Photo by Tom Langton.
Photo by Frank Lawson. Martyn Fretwell writes :- Farco was a
trade name used by the Farcet Brick Co. in Peterborough, which was
owned by the McDougall family (flour mills) of Manchester. The
Farcet Brick Co. in Farcet, Peterborough appears in Kelly's 1898
& 1903 editions with N. McDougall as secretary & was in
operation from 1896 to 1921. After the company went into liquidation
the works was sold to the London Brick Co. A link to brickworks in
that area in 1900.
Photo by Pál Aczima.
Farnley Iron Works was founded in 1844 by Armitage Brothers of Farnley Hall. It is reckoned that the Farnley Iron Company produced more bricks than iron. It manufactured both household and firebricks.
This one is a double bull nose and is glazed.
Photos by Frank Lawson.
This wonderful glazed brick was discovered during the renovation of Carnforth station in Lancashire. Stephanie writes: When renovation work was being carried out by builders in the Furness and Midland Hall, they found one of the bricks was loose, high up on one of the walls, and on pulling it out and turning it round they found the other side was ceramic and ornately inscribed with the words "Farnley Iron Co Ltd Farnley, Leeds. This hadn't been seen, since it was built in the 1890's.
Photo by Derek Barker.
Phots by David Kitching.
Photo by Anthony Burke who found this example marked WORTLEY in an old fireplace at a farm in Cowling near Keighley.
Photo by Alan Davies.
Photo courtesy of Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life.
Kelly's Directory for 1889 has Robert Farrant as a brick manufacturer at Growen, Cullompton. Photo by Nick Savage.
Mark Cranston says that Fell & Co. operated as merchants in bricks and other goods, out of the port Newcastle upon Tyne, in the 1850's/60's. It is likely that bricks bearing the name FELL were made by unknown brickworks to the order of the Fell company. Found at Dunston near Gateshead. Photo by Chris Tilney.
Photo by Chris Graham.
Made in Huddersfield. Photo by courtesy of the Frank Lawson collection.
Photo by Russ Firth.
I suspect that this is a product of Lumley brickworks. Photo by Mitch Richardson.
Fencehouses Brickworks Ltd., Fencehouses, Co.Durham. Photos by Frank Lawson.
Glebe Colliery was established by the mid nineteenth century and operated for around 100 years. From the 1860s it was operated by Challinor and Co and then by 1900, J Heath and Co. In 1919 it was in the hands of Fenton Collieries Ltd and continued to work into the nationalised era. It finally closed under the NCB in October 1964. The associated brickworks was situated a short distance to the south of the pit and had three round kilns in 1878. The brickworks was still in business in the 1930s, but had been levelled by 1953. Photo and info by David Kitching.
Photo by William Whitehead
The Glebe Pit was one of the Fenton Collieries. Image PRBCO.
James Wood ran the Fenton Tileries, Fenton Culvert in partnership
with Leonard Broughton Wood as a brick and tile manufacturer. The
business is first listed in the trade directory of 1875-76 and
James Wood was bankrupt
in May 1892. It appears that the site was owned by Messrs John
Challinor & Co Ltd, Glebe Colliery, Fenton, and there is
a memorandum of minutes re the application by William Hill and
others to take lease of Fenton Tileries
brickworks, 20 Feb 1893. Photo and information by David
Kitching.
Photo by Martyn Fretwell.
Photo by Greg Julian.
Photos by Chris Tilney.
Photo by Ian Suddaby.
Photo by Richard Cornish.
Kelly's Durham Directory 1890: - Fire Brick Manufacturers Ferens & Love, Lanchester, Durham Ferens & Love, 28 Market Place ; works, Cornsay & Lanchester Collieries, Durham Cornsay colliery was opened in 1868 by Ferens and Love, who employed 700 men at the colliery and its associated drift mines. The company established a works alongside the colliery specifically for the manufacture of bricks and sanitary pipes using fire clay extracted from the mine. The brickworks operated for some time after the closure of the colliery in 1953. Photos and info by Frank Lawson.
Joseph and Sarah Love had one son, Isaac Pearson Love, who died in 1854, leaving an only child, Joseph Horatio Love, born in 1853, who subsequently lived at The Hawkhills near Easingwold, Yorkshire. Isaac Pearson Love's widow Sarah (née Stephinson) in ca.1857 married Robinson Ferens (died 1892), originally a draper of Durham City and Willington, County Durham. Robinson Ferens became a member of the Methodist New Connexion perhaps in ca.1857. After his marriage he was appointed manager of Joseph Love's collieries. He later joined with Love as a partner in developing new collieries and after Love's death in 1875 had sole direction of the collieries, becoming wealthy.
