Bursledon Brickworks

Overview

Little is known about what life was really like working at the brickworks, or who would have been working there. We know young children would have been used for much of the work involved. EVPs of childrens voices have previously been recorded . Investigators have even sighted previous workers in the many shadows of this great location. It was the only steam driven brickworks in the UK, you can also pop round for a visit on certain days, for the whole family to enjoy and to help support the site – details here http://www.bursledonbrickworks.org.uk/ 

To the left is a short video narrated by CJ Linton. which covers the Brickworks.

History

Bursledon Brickworks was founded in 1897 by the Ashby family. The Ashbys were partners in Hooper & Ashby, successful builders merchants in Southampton. The first brickyard was at Chandlers Ford but when an opportunity to start making bricks at Bursledon arose they jumped at it. There was abundant clay at the new Bursledon site and very good transport links by both rail and river.

The clay was originally dug by hand in pits close to the buildings. The clay pits were deep – nearly 40ft – and very extensive. The clay was brought back to the factory using narrow gauge railway wagons but eventually the pits were too far away for this to be practical. Mechanised digging started in the 1930s.

As time passed the clay was worked out further and further away, finally being brought to the works on a overhead cable system from the clay pits ( see picture at left ), now the lakes that form the Swanwick Nature Reserve.

The original 1897 works (the southern complex) was added to in 1903 with the addition of the northern complex. This was further extended in 1935, with extra capacity. The brickworks was producing in excess of 20 million bricks a year. They were one of the main producers of bricks in the region.

Bricks were made during the Great War and the Second World War. Brick making was considered a reserved occupation but production was dropped to a lower level and the Ministry of Defence requisitioned parts of the site during both wars. After the Second World War the family business was amalgamated with the Sussex and Dorking Brick Company and in 1959 became Redland Holdings Ltd.

The site closed in 1974 for a number of reasons, the M27 split the site in two, the clay was getting very expensive to extract. However, probably the main reason was the introduction of the Health and Safety at Work Act. What makes the Brickworks so unusual is the fact that they were not updated during their working life. Turning them into a modern plant that could meet the safety requirements would have been almost impossible. The factory slowly ran down, first to go were the clay diggers and last the kiln burners. But eventually the last kiln chamber was emptied and a new chapter for the history of the factory started. Content from the Bursledon Brickworks web site.