| The First Edition Ordnance Survey shows three brick works
at Greet and one at Tyseley. We have used the directories to assign brick
makers to the other three works, hopefully not in error.
1890
The one that seemed to last the shortest time
was at Albion Road in Greet. Charles Williams is listed there in 1881, and
John Bullock in 1882. There is no listing from 1883.
The other works are the Greet, Burbury and Tyseley brickworks.
1890
The Greet Brickworks
In 1878 and 1879 John Denston is listed at Greet, and in 1880 and 1882 Herbert Leamon
is listed at the Greet Brickworks. By 1883 William Evans is listed at the
Warwick Road in Greet. The house nearby (Greet House) appears to be owned by
Leamon. Albert Stephenson has amusing things to say about both Leamon and
Evans:
Of Herbert Leamon, he said that he
"seemed to make bricks by riding about on horseback all day long!" Of
William Evans, he wrote: "this yard was run by a friend of mine named
William Evans, who was just about as well fitted to make bricks as to fill
the position of Prime Minister! But then there is a popular superstition
that any fool can make bricks!" (page 99).
By 1890 Mrs Hannah Evans is listed at the
works, and she continues to be listed until 1896. In 1897 Arthur Lewis is
listed at Warwick Road as well as at the Burbury Brickworks, so he must have
absorbed the Greet works into his own at that time.
The Burbury Brickworks
The first Edition O.S. map shows a small brickworks to the west of the Greet
works, not accessed from the Warwick Road, but from Bridge Road, off Percy
Road. In 1878 and 1879 James Lewis is listed at Burbury Street (Aston/Nechells)
and Greet. Lewis, in the form of Arthur Lewis, is not listed until 1896,
with the name Burbury imported: perhaps the works was dormant while the
Greet Brickworks was in business. In 1897 Lewis has both sites.
Albert Stephenson has a couple of pages
on the Burbury Brickworks, including characteristically amusing turns of
phrase. He wrote that after the plant stopped working in 1917, the pit
filled up with water, and overflowed into the Cole. The owner, Arthur Lewis
was, according to him: a brickmaker of the
old school, who believed in making a big quantity of bricks, and in 'getting
rid' of them somehow! He was also a great lover of horses, and kept a stable
of twenty or thirty of them for the purpose of delivering his bricks. When
the writer once remonstrated with him for selling his bricks at such
absurdly low prices, his reply was : 'Well, I must sell the damned things at
some price or another, or I should not be able to keep my horses at work'!
(page 91) In 1917, Stephenson
bought the works, and in 1919 he, C.H. Barrows and Ernest Swain formed a new
company. His description of the manufacturing process at that time (1930s)
is interesting: The clay is well
ground and pugged (ground, mixed with water and tempered) and delivered to
the machine by a travelling belt. The bricks are cut off by a Bennett and
Sayer cutter, which delivers them straight into zinc-covered and rubber-tyred
barrows, to the floors of the drying sheds, which are heated solely by the
exhaust steam from the engines. From thence they are conveyed, after some
forty-eight hours, to the kiln - one of sixteen chambers of 25,000 each. The
whole plant - clay hole included - is now lighted by electricity, and
shelters are provided for the clay "getters" in case of bad weather, thus
ensuring the same quantity of bricks being produced, summer and winter
alike. The motive power is steam, provided by a range of three large
boilers. the grinding mill and machinery are by Messrs. Brookes, Ltd.,
Oldbury. (page 92) The Burbury
brickworks closed around 1961. The site was bought by a company who sold
tipping rights to the pit, and anything and everything ended up in there.
Local people were already using part of the site as a short cut, but when
the city was asked to include the former brickworks in the Millstream Way
walk along the River Cole, they discovered that they needed to protect the
public from toxins in the waste, and capped part of the site with clay.
About one-third of it is used for a small industrial estate, and there are
methane vents. Wildlife thrives on the remainder of the site (thanks to
Peter Bennett for this information).
1890 The Tyseley Brickworks
In 1878 and 1879 Doody & Co. are listed at Warwick Road, Tyseley. In 1880
the Tyseley Brick Company is there, in 1883 Lees and Trueman are at the
Warwick Road, Tyseley, and in 1888 Jesse Smith, brick maker, is listed at
Tyseley. He is joined in 1890 by Mrs. Caroline Smith, who used to be at
Stockfield Road, Acocks Green. The last entry is in 1900, and the 1904 map
shows the brickworks as disused.
Introduction
Billesley, Hall
Green and Acocks Green
Greet and Tyseley
Hay Mills
South Yardley
Yardley
village area
Blakesley Hall
area
Stechford
Kents Moat
Directory listings
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