Street & the late T. Jelliff's Brick & Quarry Tile Works, Garrison Lane. The 1862 edition of the Birmingham Corporation Directory also lists Mansfield on Garrison Lane running Jelliffe's yard. An example of a Mansfield late Jelliffe brick made at Garrison Lane is shown next.
As I wish to get on to the Garrison Farm Brickworks, Garrison Lane & back to William Mansfield I will continue with George Payton at the Patent Brickworks, Garrison Lane later in the post.
Garrison Farm Brickworks, Garrison Street
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1889.
It is unknown who started the Garrison Farm Brickworks (coloured pink on the 1889 map above) on Garrison Street (red) as we find in a web article that the Digby family who owned this former arable farm land leased many small plots to individual brickmakers in the 1840' & 50's. The locations of these small yards is unknown as I do not have a map from that date showing their locations, but they will have been scattered around Garrison Farm itself & along Garrison Lane, eventually being combined into the larger brickworks that we see on the 1889 map above. I have established that William Mansfield was at this works on Garrison Street (coloured red) around 1860. The first trade directory entry that I have for William Mansfield is in W.H. Dix's 1858 edition & he is listed as brickmaker on Garrison Lane & not Garrison Street, unless this entry should read Street. The entry continues with Mansfield's home address of Golden Hills Lane, Birmingham. So Mansfield may have started at a small yard on Garrison Lane the location of which is unknown & then moved to the Garrison Farm Works, Garrison Street by 1860.
Then as wrote in the Jelliffe entry, Mansfield by 1861 was trading as the Atlas Patent Brick & Quarry Co. & running two yards, his Garrison Farm Works on Garrison Street & the Garrison Lane Works previously owned by Thomas Jelliffe.
A brick made at Mansfield's Garrison Farm Patent Brickworks is shown next.
Photo by MF courtesy of the John Baylis Collection.
Mansfield then establishes his New Atlas Brickworks on Garrison Lane near to Bordesley Green in the mid 1860's selling his Garrison Farm Brickworks, Garrison Street to William Riddell in 1869.
We next find in Kelly's 1876 edition that there are the listings for W. Riddell & Co. Garrison Street & William Henry Hancox, Garrison Farm Brickworks, Garrison Street & I have found that Hancox took over Riddell's yard in 1876. William Henry Hancox is listed as brickmaker at the Garrison Farm Brickworks, Garrison Street, Birmingham in Kelly’s 1876, 78, 79 & 83 editions. Bricks found made by Hancox are stamped "Late Riddell" indicating that Hancox had succeeded Riddell at this works.
Photo by Angel Rose.
This is were I slightly disagree with this article on the next owners of this works as being the Midland Brick Co. as I have found from trade directories that the Garrison Farm Brick Co. is listed as operating this works from 1888 to 1903/4 & I am thinking that Digby's agents only ran the works from 1883 to 1888.
So the Garrison Farm Brick Co. is listed in Kelly's 1888, 90 & 92 editions at the Garrison Farm Brick Works, Garrison Street, Birmingham with Samuel Joseph Warr as manager. Kelly's 1895 to 1903 editions then lists the manager as Joseph Swain. No bricks have been found so far stamped Garrison Farm Brick Company.
I now have to bring your attention to the listing of Joseph Swain as manager of Midland's Garrison Farm works in this 1904 listing. Now Joseph Swain had been the manager of the works while it was under the control of the Garrison Farm Brick Co. so is this just a coincidence & Swain had just transferred over to working for Midland in 1904 or did & this is a big if of which I have no proof, did the Midland Brick Co. set up the Garrison Farm Brick Co. to take over Hancox's yard run by Digby's Land Agents in 1888, as their own yard on Garrison Lane was now running low of onsite clay reserves & which we find closed soon after 1892. Again please note this is only my theory on the events regarding Midland owning the Garrison Farm Brick Co. & G.F. Brick Co. may after all have been a totally independent company.
Now back to the facts & a web article states that in 1905 Frederick Welch Barrows on behalf of the Midland Brick Co. signed a new agreement with Charles Digby (land owner) for the works, paying rent of £600 per year & the royalty of one shilling & sixpence on every 1000 bricks produced. I have now found that F.W. Barrows was the owner of this company. New plant & a modern Belgian Kiln was built to replace the old kilns at Garrison Farm resulting in increased production. The Britannia Brickworks also benefited with the building of a new continuous kiln & plant. The Britannia yard under John James had been accessed via Landor Street (green on the map below), but now the main entrance to the Britannia works was via Garrison Street (red). According to David on the Birmingham History Forum website there was a sign saying "Private No Admission" just before the level crossing on Garrison Street (marked with a red cross on the map below) & this sign indicated only authorised personal could go over the railway level crossing to the brickworks. This level crossing was locally known as the "Brickworks Crossing".
