(Note – SBH – The Pumpherston Brickworks were also situated on Drumshoreland Road. Did they operate the same site as Kirkforthar Brick Co Ltd either at the same time for a period or one after the other?).
Kirkforthar Brick Co Ltd, Drumshoreland Road, Pumpherston, Livingston, West Lothian EH53 0LG.
Source – Tilcon coloured mortar, brick and block directory 1989 – Calcium silicate bricks – sand lime.
Thanestone – Red, yellow, sandstone, heather, dark grey, natural, light grey, brown.
Smooth face – Red, yellow, sandstone, heather, dark grey, natural, light grey, brown.
All bricks are 65mm. 73mm blocks are available to special order.
Calcium Silicate – Calcium silicate is the chemical compound Ca₂SiO₄, also known as calcium orthosilicate and is sometimes formulated as 2CaO·SiO₂. It is also referred to by the shortened trade name Cal-Sil or Calsil. It occurs naturally as the mineral larnite.
1966 – Construction News – Related news to the manufacture of Calcium Silicate bricks – Calcium silicate brick manufacturers are losing millions of pounds every year because their products are being unfairly blacklisted.
That is the claim of the Calcium Silicate Brick Association (CSBA), which has launched a campaign against the growing inclusion of its products on lists of deleterious materials in building contract documents.
John Saunders, chairman of the CSBA and a director of Ryarsh, the UK’s largest maker of calcium silicate bricks, said: The problem has got worse with the increased use of legal documents, such as collateral warranties, in the building industry and with the increasing trend towards subcontracting of design and contract management.
The so-called blacklists developed from documents originally intended to exclude genuinely deleterious materials asbestos, for example. According to Mr Saunders, these lists have gradually been extended, probably by over-cautious and ill-informed legal professionals, to include other products which pose no risk.
Ryarsh manufactures calcium silicate bricks to British Standard BS 187 and was awarded an agreement certificate for its calcium silicate bricks five years ago. Last year, in an open letter, British Board of Agreement director Peter Hewlett described the blacklisting of calcium silicate bricks as unjustified and based on misconceptions.
Research conducted in 1994 by the Construction Industry Research and Information Association found 68 products, not originally identified by any collateral warranty documents, included on lists of proscribed materials. Calcium silicate bricks appeared on nearly half these lists.
Mr Saunders said that all members of the CSBA had suffered a loss of business as a result of the blacklists and that the effects had been more significant than the recession.
Up to 25 per cent of potential business has been lost.
It wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that the problem has brought the industry to its knees, said Mr Saunders.
The CSBA campaign aims not only to publicise the problem but also to confront every case it finds. This will involve supporting specifiers who are banned from using calcium silicate bricks and lobbying government with the aim of keeping product blacklists out of public sector contracts.
We will also take legal recourse if we can find the right case, said Mr Saunders.
A legal precedent was narrowly missed recently when a Scottish manufacturer, Kirkforthar Brick, challenged the inclusion of calcium silicate bricks on a blacklist used by West Lothian District Council. The council agreed to lift the ban before a court ruling could be made.
Scottish Oils Limited Brick and Tile Works, Pumpherston, West Lothian and Dalmeny Brickworks. (Note – SBH – I cannot find the Dalmeny Brickworks on any map. Any ideas where exactly they were situated at Dalmeny?). Below – 13/11/1937 – The Scotsman – Brickworks to be established at Dalmeny. 29/01/1938 – The Scotsman – Huge shale…
Found on the shore at Maryport, Cumbria. Calsil – possibly an abbreviation for ‘Calcium Silicate’ Unknown manufacturer. . . . The following are references to brick manufacturers using calcium silicate. Below – 12/03/1931 – West Sussex Gazette – Midhurst Brick Company, Midhurst, Sussex. 37s 6d per 1000. 1966 – Construction News – Related news to…
(Many thanks to Ian Roy for identifying much of the information on this page). Shotts Sand-Lime Brickworks, Shotts, North Lanarkshire aka locally as the ‘White Brickworks’. See also:- Northfield Brickworks, Shotts. (Note – SBH – The 1985 publication ‘A survey of Scottish brickmarks’ suggests these were two different brickworks albeit they were situated very close together….
24/04/1975 – The Scotsman – Scotland’s brickmakers build Scotland’s future. Scottish members of the Scottish Brick Development Association. Cherryton Brick Company. Dewar and Finlay Ltd. Glasgow Iron and Steel. Kirkforthar Brick Co Ltd. Motherwell Brick Co. Scottish Brick Co Ltd.
Philpstoun Oil Works Brickworks, Linlithgow, West Lothian. Below – 1914 – Philpstoun Oil Works – site of the later brickworks?). 19/11/1920 – West Lothian Courier – New brickworks to be started at Philpstoun. Ground has been staked off for the erection of new brickworks at Philpstoun. The spent shale bings are to be utilised in…
Found by Gordon Allan in Ecclesmachan, Browxburn, West Lothian. Kirkforthar Brick Co Ltd, Drumshoreland Road, Pumpherston, Livingston, West Lothian. This brick may look broken but it is not. It is moulded in this way so that the showing face looks like stone. . . . . .
Canmore Below – 1938 – This map details a sandpit which would be the future site of the Kirkforthar Brickworks site. Below – 11/07/1968 – Birmingham Daily Post – Works manager required for the Kirforthar Brick Company Limited, Markinch, Fife.
21/09/1896 – Feodor Boas patent. Be it known that I, Feodor Boas, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, residing at St. Hyacinthe, in the Province of Quebec, Dominion of Canada, have invented certain new and useful improvements in compounds of matter; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear,…
10/05/1927 – Ballochmyle Brick Company Limited, Knowehead Quarries, Locharbriggs, By Dumfries. Incorporated On 10 May 1927. 20/6/1979 – Offices of W G Patterson & Co, Ballochmyle Brickworks, Knowehead Quarry, Dumfries & Galloway Ballochmyle Brickworks was opened in 1935 at Knowehead Quarry, Locharbriggs, 3.2km north-east of Dumfries. The brickworks used waste sandstone dust and fragments from…
Scottish Oils Limited Brick and Tile Works, Pumpherston, West Lothian and Dalmeny Brickworks. (Note – SBH – I cannot find the Dalmeny Brickworks on any map. Any ideas where exactly they were situated at Dalmeny?). (Note – SBH – The Pumpherston Brickworks were situated on Drumshoreland Road. Did they operate the same site as Kirkforthar…
