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Introduction
This is the
story of a local brickworks which has long disappeared.
The site has never been redeveloped and today it is
scattered with remains from the demolished buildings and
the old spoil heaps. |
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The location of Penn Brickworks. |
No documentary information about
the works has so far been discovered and unfortunately
the descendants of the Lakin family, the original
owners, know nothing about the business other than that
it was owned by the family.
Much of what follows is conjecture, based upon evidence
from old maps, the remains still on the site, and
standard 19th century brick making practice.
Luckily the remnants of the spoil heaps give a good
indication of what was made at the works and possibly
when. |
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The local Industry
During the 19th
century the UK population almost trebled, but the
increase in the local population was far greater.
Population increases of up to 8 fold occurred in some
areas, as the proportion of people living in towns
increased from 20% to 80%. |
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The Black
Country changed dramatically as industrialisation began
to dominate the area. Large numbers of people moved into
the region to find employment in the new factories, and
the many towns and villages rapidly grew in size to
cater for the expanding population. As a result the
demand for bricks and tiles greatly increased and many
new brickworks appeared, to supply the booming building
trade.
Luckily there
were many local, albeit relatively small, glacial clay
deposits, and these were fully exploited by the brick
makers. Most Black Country towns had at least one brick
maker who took full advantage of the locally mined coal
and the excellent canal and road network that covered
the area.Around Penn there were many 19th
century brickworks thanks to the numerous clay deposits
and the readily available local supplies of cheap coal. |
The site of Penn Brickworks. |
| On the south-eastern side of
Wolverhampton, close to the Dudley Road stood the Elm
Farm Brickworks, and Pheonix Brickworks, and several
others in the Ettingshall Park area. There were also a
number of brickworks around Himley and in Gornal Wood.
All traces of the brickworks have now disappeared, the
only survivor in the area is Baggeridge Brickworks, a
modern company, which started making bricks in 1936, as
a by-product of the Earl of Dudley’s Baggeridge
Colliery.
The works at Penn |
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Trees growing through the base of
the kiln. |
There was
another brick manufacturer in the area, which I have not
yet mentioned. The north-eastern corner of Penn Common
was known as the Seven Cornfields and nearby on the
slopes of Colton Hills were the Penn brickworks. The
works were owned by the Lakin family who lived nearby in
Carlton House.
The remains of
the buildings can still be seen today in the wooded area
between the two footpaths that run along the Colton
Hills. |
| Some of the old floor tiles can
be seen, along with bits of the old kiln, the base of
part of the outer walls, some slate roof tiles, and the
top of the old well.
Parts of the flooded clay pits
still survive, but have been well fenced. In the mid
1930s they were filled with rubble when the buildings
were demolished. |
A filled-in clay hole, now only a
few inches deep. |
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Some of the old bricks and tiles,
pushed up by tree roots. |
All old brickworks had spoil
heaps due to the inevitable rejects that occurred thanks
to the vagaries of the firing process.
The remains of some of the spoil
heaps still survive today and as already mentioned, they
give us an insight into what was produced at the works,
and when. The remains of the spoil heaps contain a wide
variety of bricks and tiles that were made over a long
period of time. |
| The earliest examples are crude
hand-made products that contain a small percentage of
gravel, presumably from the two nearby gravel pits that
were also on the Lakin family’s land. The gravel would
have helped to reduce shrinkage during the firing
process in the kiln and so would have reduced the number
of rejects. There are many well-made standard bricks,
facing bricks, bricks with scroll work or a motif, and
also some high quality examples that look like
terracotta. The more recent bricks are machine made,
indicating that a degree of automation was introduced at
some point. The main clay
pit was situated at the northern end of the site and is
still remembered by the older members of the local
community. It was deep, with steep sides, and like other
clay pits it eventually filled with water. It became
known as “the danger pool” and people often tell the
story of a horse and cart that fell into the pool, and
also a young child who drowned there. |
Another view of the bricks and
tiles. |
| All traces of the pool are now
gone and this could be why it was filled-in. A smaller
nearby pool can still be seen, although this is
partially filled with rubble from the site. |
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The underside of a floor tile
showing the clay-gravel mixture. |
The main building was rectangular
in plan as can be seen from the base of the outer walls.
It was built of brick and had a slate roof.
There were two thick, heavy duty
walls just inside the northern corner of the building
and what seems to be a filled-in pit. This appears to be
the base of a steam engine and boiler, with a pit for
the flywheel. Locals sometimes refer to this part of the
building as the engine house, which adds credence to
what can be seen today. |
| The steam engine would have
powered the pug mill for mixing the clay and also
provided steam for drying the bricks.
It is likely that most of the
building would have been occupied by a steam-heated
drying room, which was usually the largest part of any
late 19th century brickworks, because large
numbers of bricks would have been drying at one time. |
What remains of the outer walls. |
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The well. |
The works had its own water
supply in the form of a well, which can still be seen to
the north-east of the main building. Water was vital to
the brick making process because it would be added to
the freshly dug clay to soften it, and give the right
consistency for moulding.
The earlier rejects lying around the site were hand
moulded, and so the steam engine must have been added
later when the whole process was updated and production
possibly increased. |
| In the early days the clay would
have been dug out by hand in lumps, placed in a soak
pit, and left overnight to soften. Roughly three cubic
yards of clay produced about 1,000 bricks. It could then
be mixed with water to form a suitable consistency for
moulding. It is believed
that crushed lime was added to some of the clay, which
led to a lot of blistering on those particular bricks. |
A Penn brick. |
Many of the tiles scattered around
the site are of a heavy industrial
type like the two above. They are unusual in that they
slot together and so would ensure an even surface and
share a heavy load. |
On the 1901 map
there appears to be a ramp leading from the main
building down into the large clay pit, and so the clay
would have been hauled into the building and placed in
the pug mill, which was probably near to the steam
engine at the northern end of the building. There would
have been at least one moulding table where the bricks
were moulded by hand using four-sided wooden moulds with
no top or bottom. The wooden mould would be placed over
a rectangular piece of wood on the table, to form the
frog, and the clay would be firmly pushed in.
