It is good to see a museum recognising the significance and importance of old bricks with regards to a country’s heritage and history. This page is reproduced with the kind permission of the Market Lavington Museum, England
Market Lavington Museum, England
The 3 bricks pictured below are absolute crackers – great finds and definitely well worth saving.
There is a long history of brick making in Market Lavington – certainly back into the seventeenth century. A suitable source of clay existed at Broadway where bricks were made through the eighteenth, nineteenth and into the twentieth century.
Here we are looking at earlier bricks, using a photograph that was a part of the 2010 ‘Photographing Wiltshire’s Treasures’ project – an award winning collaboration between the Museum service and photography students from New College, Swindon.
The three bricks shown were all made in Market Lavington. The top brick is stamped “ IL 1721” so we know the age, if not the manufacturer by name.
Next, we have a Philpott brick. The Philpotts had the brick works from about 1760 and well into the nineteenth century.
The third brick is stamped, G A Cayley. Cayley is not a name which appears in Market Lavington records. Could it be that some written documents which have the surname ‘Crawley’ as an 18th century Market Lavington brick maker should actually say, Cayley?
Low Cocklaw Brick and Tile Works are 100 yards on the English side of the border situated near Edrington Castle Farm in Scotland. (Note – SBH – I am referencing this tileworks as the claypit is right on the Scottish Border and they would have undoubtedly had Scottish customers). Interestingly the ScotlandPlaces website and the…
John Cathles Hill (1857–1915), builder and brickmaker, was born in Anderson’s Entry, Hawkhill, Dundee, on 12 December 1857, the eldest son of Robert Hill and his wife Eliza, née Cathles. There were six children, three boys (including John) and three girls, one of whom died in infancy. The elder Hill was a wheelwright and joiner, and in 1860 succeeded his father and grandfather as tollhouse…
Shidlaw Tileworks are 100 yards on the English side of the border situated on the Kelso Branch Railway and approximately 1 mile from Hadden Farm in Scotland. They are approximately 1/2″ from Carham Railway Station. (Note – SBH – I am referencing these tileworks as the claypit seems to run across the railway and right…
Found by Old Frechevillian at found Manningham, Bradford, West Yorks. Archibald Neill, Listerhills, Bradford. Directory of Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield 1866. Archibald Neill (1826-1874) was born in Musselburgh, Scotland and came to Bradford as a young man to work with his brother Robert, a contractor of Manchester. Neill remained in Bradford and rose to become the…
The images below are those of a brick that oozes character and historical value. A remarkable piece of history. An old brick found in Bielby, East Riding of Yorkshire, England by Richard Coe says on it: “This brick was made 18 May 1741 by Wm Morrill” The brick is handmade and has a depth of…
