Crowle Brickworks. Site Visit 1980, 5th September

In September 1980 Ann Los visited Crowle Brickworks as it was being closed down. This is her account and photographs of her visit.

Where ann has inserted text from one of the printed leaflets from the brickworks I have put this with a coloured background.

Crowle Brickworks

Innes Lee Industries

Site Visit 1980

5th September

Clay

Large flooded clay Pits of irregular shape and one rectangular shape surround the works on three sides – the railway line and Canal give a straight finish to the fourth side. The clay extracted is both red and grey and may be mixed in different quantities to provide a range of colours.

In the 1970’s the large rectangular pit was made by the sale of the underlying marl to the construction company for the M180 motorway to Scunthorpe . The top clays were removed and piled up for the Brickworks to use but this resulted in the different coloured clays all being mixed up. As one of the workers, George Broderick, said “There was some lovely red clay up end but they just mixed it up with the rest.” A layer of gypsum was found and if it get mixed up with the brick making clay it causes the bricks to explode when being fired. The gypsum however was extracted and sold separately as a mineral in it sown right. The conveyor belt used for this extraction was on the site 5/9/1980 near the railway line opposite he old kiln still with gypsum in it.

Extraction of Clay

The clay was dug by hand and loaded into Jubilee trucks, then hauled to the works along the rails by a horse. 12 men at least we’re employed getting clay.

In 1936 the horse was replaced by diesel engines and petrol locos. Mrs Took, wife of David Took, Office Manager 1980, remembers the locos running round the site and the noise they made. Tim Bailey sad the way they tore around, it was a wonder there wasn’t an accident Mrs Took had had a post card from a friend on holiday down south and it was of the preserved Crowle Brickworks Loco.

Some engine details

Richard Thomas & Baldwin Ltd

The firm gave a railway engine to the Foxfield Light Railway Society for restoration in January 1967. It was named “Henry Cort” 0-4-0 saddle tank, 3’2″ driving wheels. 23 tons weight 14″&20″ cylinders 400lb pressure 14030lb tractive effort. It was built by Packet & Sons in 1903 works no 933 for the Ebbw Vale Iron & Steel Co. Ltd and it was rebuilt in 1937. It later worked at Blisworth and Irthlingborough. (From preserved Locomotive H.C. Casseroles 3rd Edn. 1973)

UG No 69 1975 Page 8 to 69

Mosely Grammar School Cheadle NHS were given Ruston Hornsby engines by Crowle Brick Works. “The manager was helpful and allowed us to camp on site, where track and e Ruston were dismantled and removed to Cheadle in 1970. During 1971-1972 the other Ruston Hornsby was removed from Crowle to Cheadle.

Ruston Diesel 200L 354013 built 1953
Ruston Diesel 11/13HP 187057 built in 1937

Extraction of clay continued.

Clay Face, Crowle Brickworks

The Ruston excavator was standing Idle in the pit next to the heap of clay dumped after he motorway clay had been removed – this gave an unusual clay face with unfortunately bits of gypsum in it. One man worked the excavator and they moved about 24 tons of clay an hour.

In 1968 when Mr J. L. Draper was manager £8000 was spent in to move the clay by an ex W.D. lorry. Only one man, Mr Syd Jackson of Fieldside l be needed to work the excavator, load the lorry and then drive it up to the walls of the new feeder 2000. One load will take 20-25 minutes and the lorry can fetch 36 tonnes :: one man can do the work of three on the new system. The Eccles Slag Co. have made a new road along the side of 20″ gauge railway for the lorry mainly of old bricks from the works. This system was still in operation when the works closed.

Power Plant

One of the three engines that provided the power had been moved to a museum but two remained in-situ not a sparking clean as in their day. Jim Bailey, who went to the works in 1945 remembers the engine room being forbidden territory to men with dirty boots – engines sparkling clean all the time and tended with love and care . these engines drive the various pulley wheels for the brick press, the wire cut machines etc. The pulleys were still in situ on my visit including the one for the ‘tudor’ machine although that machine had been removed. The exhausts from the engines were used to dry the bricks in the drying sheds being piped underneath. 41 to 43 tons of coal were used to drive these engines.

Boiler House, Lancashire Boiler, Crowle Brickworks

Two Lancashire boilers were installed (possibly 1973) to produce steam for the plant and they use 35 tones of coal a week. Only one was usable by my visit. The old railway siding came up to the boilers from the wagons- no siding now.