Made in Sacriston in County Durham. A local history (Rand &
Nairn, 'Memories of Sacriston', 2004) says it was made by the Findon
Hill Coal Company in and for a few years after 1873. Photo and info
by Ian Hunter.
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Joseph Firbank was a contractor who was responsible for the building of railways in many parts of Britain in the nineteenth century. This brick came from a bridge on the Lewes and East Grinstead Railway, better known today as the Bluebell Railway. Firbank was the contractor for this line which opened in 1882. Photo and information by David Kitching.
Photo by Frank Lawson.
Fitton's Brick and Tile Co., Pildacre, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. Listed in Robinson 1904. Located between Dewsbury and Ossett. Photos by Jason Stott.
Around 1845 Isaac Flavell a Railway Contractor established a brickworks next his Stonehouse Farm in Weoley Castle, Birmingham to exploit the rich seam of good quality brickmaking clay. Isaac Flavell is first listed as a brickmaker in White’s 1845 edition with the address of Gas Street, Birmingham which was his wharf side distribution warehouse. It was only after Flavell had built the California Inn (which he owned) near the Lappel Canal Tunnel in 1850 that this area of Weoley Castle became known as California. In 1864 Flavell put his brickworks up for sale & with there being no buyers Flavell leased his works in 1865 to James Smart in a 14 year agreement. Isaac Flavel died in June 1870 & James Smart then purchased the brickworks & clay mine from his Executors for £4,200. Isaac Flavell also owned a brickworks at Mucklow Hill, Halesowen producing blue bricks for his railway contracts which James Smart also leased in 1865 & then purchased in 1872. Photo & Info by Martyn Fretwell.
Passmonds Brickworks. 1881 census: - David Fletcher. Age 38. Brickmaker employing 4 men & 4 boys. 228 Edenfield Road, Passmonds, Rochdale.
Info by Frank Lawson, photo by David Kitching.
Photo by Frank Lawson.
Photo by Jason Stott.
Great Lever is a district of Bolton, 2km south of the town centre. Photos by Frank Lawson.
Found at a nearby brick reclamation site near Towcester by Nigel
Furniss
Fletcher & Sons, Horwich, a product of the same works
Photo by courtesy of the Frank Lawson collection.
Photo by Steve Reynolds.
William Fletcher, Tong Moor Brickworks, Bolton. Photos by David Kitching.
Photo by Frank Lawson.
Thought to be made in Ripley, Derbyshire, by a partnership in the late 1870s between brickmakers Samuel Fletcher and George Watson. Photo by Martyn Fretwell.
Thanks to Simon Patterson for the photos. Flettons were based near Peterborough.
The Foleshill Brick & Tile Co is listed in Kellys 1900 to 1940 editions at Sydall Road, Longford, Coventry. Info by Martyn Fretwell, photo by Frank Lawson.
Photo by Steve Chaplin.
The Clayworkers' Directory for 1901 lists this company as The Folkestone Brick & Tile Co., Ltd.; Works, Cheriton, near Folkestone. Wire-cuts and Pressed Bricks. The earliest reference I have found is from August 1898 advertising turf for sale which suggests that they were stripping land for clay extraction. The last reference is in 1925. Photo by David Hall.
Ford Brick Works, South Ford, Hylton Road,Sunderland, 1890s. The works was taken over by The Ford Limestone and Brick Co in 1900. Photo by Chris Tilney.
William Ford was a builder living in Chell and Fegg Hayes districts of North Staffordshire who in the 1840s and 50s had brickmaking interests in Navigation Road and Nile Street, Burslem and also at nearby Sneyd. In the 1860s and early 70s he was a coal master and then an agent and there are no brickworks listings for his name in trade directories. under his name for brickworks. He reappears in 1876 and 1880 and in the 1881 census as a brick manufacturer living in Burslem with a works in Fegg Hayes which is where this brick was found when houses were demolished. Photo by David Kitching.
B J H Forder opened a brickworks at Wootton Pillinge in Bedfordshire in 1897. This later became known as Stewartby. The business was floated in 1900 as B J Forder & Son Ltd and was merged with The London Brick Company. Photo by Steve Strapps.
Martyn Fretwell writes ;- The Forest (Walsall) Brick Co. Ltd., Northcote Street, Bloxwich Road, Walsall is listed in Kelly’s 1928 to 1940 editions. The company had taken over the brickworks which had been previously been run by the Birchills & North Walsall Brick Co., situated next to the North Walsall Railway Station. A notice in the London Gazette signed by Chairman Joseph Cohen dated 10th September 1965, records that the Company was "voluntarily wound up" at a special meeting on the 24th of August 1965. Photo by courtesy of the Frank Lawson collection.