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1900.
Kelly's 1905 to 1915 editions continues to list the Midland Brick Co. as owning the Garrison Farm Brickworks & the Britannia Brick Works, Garrison Street, Birmingham, but from the 1921 edition only the Garrison Farm Brickworks is listed, so I think shortly after 1915 the Britannia Brickworks had closed. As previously wrote in the Britannia entry, A.H. Stephenson in his book gives the closure date of the Britannia Works as being just after WW1 (1918).
Also listed in Kelly's 1915 edition is a third works owned by Midland at Warwick Road, Solihull, but this is the only entry for the Warwick Road works & an example of a brick made at this works is shown next.
The Midland Brick Co. continues to be listed in Kelly's directories at it's Garrison Farm Brickworks up to their 1936 edition when the works closed. The 1938 OS map no longer shows the brickworks only the claypit. Today the Birmingham Wheels Adventure Park built in 1970's now occupies this former brickworks site.
George Payton
I now go back to the Patent Brickworks (coloured purple on the 1889 map below), Garrison Lane (yellow) previously owned by Jelliffe & Mansfield.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1889.
As previously wrote George Payton obtained the ownership of the Patent Brickworks, Garrison Lane after his partnership with William Mansfield had been mutually dissolved on the 30th of August 1866 as recorded in the London Gazette. The exact date when this Mansfield - Payton partnership was formed is unknown, but it will have between 1862 & 1866. I have come to the conclusion George Payton must have brought money into this partnership with him then getting the Patent Works afterwards. This partnership may have been set up especially for George Payton to take over the works, but this is my theory only & there is no proof that this took place in this way.
Kelly's 1867 edition lists George Payton with works on Garrison Lane & residence at 442, Coventry Road. George Payton continues to be listed as brickmaker on Garrison Lane up to Kelly's 1875 edition.
Update 8.12.19. This G. Payton - Late Jelliffe has just been found by Nigel Furniss & the Late Jelliffe refers to two things in this case, first George Payton had taken over the yard previously owned by Thomas Jelliffe & second this brick records the passing of Thomas in 1862. This brick will have been made by George Payton when he first took over the Patent Brickworks in 1866.
So after George Payton's 1875 trade directory entry we then find in Kelly's 1876 edition the listing is Mrs. Ann Payton as the owner of the Patent Brickworks & Ann Payton was George's wife. Kelly's 1878 to 1884 editions then reveal why George's wife was in charge of the works, it was because George had passed away & these 1878 to 1884 entries read George Payton (exors of). So after Ann taking temporary charge of the works it was then administrated by executors of George's will for around seven years. One of these executors was Arthur O'Connor & he his recorded as signing an agreement on behalf of the Payton Works at a Brick Masters meeting on the 27th of March 1882 to set the price of common bricks at 24 shillings per thousand & their carriage at not less than 3 shillings per mile. Twenty two more Brick Masters or their representatives who attended this meeting signed this document.
John Loughton junior then marries George Payton's widow Ann & John junior is next listed as owning George's works in Kelly's 1888 edition. So John Loughton junior may have been one of the executors in George's will & over time established a relationship with Ann resulting in their marriage ?
John Loughton junior is then listed in Kelly's 1890 to 1896 editions as owning two works, Garrison Lane & Yardley Wood, Kings Heath. Kelly's 1897 edition then lists John junior Loughton & John Loughton both Garrison Lane & Yardley Wood yards & at first I thought John junior's father had joined him at the two works, but then with finding the listing of John Loughton only in the next directory I came to the conclusion that in 1897 John junior's father had died & John had then dropped the junior bit from his name & these two entries are the same man.
Kelly's 1899 & 1900 editions now list John with only one works at Yardley Wood & the home address of Venetia Road, Garrison Lane. Studying the 1900 map has revealed that John's Garrison Lane works had closed & Venetia Road had been built along the lane which went to the brickworks. Today the row Victorian houses on Venetia Road where John & his wife Ann had lived have been replaced with industrial units. Back to Kelly's 1903 & 1904 editions & the entry now records Mrs. Loughton as owner of the Yardley Wood works, so I am taking it that John had died & Ann was widowed for a second time. The 1904 entry is the last entry for the Loughtons.
An example of one of John's bricks made at his Yardley Wood works & is stamped Solihull Lodge. The 1900 map has revealed that Yardley Wood which is now a district of Birmingham was then only open farmland dotted with the odd house & farms & John Loughton's brickworks was actually situated in Solihull Lodge. The 1900 map below shows that there where two brickworks in Solihull Lodge, one on High Street (yellow) & one on Maypole Lane (blue) & a lady who lives in Solihull Lodge has contacted me & confirmed (Jan 2021) that the Loughton's owned the yellow coloured yard which they owned between 1890 & 1904. Trade directories record Thomas Cox as brickmaking at Solihull Lodge, Shirley in Kelly's 1892 & 1900 editions, so I can now say he was the owner of the blue coloured works. Kelly's 1904 to 1912 editions records Joseph Redding at Solihull Lodge, Kings Heath & from the 1914 OS map we know his works was the one on High Street coloured yellow because the blue coloured Maypole Lane works is marked disused on this map. Also to note on this map is Stoney Lane which has been renamed Yardley Wood Road.