Clay Preparation

The clay came into the works in the old lorry on a ramp tipped and then fed to the first pan on a conveyor belt.

Clay preparation continued
I was able to stand above this pan and look down into it – the silence of only seemed to emphasise the size of the two large rollers and the teeth of the cog wheels. I would love to see one of these working – not only must there be noise but there must be ‘smell’ as well of earth and water.
The partially prepared clay leaves the pan by another conveyor belt and this can be directed to which ever machine or plant needs the clay. Gravity is used ere as the pan is high above the brickmaking machines.

Use of clay

A stiff plastic Brick machine

Bricks made by this process do not need the preliminary drying time required by wire cuts. These bricks may go straight into the kiln if need be.

Press Bricks
This very large machine was opposite the far end of the old kiln. It is in these machines that the large brass name plates were used. The aching was surrounded by old drying dumped clay but still had its safety guard on.

Wire cut bricks
This machine was still in situ with a brick shaped mouthful of clay ready to drop out. A large machine reaching from floor to roof incorporating the mixing pans as well. The clay is forced out of the die in the required shape in one long length – wire cutters bar circular in shape working in a pivot swinging motion cuts the bricks to the required length. Rollers ray the bricks along the table and may if desired impress the name on the side of the brick. Men load the bricks onto wooden lats and onto barrows at the end table ready to take them to the drying room. This machine made the last bricks produced at Crowle in July 1980.

De Airing

The machine was still in situ and Jim was proud to show the door that had to be shut tight to ensure all the air was removed from the clay – I think it was a Rawdon.

Hand moulding

Hand moulding continued
Hand moulding begins with the achitects/builders drawings being passed to the carpenter for specials; but even a simple stand brick begins with the carpenter making the moulds. I was lucky enough to find in the workshop of the carpenter and old architects drawing of window lintel details from which he would have made the moulds for the job – an individual mould for each Brick in the lintel; I was also lucky enough to find the drawing for a 5 mould hand made Brick and the mould all brass bound to go with the drawing:

Carpenters Shop
The original carpenters shop was still there in a ruinous state – it was a framed building of wood clad with corrugated iron and painted black. The centre of the main building as an old iron stove – very small for the size of shop so it must have been cold in winter. The overhead main beams still had screwed/nailed to them some of the wooden panels to make the frogs in the bricks and I now have these in my collection. The best one is “J.W. Clarke 1935” an old manager of the works and ears are plane,others have numbers or letters on. All plates were made of wood in this shop although later I found metal ones. Among the rubbish on the floor was an old iron wheel from a barrow and various parts of barrows. The lean-to adjacent to the shop seemed to be the store for the timber and contained two old boards for the clocking in cards of the men. I think it was Olly’s grand father who had worked in this shop at one time.

Carpenters Shop

The new carpenters shop was just as it had been left when the joiner left a few weeks previous. Hardly any one was allowed n the workshop to tamper with the tools etc. and the men that showed me round had as much curiosity as myself. I would have liked to look at the two letters in the store section – one cupboard had the last photo of Crowle UK which contained the old manager Mr Clarke – it was also covered with holiday postcards which would have contained the names of workers on the reverse side but I did not think of this until later. The men remembered photos post card size of Brick structures and a set of photos of Crowle Brickworks football team but these could not be found.

The store room at the side of the workshop as covered in shelves from floor to roof, full of moulds of various shapes and sizes and ages – many had a name or distinguishing code letter letter on the end. I did not touch any of these but would have loved to go through them. Was the mathematical tile found in the store shed of clay goods nearby produced in a mould or extruded on a machine with the correct die? I did find in the assortment of shelves on the other side of the store one of the name plates for the moulds including ones from ‘SANTON’ ‘BOSTON’ and ‘AXHOLME’ yards as well as 4 different plates for Crowle Works . these were all in metal and some in brass whereas the ones in the original carpenters shop were in wood.

The carpenter was also responsible for the construction of the sample oars – a picture frame containing the face of a brick to show it’s colour and texture. These were cut off the brick by a sawing machine near the power plant still there in 1980and then fitted o the frame with the name of the type e.g. “Crowle Multi-Rustics” a cream facing Brick with a smoother surface. Several of the old show panels were in this store and I wish that I had asked for them to give an idea of the bricks they made in the past. The notices for about the site to warn people of the danger of the old railway, of the old clay ponds and “PRIVATE KEEP OUT” had been the carpenters as job as a boy had even drowned in the clay it’s in the summer of 1980 – the shop still contained three of these boards.