Fosilsil Solid. Heat insulating bricks carrying the brand name FOSALSIL were designed for the flues of glass furnaces and presumably brickworks. They're fragile and lightweight. Production was by Moler Products Ltd at Hythe Works in Colchester. Photo and info by Ian Suddaby.
Foss Brick & Tile Works, Millbrook, Cornwall. Founded c1870 and in business until 1913 this brickworks was owned by theh Devonshire Brick Co Ltd. Photo by David Kitching, part of the collection at Wheal Martyn China Clay Museum.
Photo by Bernie Millington.
Photos by Ian Williams.
Henry Foster & Co, Hotspur Brickworks, Backworth, Newcastle which opened in 1877. The works was taken over by General Refactories in 1955 and closed in 1967. Info by Martyn Fretwell, photo by Ian Suddaby.
Photo by Tony Gray.
Photos by Chris Tilney.
Photo by Neville Akers.
Photo by Steven Tait.
Photographed in Staveley by Simon Patterson
Foster Crown, thanks to Darren Haywood for the photo.
John Foster is recorded as a firebrick manufacturer at Felling Shore, Gateshead 1858-68.
Found at Meltham, W.Yorks. Origin not certain but found with a number of local bricks so possibly - John Foster, Woodhouse, Normanton, West Yorks. Kelly's West Riding Directory 1881. Photo by Frank Lawson.
Henry Foster, Todhills Brickworks, Bishop Auckland, Co.
Durham. Established in the mid-1930's, on the site of the
former railway station, the firm of Henry Foster at Todhills near
Bishop Auckland continued in production until 1979, from which date
the business has passed through a succession of ownerships, today
being part of the Wienerberger Group. Info by Arthur
Brickman, photo by Chris Tilney.
Photo by Chris Tilney.
Photo by Anthony E Gray.
Photo by Tony Gray.
William Foster, Stoneygate & Pelaw, Felling, Co. Durham. Fosters brickworks were at Stoneygate and Pelaw. Foster was in the right place at the right time when he landed a contract to make bricks for the massive building programme of the Co-operative Wholesale Society at Pelaw. The business was liquidated in 1941. Photos by Frank Lawson.
Photos by courtesy of the Frank Lawson collection. Found in Bessacar near Doncaster. Phillip Rothery adds: This is made by Fountain & Burnley, Mapplewell Brickworks, Darton near Barnsley. This site is listed in trade directories between 1904 and 1927. The company also owned the nearby North Gawber colliery 1882 - 1947 and Woolley Colliery 1910 - 1947.
At least four generations of the Fowell family ran the brickworks at Gnosall Heath and then adjacent to the Shropshire Union Canal at Cowley in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Richard Fowell Senior and his son Richard were in charge in the 1850s and by the 1880s had been succeeded by Richard junior's son Henry Fowell who was in turn succeeded by his son Henry Richard by 1901 and still there in 1911. The Cowley works seems to have closed soon after 1921. Photo by David Kitching.
Photo by Graham Symons.
Photo courtesy of Gnosall Heritage Group.
Found near Tow Law in Durham by Chris Tilney.
Photo by Steven Tait.
There's an entry in the 1885 Wigan Directory listing him as a builder, contractor and licensed victualler at the Royal Hotel, 250 Castle Hill Road, Hindley. Info by Alan Davies, photo by Malcolm Brown.
Thought to be John Frank & Sons, Barton upon Humber, Lincs. Found by Frank Lawson in Pocklington.
Freshfield Lane Brickworks at Danehill, Sussex, was established over one hundred years ago and is now part of Michelmersh Brick Holdings PLC. Photo and info by Martyn Fretwell. Also see entry for Michelmersh Brick Co. Many Thanks to Richard Symonds for the early history. - The brickworks was started in 1899 on the west side of Freshfield Lane in the Parish of Horsted Keynes In 1907, brothers John & Alfred Setford, were recorded as brickmakers at the works. From 1927 onwards the company traded as Freshfield Lane Brickworks and was owned by the Hardy Family. They produce sand-faced, clamp-fired stocks and were still in production in 1993. Reference Sussex Industrial Archaeology Society Gazeteer.
Photo by Guy Morgan.
