Scotland's Brick and Tile Manufacturing Industry

Lilybank Brick and Tile Works, Pollokshields, Glasgow AKA Glasgow Brick and Tile Works (See entry dated 06/06/1862).

Bell, Hornsbybay & Co. were a building and contracting firm, and one of many brick manufacturers in the Glasgow area. From the 1860s to the 1890s, local brick was widely used for factories, and for the internal and rear walls of stone-faced commercial and domestic buildings). Of the original partners, Alexander Hamilton seems to have been the longest-established, manufacturing bricks at Lilybank off Eglinton Street, on the south side of the city, from about 1852.  He expanded into tile making, operating from a second brickworks at Strathbungo in 1858, before becoming a ‘silent partner’ in Bell, Hornsby. Another partner, Robert Bell, possibly ran a bricklaying firm in South Wellington Street c. 1857 (he is not to be confused with the wealthy Wishaw and Broxburn industrialist of the same name, who was also a brickmaker). Other partners were John Thomson Hornsby and Alexander Whitelaw, a Greenock-based builder.

1852 – Lillybank Brickworks established?

22/06/1855 – Glasgow Herald – Alexander Hamilton pays Patrick McCusker or any of his workmen, their wages daily or hourly if required. Lilybank Brickwork. Glasgow 02/06/1855.

Below – 1858 – Lilybank Brickworks.

15/11/1858 – Glasgow Herald – I pay Philip Hunt or any other of my workmen, daily or hourly, if required, as formerly, Alexander Hamilton, Lilly Bank Brickworks, Glasgow.

05/09/1861 – Southern Reporter – Boiler explosion – 1 man killed. On Wednesday afternoon shortly before 3 o’clock, a dreadful boiler explosion took place at the Glasgow brick and tile works possessed by Mr John McIntyre and situated at Lilybank Road off Eglinton Street. It appears that the workmen in the tile field were about to resume work after dinner when a terrific explosion was heard at the engine house, followed by clouds of dust and steam. On proceeding to the spot the workmen found 1 poor fellow named Michael McLanagan, labourer, who had only joined the works on Monday last, lying on a heap of rubbish about 10 yards from the furnace door of the boiler, in a dying state. Another 3 men who had been in the vicinity of the boiler were scalded and bruised but their injuries are not serious and they were able to walk home. The plates that gave way were those immediately above the fire. The force of the explosion was so great that the furnace doors, bars, bricks and other debris were blown into the air and some alighted in a field at a distance of 150 yards away. A portion of the boiler house was torn down and the bricks scattered in all directions. At present no one can assign any cause for the explosion.

17/02/1862 – Glasgow Herald – To land proprietors and farmers. Drain pipes and tiles for sale at Titwood Tileworks, off Pollokshaws Road opposite South Side Park. For further particulars apply at the works or to Alexander Hamilton, Lily Bank Brickworks, head of Eglinton Street, Glasgow.

06/06/1862 – Glasgow Herald – Notice – The copartnery carried on by the subscribers as brick makers and brick builders in Glasgow, under the firm of John McIntyre was this day dissolved by mutual consent. 04/06/1862. Signed John McIntyre and Alexander Thomson. Witnesses Jno Petrie and John Guy. The subscriber, John McIntyre who now carries on the business alone, will uplift and pay all debts due to or by the late company. Signed John McIntyre and Alexander Thomson. Glasgow Brick and Tile Works. 04/06/1862.

1867 – The 1985 publication ‘A survey of Scottish brickmarks’ suggests that Bell Hornsby and Co may have been involved with the works at this time.

1867- 1868 – John McIntyre, Glasgow Brickworks, Lilybank Road. House 2 Moray Place, Regent Park.

c.1870 – Brickfield Works, Glasgow?

20/02/1872 – Glasgow Herald – Deaths. At 2 Knightsood Place, Paisley Road, Glasgow on 19th inst, Mr Alexander Hamilton, aged 59 years, formerly of Lilybank Brickworks.

1873 – 1874 – John McIntyre, builder and brickmaker, Lilybank Road, Pollockshields, Glasgow.

1873 – 1874 – Owen Monaghan, hand and travelling oven builder? Lilybank Road Brickworks, Glasgow.

19/11/1875 – Glasgow Herald – At Glasgow Brickfield, Lilybank Road, on Wednesday 24th November 1875 at 12 noon, brickfield plant – double brick making machine … N & J.W Cameron have been instructed by the trustees of the late John McIntyre to sell as per the above, by public roup, the whole plant, in consequence of the expiry of the lease. On view any day prior to sale. N & J.W Cameron Auctioneers. The dwelling house, stables and coach house are to be let for a term of years.

Bygonebungo – John McIntyre was the son of Archibald McIntyre, a mason from Glenorchy. He was born in Callander in 1822, but the family then moved to Glasgow. He married Joan McLaren from Balquidder in January 1849 in Callander, two weeks after his brother George, also a mason, had married her cousin Janet McLaren.

In 1861 he was living at 253 Eglinton Street with his wife and children, and his widowed mother-in-law. By that time he was a master mason employing 24 men and 9 apprentices and was running the nearby Lilybank Brickworks.

He partnered with the quarry master William Stevenson in obtaining the feu of the land that would become modern Strathbungo from Sir John Maxwell of Pollok, and constructing the first terrace, 1-10 Moray Place, to the design of their architect friend, Alexander “Greek” Thomson. The cost was estimated at £5,600. On completion, Alexander moved into No. 1, and John into No. 2. He didn’t stay long, however, moving in 1865-6 to the then new 40 (now 41) Regent Park Square round the corner.

He was the Deacon of the Incorporation of Masons of Glasgow in 1865, and their records have provided a portrait of him. He died in Callander in 1872, aged 50. He was buried in Old Cathcart Cemetery, with a Thomson-designed monument.