Please note that the dates listed are ones found in trade directories & on the web & may not be the exact dates when these brickmakers & companies where at their respective works. Also the last date in each entry is the last one found for that brickworks & the works may have closed at that date or at least within the next year or two.
Dark Lane Brick Works (renamed Kingston Road on 1889 map).
John Bond/son John Thomas Bond/grandson John Bond 1849 to at least 1889. (works not on 1900 map)
A second yard on Dark Lane - Edward Price 1849 to 1850.
Keeley Street/Watery Lane Brick Works.
John Bond/son John Thomas Bond/grandson John Bond 1872 to 1905.
Parkfield & National Brick Co. 1905 to 1908.
Globe Brickworks, Garrison Lane.
John Bond (b.1810) 1852 to 1875.
Globe Brick Co. 1875 to 1931.
Parkfield Brick Works, Bordesley Green Road.
Parkfield Brick Co.1880 to 1905.
Parkfield & National Brick Co. 1905 to 1908.
Crown Brick Works, Bordesley Green Road.
Henry Chare 1875 to 1883.
Atlas & Crown Brick Co. 1883 to 1901.
Atlas Works, Garrison Lane.
William Mansfield mid 1860's to 1872.
George Savage 1872 to 1875.
Alfred Humpage 1875 to 1876.
Thomas Gough & Jacob Sames 1876 to 1878.
Jacob Sames 1878 to 1883.
Atlas & Crown Brick Co. 1883 to 1901.
Britannia Brick Works, Landor Street/Garrison Street.
James Price 1862.
John James 1875 to 1884.
Midland Brick Co. 1904 to 1915.
Midland Brick Works, Garrison Lane.
Midland Brick Co. 1878 to 1892.
Please note there were many individual brickmakers listed in trade directories as working on Garrison Lane in the 1840's, 50's & 60's, some of whom may have been at this works before Midland with the works being adjacent to the canal.
Patent Brick Works, Garrison Lane.
Thomas Jelliffe 1849 to 1860
Thomas Jelliffe & William Mansfield as the Atlas Patent Brick & Quarry Co. 1860 to 1861.
William Mansfield as the Atlas Patent Brick & Quarry Co. 1861 to 1867.
George Payton 1867 to 1875, then Mrs Ann Payton 1976, then George Payton (exors of) 1878 to 1884.
John Loughton Junior 1888 to 1897. (houses built on part of the site by 1899 map).
Garrison Farm Brick Works, Garrison Street.
William Mansfield 1860 to 1869.
William Riddell & Co. 1869 to 1876.
William Henry Hancox 1876 to 1883.
Charles Digby's agent 1883 to 1888.
Garrison Farm Brick Co. 1888 to 1903/4.
Midland Brick Co. 1904 to 1936. (works not on 1938 map).
I wish to thank the following :-
Gale Rundquist Chen
Hugh Chare
National Library/Ordnance Survey - maps
Chris Thornburn & John Baylis - for allowing me to photograph their brick collections.
I have gathered some information from a book called Workshop of the World - Birmingham's Industrial Heritage by Ray Shill to whom I am indebted.
Photo by Nigel Furniss.
Update 8.12.19. This G. Payton - Late Jelliffe has just been found by Nigel Furniss & the Late Jelliffe refers to two things in this case, first George Payton had taken over the yard previously owned by Thomas Jelliffe & second this brick records the passing of Thomas in 1862. This brick will have been made by George Payton when he first took over the Patent Brickworks in 1866.
Another example photographed by Ray Martin.
So after George Payton's 1875 trade directory entry we then find in Kelly's 1876 edition the listing is Mrs. Ann Payton as the owner of the Patent Brickworks & Ann Payton was George's wife. Kelly's 1878 to 1884 editions then reveal why George's wife was in charge of the works, it was because George had passed away & these 1878 to 1884 entries read George Payton (exors of). So after Ann taking temporary charge of the works it was then administrated by executors of George's will for around seven years. One of these executors was Arthur O'Connor & he his recorded as signing an agreement on behalf of the Payton Works at a Brick Masters meeting on the 27th of March 1882 to set the price of common bricks at 24 shillings per thousand & their carriage at not less than 3 shillings per mile. Twenty two more Brick Masters or their representatives who attended this meeting signed this document.
Photo by Ray Martin.