Simon Patterson photographed this one at Avoncroft Museum
Originally owned by the West family the Frindsbury works at Chatham in Kent was sold to George Bluett Winch in 1903. Winch formed Frindsbury Brickfield Co Ltd and soon sold the lease on the brickworks to Medway Insurance Co Ltd which was followed by Kent Estates & Investments Co Ltd, and finally in 1925 by Northern Assurance Co Ltd. The works made yellow stock bricks.
Liverpool Mercury, 26 May 1854
To Mr. Henry Clayton, London
Bury, Lancashire, April 11, 1854.
Sir,- In reply to your inquiries respecting the working and results of your Patent Brick Machine, I beg to say it entirely meets with my approbation, and does more work and better than I expected. I am now making upwards of 12,000 per day, with a set of men that never worked in a brickfield before, or ever saw the machine. In another week's practice I hope to get 3,000 more out of it per diem. I have no hesitation in saying it is the best machine extant, and I intend ordering another. Send me one of your Patent Brick Presses, same size mould as before.- I am, sir, yours, respectfully,
(Signed) John R. Frith, Contractor, &c.
Photo by Paul Higson.
This is a product of Jno Froggatt of North Wingfield, Derbyshire, listed as brickmaker in the 1857 White's Directory of Derbyshire. Photo and information by David Kitching.
Photos by Chris Tilney.
Alfred Fuller bought land next to the railway station on Station Road, Warboys, Huntingdonshire for his brickworks between 1891 & 1896. Alfred Fuller is listed in Kellys 1898 edition at Warboys with offices at High Street, Ramsey. Kellys 1910 edition now reads Alfred Fuller (exors of). The works is next listed in Kellys 1914 edition as being owned by the Warboys Brick Works Company. This company then sold the works to LBC in 1923. Info & Photo by Martyn Fretwell.
Photo by Vladimir Smirnov. Funton bricks are still made today
by Ibstock
Photo by courtesy of the Richard Symonds collection.
Funton Brickworks, Lower Halstow, Sittingbourne, Kent. In its latter years the Funton Brickworks was owned by Ibstock Brick Ltd and under their ownership it closed in 2008. Prior to Ibstock I am unable to determine who owned the works but Eastwood & Co and Redland did own works in the same area so they may have had some connection. Photo and info by Frank Lawson.
Askam-in-Furness is located 8km north of Barrow-in-Furness. Brickworks aside Barrow to Millom railway line. Still operative 2010. Image PRBCO.
Photo by Mark Cranston.
Photo by Martyn Fretwell.
Photos by Frank Lawson.
Photo by Chris Graham.
Photos by Frank Lawson.
Photo by David Kitching.
Made in Barrow in Furness and found in Moffat, Dumfrieshire by Peter Robinson.
Image PRBCO.
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Found at the old paper mill site in Barrow in Furness by Richard Comish.
Found in Barrow by Richard Comish.
The Furness Brick and Tile Co Ltd., Barrow-in-Furness. The works were started about 1866 by Messrs. Woodhouse and Co. In 1876 AJ Woodhouse moved his yard to Walney Road and his works covered an area of over 20 acres. Later the business passed into the hands of Messrs. R. F. Matthews and Son, and eventually in 1898 the Furness Brick & Tile Co Ltd., was founded. The company had two large works and premises, one situated at Hindpool covering an area of about 19 acres, and one at Ormsgill of about 6 acres. The output of the two works comprises all the usual kinds of plain and ornamental bricks, drainage tiles for agricultural purposes, and the best kinds of facing bricks. In 1901 the weekly output was about 320,000 common bricks and 53,000 facing bricks with a workforce of about 250. Final closure came in 1972.
Mr John Rhodes Fyfe started 'Shipley Firebrick Works' (later called the Sanitary Tube and Brick Works) at the Shipley end of Heaton Woods, Bradford around 1875. The works continued in operation for about 50 years. As well as refractory fire bricks for furnaces, his works made household bricks, salt-glazed sinks, animal troughs and chimney pots. Coal pits and a quarry site were associated with the brick-works. I have seen both [FYFE] and [SHIPLEY] brick-marks on opposite sides of a double frogged, pressed, fire-brick. Another brickmark used was [J R FYFE & Co][SHIPLEY]. A plan of the works dating to 1877 survives in the West Yorkshire Archives. The works with its beehive kilns is mapped on the OS 1890-91 which also shows the old coal pit on site. This seems to have been abandoned by the 1908 OS map to be replaced by a drift mine under an adjacent hillside with the products reaching the works by means of a short tramway; after this there seems to have been a second drift with an entrance in the quarry north of the site. The works have been demolished by the time of the 1934 OS revision. Thanks to Derek Barker for photos and information.
