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Icklingham Brickworks on the Icknield Way
The Suffolk Heritage Explorer lists this brickworks as Monument IKL 043, a post medieval kiln within a brick pit. The words post medieval cover the years from 1540 to 1900. It is also listed as Devereux's Pit.
In 2018 some test hole borings here found lower paleolithic artefacts, including evidence of flint knapping.
The old clay pit shown less than a kilometre to the east of the works is now known as Beeches Pit and has probably been used for clay extraction since Roman and Anglo-Saxon times. This pit is also important for its Paleolithic finds including a very early evidence of the use of fire.
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This clay pit and the brickworks were operated by William Devereux in the second half of the 19th century. By 1903 it appears to have been closed down. Census information reveals that there was a Devereux family in Icklingham, Suffolk, in 1861-91 and perhaps longer. The head of houshold was a brickmaker, William Devereux, and the house they lived in for quite some time was known as "Brick Kiln" in the censuses. Devereux was born around 1805. In the 1861 census his address was listed as Stow Plantation, Icklingham, and his occupation was Brickmaker. In 1881 he was aged 70, living at The Brick Kiln, Icklingham, still a brickmaker. He married Martha Firmin on 20th October, 1832, at Flempton cum Hengrave. His son John Devereux, born 22nd September, 1839 at West Stow, was also a brickmaker in the 1861 census, living at Stow Plantation. William Devereux, junior, born 9th May, 1850 at West Stow, was still at school in 1861, but by 1881 he was listed as a brickmaker at The Brick Kiln, Lackford.
However, this so far little known site has potential to become much more important for Paleolithic studies, as more investigations continue.
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The area today The Icknield Way is no longer a normal traffic route. It is an unmade track, not suitable for vehicular traffic.
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Summary of the owners or managers
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Suffolk Review, Vol 5, 1980 - 1988 on ‘Suffolk Brickmaking’ by Robert Malster. (Suffolk Local History Council, Summer 1983, Vol 5, No 4).
British Brick Society newsletter "Information No 26, April 2014,
Pathways to Ancient Britain website
Pathways to Ancient Britain Devereaux's Pit website
Page created on 24th August, 2023
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