If you are after bricks, this is the place to come, whether you are after bricks for that extension or a collector like me, there are possibly millions of bricks stacked in all directions. As I was photographing the bricks, new ones were arriving for me to check out & there were two new names for me to photograph in that batch. The site is never quiet with people & lorries coming & going all the time.
These are the bricks from the East Midlands & I will be covering some of the others found from the rest of the country in a post on my UK Named Bricks blog at a later date. All told I photographed 63 bricks that day, most of the names I had not photographed before, the rest were variations. Link to Cawarden Post on UK Named Bricks.
One of the major brick producers in the country today, Ibstock was founded in the village of Ibstock, Leicestershire from where it took it's name & it is still the home of the companies headquarters. Registered as Ibstock Collieries in 1899, brickmaking had taken place on it's original site since 1830. As the name suggests, Ibstock Collieries mainly mined coal as well as quarrying some clay for brickmaking, but as time went by the company then concentrated on producing bricks. Today the company produces around 900 million bricks per year at it's 24 UK plants, employing 1960 people & is now part of the CRH Group based in Dublin.
E.D. Derby. Edwin Dusautoy, owned the California Brickworks, Stockbrook Fields, Stockbrook Street in Derby & his works is recorded in Kelly's Trade Directory from 1881 to the 1904 edition. The California Brickworks on Stockbrook Street is then recorded in Kelly's 1908 edition as being owned by the Derby Brick Company.
The Lion Brick & Tile Co. at Scalford, Melton Mowbray is recorded in Kelly's from 1908 to 1925 editions. I have a reference to the works closing in the 1930's & then in Kelly's 1941 edition, the London Brick company is recorded as making tiles there.
The site has now been reclaimed by nature & is densely covered by trees. Various planning applications have been put forward, but all of these have been turned down, the last being a fishing lake, 10 luxury log cabins & a cafe/clubhouse.
Horace Rendall Mansfield, Hermitage Works, Whitwick, Leicester is recorded as brickmaker in Kelly's 1899 to 1912 editions.
The Bull Bridge Brick Company is first recorded in Kelly's Trade Directory in 1881 at Ambergate, Belper, Derbys. with Samuel Hall as secretary & again in 1887 &1891, but in these two editions the works is recorded as at Heage, Belper. The brickworks was actually in Sawmills near Ambergate & the works continues to be recorded at Heage in future directory editions. Sawmills at that time was a small hamlet in the parish of Heage.
In Kelly's 1895 edition, William Eaton is recorded as being the co-owner with Samuel Hall, who is recorded as secretary as well.
Taken from an article in a newspaper dated 13th October 1899. This informs you that the Bull Bridge Brick Company has now been dissolved by mutual consent & Mr. William Eaton will carry on the business under his own name at Bull Bridge, any debts due to or by the late firm will be received or discharged by him.
Kelly's 1916 trade directory is the last entry in William's name.
The brickworks at Waingroves, a small village near Ripley, Derbyshire was owned by the Butterley Brick Co. I have found many bricks made by this company, stamping their bricks just Waingroves or Waingroves Metallic, Waingroves Plastic or Butterley Co. Ltd/ Waingroves.
The works was first opened in 1890 next to the pit, but never got established & was then mothballed.
With the Company's brickworks at Codnor Park being run down & then closing around 1913/14, the Waingroves brickworks originally known as the Marehay Brickworks, was re-opened & in production in 1915 with completely new updated plant.
The Company closed Waingroves pit in 1921 & then in that same year a new 18 chamber Staffordshire Kiln & chimney was built, which was in use until September 1974. This kiln produced 400,000,000 bricks during it's lifetime.
Butterley's first entry in Kelly's Trade Directory is 1925, then 1928, both recording the works as The Marehay Brickworks. This is because the works bordered onto the village of Marehay, which is now part of Ripley. It is in Kelly's 1932 edition that the works is first recorded as Waingroves.
In 1968 the Butterley Company was taken over by the Wiles Group, later called Hanson Trust Ltd, and then Hanson plc. This new company sold off all it's engineering interests, just leaving it's brick & building materials interests.
The works closed in June 2006 with the loss of 63 jobs.
Edward Gripper an ex-farmer from Essex established his brickworks at Mapperley Top, Nottingham in 1855 & is recorded in Kelly's 1855 edition as Edward Gripper & Co. Mapperley Hill, Nottingham.
In 1867 he was joined by William Burgess, creating the Nottingham Patent Brick Co. This new company used the Hoffman Kiln process which Edward Gripper & his managers had previously negotiated the local use of before Burgess join this new company. This process drastically increased NPBC companies brick output to 27 million per year & in his honour bricks were produced with Gripper's name on. NPBC went on to produce the millions of facing bricks for St. Pancreas Station in London, which they were the main contractor for.
I have found only two entries for The Coalville Tile & Brick Co. The first is in Kelly's 1876 edition with John Evatt as manager/partner & the second is in White's 1877 edition with John Evatt, manager. The only conclusion is that it was a short lived company, but they produced a nice quality brick.
Made by Thomas Wragg & Sons at Swadlincote, Derbyshire near Burton upon Trent, the company is recorded in Kelly's 1876 edition at Hill Top clay works. All of the other Thomas Wragg bricks that I ever found have been salt glazed bricks with Swadlincote stamped under his name, I seem to remember that this was a glazed brick also.
So if you wish to visit Cawarden Reclamation I have pasted their link below. It's well worth a visit.
http://www.cawardenreclaim.co.uk
Many Thanks to Cawarden Reclamation for allowing me to go round the yard & photograph your bricks. Many new names have now been recorded on Penmorfa brick web site.