Kelly's 1899 & 1900 editions now list John with only one works at Yardley Wood & the home address of Venetia Road, Garrison Lane. Studying the 1900 map has revealed that John's Garrison Lane works had closed & Venetia Road had been built along the lane which went to the brickworks. Today the row Victorian houses on Venetia Road where John & his wife Ann had lived have been replaced with industrial units. Back to Kelly's 1903 & 1904 editions & the entry now records Mrs. Loughton as owner of the Yardley Wood works, so I am taking it that John had died & Ann was widowed for a second time. The 1904 entry is the last entry for the Loughtons.
Photo by MF courtesy of the John Baylis Collection.
An example of one of John's bricks made at his Yardley Wood works & is stamped Solihull Lodge. The 1900 map has revealed that Yardley Wood which is now a district of Birmingham was then only open farmland dotted with the odd house & farms & John Loughton's brickworks was actually situated in Solihull Lodge. The 1900 map below shows that there where two brickworks in Solihull Lodge, one on High Street (yellow) & one on Maypole Lane (blue) & a lady who lives in Solihull Lodge has contacted me & confirmed (Jan 2021) that the Loughton's owned the yellow coloured yard which they owned between 1890 & 1904. Trade directories record Thomas Cox as brickmaking at Solihull Lodge, Shirley in Kelly's 1892 & 1900 editions, so I can now say he was the owner of the blue coloured works. Kelly's 1904 to 1912 editions records Joseph Redding at Solihull Lodge, Kings Heath & from the 1914 OS map we know his works was the one on High Street coloured yellow because the blue coloured Maypole Lane works is marked disused on this map. Also to note on this map is Stoney Lane which has been renamed Yardley Wood Road.
© Crown Copyright. Reproduced with permission of NLS/Ordnance Survey 1900.
Timelines
Please note that the dates listed are ones found in trade directories & on the web & may not be the exact dates when these brickmakers & companies where at their respective works. Also the last date in each entry is the last one found for that brickworks & the works may have closed at that date or at least within the next year or two.
Dark Lane Brick Works (renamed Kingston Road on 1889 map).
John Bond/son John Thomas Bond/grandson John Bond 1849 to at least 1889. (works not on 1900 map)
A second yard on Dark Lane - Edward Price 1849 to 1850.
Keeley Street/Watery Lane Brick Works.
John Bond/son John Thomas Bond/grandson John Bond 1872 to 1905.
Parkfield & National Brick Co. 1905 to 1908.
Globe Brickworks, Garrison Lane.
John Bond (b.1810) 1852 to 1875.
Globe Brick Co. 1875 to 1931.
Parkfield Brick Works, Bordesley Green Road.
Parkfield Brick Co.1880 to 1905.
Parkfield & National Brick Co. 1905 to 1908.
Crown Brick Works, Bordesley Green Road.
Henry Chare 1875 to 1883.
Atlas & Crown Brick Co. 1883 to 1901.
Atlas Works, Garrison Lane.
William Mansfield mid 1860's to 1872.
George Savage 1872 to 1875.
Alfred Humpage 1875 to 1876.
Thomas Gough & Jacob Sames 1876 to 1878.
Jacob Sames 1878 to 1883.
Atlas & Crown Brick Co. 1883 to 1901.
Britannia Brick Works, Landor Street/Garrison Street.
James Price 1862.
John James 1875 to 1884.
Midland Brick Co. 1904 to 1915.
Midland Brick Works, Garrison Lane.
Midland Brick Co. 1878 to 1892.
Please note there were many individual brickmakers listed in trade directories as working on Garrison Lane in the 1840's, 50's & 60's, some of whom may have been at this works before Midland with the works being adjacent to the canal.
Patent Brick Works, Garrison Lane.
Thomas Jelliffe 1849 to 1860
Thomas Jelliffe & William Mansfield as the Atlas Patent Brick & Quarry Co. 1860 to 1861.
William Mansfield as the Atlas Patent Brick & Quarry Co. 1861 to 1867.
George Payton 1867 to 1875, then Mrs Ann Payton 1976, then George Payton (exors of) 1878 to 1884.
John Loughton Junior 1888 to 1897. (houses built on part of the site by 1899 map).
Garrison Farm Brick Works, Garrison Street.
William Mansfield 1860 to 1869.
William Riddell & Co. 1869 to 1876.
William Henry Hancox 1876 to 1883.
Charles Digby's agent 1883 to 1888.
Garrison Farm Brick Co. 1888 to 1903/4.
Midland Brick Co. 1904 to 1936. (works not on 1938 map).
I wish to thank the following :-
Gale Rundquist Chen
Hugh Chare
National Library/Ordnance Survey - maps
Chris Thornburn & John Baylis - for allowing me to photograph their brick collections.
I have gathered some information from a book called Workshop of the World - Birmingham's Industrial Heritage by Ray Shill to whom I am indebted.