The heat supply r the carpenters shop was an old age type cooker, the shad been n the site for any years and “Olly”, 70 years old could remember when the lunches for all the men had been cooked in this stove. The carpenter also had an old electric cooker in the corner as well – above which was an old nail it a collection of calendars on – the new ones being put n the top until the inevitable nude appeared.

Clay for hand moulding

This has to be carefully prepared and at the right elasticity or the work is impossible. The old timers could work out of much clay the mould use in a week and they would ‘pug up’ on a Monday morning i.e. all the clay they needed would go through the pug Mill mixed to give the colour needed then dumped by each moulders bench. According to the visitors’ notes he wire cut machine prepared the clay for the moulders and this was delivered to the benches on the clay barrows, previously illustrated in the early days – I did notice however some electric carts a little bit like those on railway platforms and I think hey would have been used for moving clay at the end.

It is interesting to note that the old carpenter never finished a barrow off until the lad it was meant for had held it in his hands ready to use – it must be made to measure so to speak as the heavy odds carried on them and the rough wet land conditions would have made life impossible for the pushers if they were too big or too small.

The weeks supply of clay was at the right hand side of the bench thus the ‘centre’ hole for the moulders feels was to the left of centre. (What if he was left handed?) A large iron framed U shape bow was used to cut the lump of clay off – the bow was dug into he pile d the wire rotated to cut off a lump. This was then placed on the right hand of he bench and the ‘clot’ formed – this takes a few seconds if all is well and is most important to get it the right size and shape – it is a bit like making bread to fit the loaf tin.

Hand Moulding

The mould is then oiled to make the using sand/sawdust mix stick to the sides – thus the clay sticks to this and not the mould – the Sand and sawdust texture the surface of the brick – the Sand gives a texture to the smooth clay and the sawdust burns out in firing leaving little Pits in the smooth clay surface – the clot must not touch the side of the mould as it is thrown in or the sides of the clot will be torn and the clay will stick to the mould. It is faster than the eye can see and involves a flick of both wrists together. The moulder does not press the clay down into the mould at all – the strength of his throw should be enough to fill he corners of the mould – he simply takes a smaller bow and cost off the surplus clay and returns it to the pile.

Last brick being made – clay throwing.

Last brick being made – cut off.

Last brick being made – turned on bat.

The top of the brick is then sanded with the sand/sawdust mixture and then the brick is turned out onto a bat and the mould is ready for use again. From the bat it is transferred to ours 5/6 bricks to a board and loaded onto a barrow. The frog with the appropriate name end up uppermost on the barrow. From memory these barrows stand waist height for easy loading and are open s the bricks are on the planks.

The frog also ears marks to identify which moulder has made the bricks. J.W. Clarke known to the men as John Willie knew each moulders mark off by heart and just by looking at a brick could tell who had made it. This gives a man the need to take a pride in his work r praise when it was due but also faulty bricks could be traced back o the moulder. A Green Brick in my collection i.e. unburnt has one pip top centre which shows it was one of Freddie who worked at Crowle in 1980. One of my moulds has two pips to the left of the frog and another has a pip at either side of the frog. A similar system operated at William Blyth yard Barton on Humber in marking the end of the tile. I was told by a friend that these marks indicated the particular yard of a firm where the bricks had been made us both Alderman Norman Bibby and the actual workers at Crowle said it was the mark or each moulder. N.B. In the latter days at Crowle only two moulders were working on hand bricks thus only one needed mark. In my earlier days of gleaning knowledge I thought these different marks indicated the kiln the brick had been fired in!

Hand Moulding Specials
The majority of Special shapes are made by hand rather than machine as the numbers involved does not warrant changing the die on the machine. Some special shapes however are common i.e. squint or splay as they called it at Crowle, or bull nose.

Crowle was well known for the small red fireplace bricks th their many shapes to give the nooks and corners in a fire place. Lee photographs of bricks and moulds for fire place.

The two drawings in the envelopes P29/30 of fancy doorway Cottingham 1936 and P33/34 of window arches Wakefield are detailed architects drawings of the feature. These were then taken to the carpenters shop and from these drawings the moulds were made for that job. The bricks were individually numbered and lettered so that all the builder had to do was put them up in order. The letter umber ticks were used for this. Some arches and lintels were available as a standard size pack if architects could use them but if not they were specially made for each job.

