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Steam Brickworks at Brandon
Very little seems to be written about this brickworks, except that it is listed in C J Pankhurst's appendix to the British Brick Society newsletter in 1988 under the exotic name of Spartan Brickworks.
Mr Pankhurst lists its correct map reference, but attributes it to White Lion Street, Brandon, which is now called George Street. This may have been the manager's residential address, rather than a brickworks.
However, it is now believed that most of Pankhurst's conclusions about this brickworks were erronious, apart from its existence at this location.
It seems that it was never the Spartan Brickworks, but was known as the Steam Brick Company, owned by Baron Victor Barreto of the Hall, Brandon Park. (Although he also had residences in London and Ryburgh.)
In the 1899 (RG13/1899) (gbc_1901_1896-1899_0650) census at the Hall in Brandon Park, Victor Barreto (Baron) aged 32, was recorded as "Living on his own means, Magistrate and Brick Manufacturer. Employer. Born in Middlesex London.
On the 8th March 1902 the Norfolk News reported that ‘an important sale’ of farming stock took place on the Brandon Park estate on Feb. 27th. The items sold included an uninteresting mixture of farm implements - drills reaper, rollers - as well as horses, carts and several hundred pheasant coops.
The interesting part concerned the sale of 455,000 bricks at the brickworks on the Rattler’s Road and London Road corner. This is now the site of Tesco supermarket.
The bricks were those made by a new Steaming process: the clay was replaced by sand and lime and the bricks were then hardened by steam.
The Baron Barreto, who owned the Brickworks held a patent for ovens ‘made in the form of an arch or tunnel of metal plates lined with brickwork, through which trucks carrying the bricks to be treated are run on rails. Steam is applied through perforated pipes.’
Barreto also held a patent for " an improved process for the dry slaking of lime, and apparatus therefor, for the term of fourteen years from the date of the said Letters Patent, and which Letters Patent have been assigned to and are now held by Henry Ernest Victor, Baron de Barreto, of Sennowe Park, Ryburgh, in the county of Norfolk."
Buyers came from all over East Anglia for the sale: a Mr Skipper of Norwich bought bricks for the new Norwich Union fire office, Waters & Son and Minns of Watton and J Sizer and Parson & son of Lakenheath all bought bricks The average price was between 16 & 17shillings (about 80 pence) per 1000.
After the sale of the bricks the auctioneers moved to the Ram Hotel, where freehold property was auctioned off in 15 Lots. Amongst the lots were several along London Road between the Rattler’s Road corner, ie the Brickworks, and the Pit (now Sandgalls).
Albert Carter paid £120 for Lot 4 described as a building site measuring just over 3 ½ acres about 100yards from the factory. He had also bought some bricks and within the year had used them to build Oak Terrace.
There are several other examples of the distinctive gritty grey Brandon bricks around the town often with a band of reddish bricks running across the front wall between the two storeys. If you look out for them you will spot a number of similar buildings around the town, including a terrace on Thetford Road, which was also owned by Carter.
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I have now received some valuable information from Andy Carter of Brandon that this brickworks did not operate the traditional kiln burning to make bricks. It used a process producing calcium silicate bricks, also known as sandlime bricks. This process was widely used in Europe, although the method of using steam under pressure to cure sand and lime was patented in England in 1886. Notable uses of the brick in London include Battersea Power Station and the RIBA building in Portland Place.
According to www.greenspec.co.uk:- Sand/lime bricks expand and contract differently to clay and require much more care in laying and mortar mixes, many examples of cracked joints, such as we see here, helped their long term demise. The Brandon sandlime process produced bricks which were of this distinctive pale pink colour. After the 1902 sale of bricks noted above, the next references in the Press are found in September, 1907, when press announcements such as this one in the Lowestoft Journal:- "Brandon, Suffolk -the Plant of Sand Brick-making machinery, all in perfect working order, the property of baron Barreto, which Messrs Oldman and Sons will sell by auction at the new Brick Works, Brandon on Thursday,October 3rd 1907 at 2 o'clock precisely."
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This picture shows what a high pressure steam powered autoclave might have looked like at Brandon. Using this process required much less coal than a kiln, and there was no shortage of sand or lime at Brandon.
According to www.greenspec.co.uk again:- There were several press reports of the results of the sale of the Brick works. The Downham Market gazette of 12th October, 1907, gives full details. The plant was not sold as a going concern but completely broken up. This included two steel hardening chambers with steel doors and pressure gauge, capable of holding 5,000 bricks at a pressure of 120 lbs. The largest item was a Babcock and Wilcox water tube boiler 35 actual hp, sold for £100. Also a Colchester horizontal fixed compound steam engine with feed pump, sold for £80. Fifteen special brick trucks for use in steaming chambers, 40 inch gauge. And a multitude of other items necessary to run the works. The Gazette also commented, " This plant was put down for experimental purposes and has only done about two years' intermittent work. It was stated that the bricks manufactured have proved a great success and there are a number of houses belonging to various owners in Brandon built with them." "The vendor having sold the adjoining estate and left the neighbourhood, and being in indifferent health, decided to sell." "There was a large number of buyers present from all parts of the kingdom." |
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The area today The Suffolk Heritage Explorer lists Brandon Brickworks as monument record BRD 092, "Spartan Brick Works operated by Amos Warren 1869; Closed 1910." |
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Today the brickworks site is home to a BP garage and a Tesco superstore with attendant parking facilities. However, the site has a much more interesting story. After the brickworks closed around 1910, there was some further building work in order to house the Spartan Gas and Oil Engine Company. This factory produced small engines for attachment to rowing boats or possibly for motor bikes. During the First World War the factory was turned over to munitions work.
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In 1919 the gas and oil engine company closed and the site was bought and buildings further extended to become Lingwood's Rabbit fur processing factory, making fur hats and other fur accessories. Lingwood's closed in 1973, and the factory gradually decayed for the remainder of the 20th century until eventually the site was redeveloped for Tesco and a BP garage. |
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Summary of the Brickworks owners or managers
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British Brick Society newsletter "Information No 26, April 2014,
Suffolk Heritage Explorer Reference BOT 016
Suffolk Review, Vol 5, 1980 - 1988 on ‘Suffolk Brickmaking’ by Robert Malster. (Suffolk Local History Council, Summer 1983, Vol 5, No 4).
Suffolk Industrial Archaeology Society newsletter No 21, September, 1988, "Brick Kilns in Suffolk" by C J Pankhurst
Website - David Kitching's website - Brick Section
Website - Martyn Fretwell's blog on bricks etc
Photos of bricks by Martyn Fretwell unless stated.
Page created on 24th October, 2023
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