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| The excess was then cut from the
top. The moulds were often lined with a dusting of sand
to prevent the clay sticking. The moulding tables would
have been replaced by moulding machines when the steam
engine was introduced. Mechanisation had several
advantages over traditional methods. The pressure
applied to the clay in the mould was much greater,
leading to a denser and more uniform brick, which gave
more consistent results, leading to fewer rejects. The
machines would also have increased the number of bricks
made. |
| The moulded bricks would be
stacked on racks to dry, where each brick could loose as
much as half a pint of water.
Before the steam engine was installed
this would be a lengthy process, as the bricks would
take a considerable time to dry.
It is possible that at that time,
brick making at the works would have been seasonal,
because the bricks would never properly dry in the
winter months. |
The top view of one of the unusual
floor tiles. |
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An impression of how the kiln
might have looked. |
The works had one kiln, about
thirty feet in diameter, which could have had a capacity
of up to 20,000 bricks, depending upon the height of the
kiln and the stacking density.
Much of the tiled base still
remains and sections have been pushed-up by several
small trees which are now growing in the area. The
circular kiln, with a chimney on one side, can be seen
on old ordnance survey maps. It appears to be a
downdraught kiln which would have been fired from eight
or so fire holes. |
| One of the spoil heaps contains
parts of the curved arches that formed the top of the
fire holes, and another spoil heap contains some of the
tiles that formed the kiln roof. The dried bricks would
have been carefully stacked in the kiln and the coal in
the fire hole grates would be lit to produce the hot
gases, which would be directed upwards from baffles to
the underside of the domed roof. The gases would then
flow downwards through the stacked bricks and out
through the chimney. The floor would usually be
perforated for this purpose. |
Part of the curved top of one of
the kiln's fire holes. |
The site of the kiln today showing
floor tiles and bricks that have
been pushed to the surface by tree roots. The kiln base
is made of the company's interlocking floor tiles,
several of which can be seen above. |
Once fired, the kiln would be fed
with coal through the fire holes and stoked every half
an hour, both day and night. The kiln had to be
constantly attended for around two days until it had
reached a temperature of possibly 1,000oC.
The firing then continued for a further day to maintain
the temperature, while the bricks were baked.
Three or four days later the kiln
would have cooled down sufficiently for the bricks to be
removed. The whole process took just over a week. Great
care was needed during the whole process because the
well-being of the company relied on it. |
| Some rejects were to be expected,
but a whole ruined kiln-full would be disastrous. Two
ruined kiln-fulls in a row could lead to bankruptcy.
Emptying the kiln must have been one
of the most unpleasant tasks at the works. It would have
been emptied as soon as possible after the firing
process, to maintain production. This meant that the
kiln would still be quite warm, and the bricks would not
have fully cooled. |
One of the floor tiles from the
kiln. |
| Although all of the bricks in the
kiln were made from the same clay, their final colour
would depend upon their position in the kiln. The ones
in the centre would reach a higher temperature and so
could be darker and much harder than the outer ones. |
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Another view of the site of the
kiln. |
The 1901
ordnance survey map shows two small outbuildings on the
site. These could have been stables, coal bunkers, or
coverings for the straw that would have been used for
packing.
There would have
been a number of employees, mostly doing dirty and
unpleasant work for little pay. Some would be digging
clay, or operating the pug mill. Others would be
operating the moulding machines or stacking the moulded
bricks in the drying room.
The kiln would
have a number of attendants who stacked the bricks,
controlled the firing and then emptied the kiln at the
end of each firing. There would have been a person in
charge of the boiler and someone to look after the
horses and carts that were used for transportation. |
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Conclusion
It seems that
the brick works could have started in a modest way,
producing small quantities of hand-made bricks, perhaps
seasonally, and then expanded, and possibly enlarged
with the introduction of a steam engine and
mechanisation.
The works were
certainly producing bricks in 1846 because examples have
been found in a house on Wakeley Hill that was built at
this time. Another house, "Beacon View" cottage, owned
by Len Collins, was built by his grandad around 1890
using Penn bricks. If a quantity of bricks was ordered,
the customer’s name would be stamped on top of each
brick, and every brick in "Beacon View" cottage has the
Collins name on it.
Prior to 1850
the company would have been subject to the Brick Tax.
The tax was introduced in 1784, and increased in 1794
and 1803. The company would have paid half a crown (12½
pence) for every thousand bricks produced. The Customs
and Excise would check every mould and count the number
of bricks made. The tax was abolished in 1850 and this
led to a boom in the building industry.
The works are
clearly marked on the 1901 Ordnance Survey map and so
were possibly still operating at the time. It seems that
closure took place sometime before the First World War,
after which the buildings remained empty until
demolition in the mid 1930s. |
The location of the works, the gravel pits,
and Carlton House.
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As already
mentioned, the Lakin family lived at Carlton House,
which was near the top of Sandhurst Drive. The family is
listed at that address in the Wolverhampton Red books
until 1930, but is not listed afterwards. By 1951 the
house was occupied by the Gough family who were
fruiterers and greengrocers. They appear to have
occupied the house until its demolition in the late
1960s when the current houses in Sandhurst Drive were
built.
I would like to thank
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