Two small moulds show the boy Scout emblem one with Crowle written on. I guess that the one with ‘CROWLE’ on the mould the right way was the sample made for the architects and the other is the mould used for the job. These are both in my collection.

Brick Moulds, Crowle Brickworks

A special made for Lincoln (Art College, I think) was the big three feathers of the Prince of Wales with a motto. This mould is still in the yard and is about 2ft by 2’6″. I would venture to suggest that it is unique. Only one panel was made in buff clay for over the entrance This was in living memory of the 1980 workers.

Mrs Took, wife of David Took in the office told me of a horses head that had been about the cottages for years but now lost. Perhaps there will be a mould for that somewhere.

As well as e two sheets of specials which was on the floor in the carpenter’s store just inside the door was a and drawn sheet of specials. It was on graph paper stuck to a board and varnished over. All the measurements were in imperial units.

One of the latest specials to be made must surely have been a mathematical tile. An old tile was sent to the works with a request for an order . few samples were made but the expense of handling and the thin delicate shape made he drying area needed enormous as they could not be stacked – thus this order was not accepted. The samples were in the office but I did not collect one of them.

The card opposite indicates the specials available from Crowle on their 1975 price list. I have added the letters from the chart in the carpenter’s shop. It seems to me that the number of specials available is unlimited – especially if you take into consideration the colours and textures available for each shape.

The skill of the brick moulder is dependent on the skill of the carpenter who makes the mould in the first place- between them nothing is impossible – I am certain of this with the craftsmen I have met.

Jack the Potter
This man was a well known worker at the Brickworks in the 19th century. He was a master Potter and came from the Midlands to work at Crowle. His father had paid for him to learn his trade so he would not let anyone arch him for long, stopping his job and going to something else until they went. His grandson Eddie Richardson still lives in Crowle today at No. 4, ?. He used his skills to make chimney pots, jugs, garden pots, baskets etc. and some of these can still be seen in the gardens at Crowle and no doubt the surrounding area. On this my first visit in the rain I was unable to find a sample of his work but I live in hope. (I wonder if he marked it with his name or initials?).

Works from Clay Pit Crowle Brickworks

The drying of bricks is a most vital process to ensure satisfactory firing in the kiln. An incorrect drying time means the bricks may explode in the kiln or simply crank and pit which allows moisture in when they are used and the bricks fall apart.

Pressed and wire cut bricks are firm enough to be able to stack them 6 high on the barrows and on the drying floor and they should take 4 days to dry out. The hand moulds however are too soft to stack and must be laid out singly thus an uneconomical use of the drying area.

The drying is effected by the exhaust gas and after steam being passed under the floor of the sheds. These are hollow built of bricks and concrete (a bit like the Roman granaries). At one other yard William Blyth, Barton they do most of their drying in hacks outside by nature but no one seemed to have ever heard of drying outside here. The drying sheds and the moulders benches are all under the same roof to minimise the handling of the bricks and of course adjacent to the kilns – the only thing that over is the hot air.

Firing in the kiln
Clamp burning

At the far end of the works past the Lancashire boilers i.e. at the end of the old railway siding was a cottage and beyond this the workmen told me they used to clamp burn and they claim the marks are still there. Time did not permit me to examine the area of long grass and weeds and the rain gave me no incentive. All men agreed this was correct and guessed at the date as the 1920’s/30’s.

Continuous Kiln Hoffman Type
In 1980 this was completely disused but very intact – the top had a healthy covering of grass, weeds including rose Bay Willow herb. The men showing me round could remember firing it and told me that each section was prepared over to make the draft. They pointed out repairs they had made over the years to keep the kiln going. The roof repairs were only made when the Kiln was full so that it was impossible to to fall in if there were a cave in. Large timber frames in one of the drying sheds were also used to support the roof while repairs were being done. The last repairs to the old Kiln were to the central piers opposite No 1 door and they had been done by George Bradwell using a substance they called “fanda” – it sounded like fine cement. George was also able to give me the moulds for making the fire logs as they call them or he side roof and top of the kilns. These are very rough with a lump of drainpipe hough to make the hole and the same find it substance is used.

Old Kiln Top, Crowle Brickworks

Last Working Kiln, Crowle Brickworks

Kiln Door & Barrow, Crowle Brickworks

Inside Kiln Chamber, Crowle Brickworks

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