Brickworks in Dogsthorpe

One thing I remember about the brickworks in Dogsthorpe is the buckets which used to go along cables between Eye and Dogsthorpe, to get the clay from the pit to the works I suppose. I came across this picture of them. I am guessing that the buckets served the London Brick works which were on the site of the householders waste site, as my memories date from the sixties.

There has been a tradition of brickmaking in the Peterborough area from at least the eighteenth century, these were small yards operating seasonally and using the more superficial clays. From the 1880's onwards experimentation with the lower Oxford Clay allowed the mass-production of bricks on an industrial scale. Hence the rapid formation of several companies all competing to exploit the new process, and many of smaller companies were bought up.

The brickworks on the 1889 map, to the north of Welland Road, were owned or occupied by Thomas Parker and family from 1872 up to 1897. It was possibly previously occupied by Edward Vergette of Peterborough in the 1860’s. The site was possibly occupied by George Cursley from c 1890 to 1897.

The site was sold in 1897 to John W Rowe who formed the Dogsthorpe Brick & Tile Co Ltd. The site was put up for auction but not sold in February 1899, it’s subsequent history is unknown.

The remaining kiln was demolished about 1942/3. The land was acquired by Peterborough City Council for a recreation ground and still remains to this day.

Dogsthorpe Star Brick Co., brickmakers of Dogsthorpe, Peterborough. The company was incorporated in 1913 and it bought the Star Pressed (Dogsthorpe) site in 1915. It was owned by the same family who owned the London Brick Co. Ltd., and it was formally taken over by London Brick in 1923/4.

The London Brick Company was founded in Fletton, Peterborough, by businessman J C Hill in 1889. It went on to dominate the British brick industry for most of the 20th century.

In 1997 ownership of Dogsthorpe Star Pit was transferred to the Wildlife Trust. Water was pumped out of the pit to restore the shallow pools so important for wildlife. Footpaths have been installed to guide you around some of the reserve’s many different habitats. Over the road is Little Wood, an area of ancient woodland with large pollarded oaks and a ground flora of bluebells.

The Brick Making Process

Historically the basic process of brick making consisted of digging out clay in the winter, allowing it to weather, then feeding it to a pug mill to mix it with other ingredients (such as chalk or sand). The actual bricks were moulded during the summer - an Act of Parliament only allowed this to occur from March to October, as the quality of bricks made in winter was poor, for the clay needed to dry before being used. The moulder - in charge of a team of 6 men - could make maybe 1000 bricks per hour by hand, and these ‘green’ bricks were left out to dry for several weeks before being fired in a kiln. The correct firing conditions was the key to success. The earliest firings were done by heaping the bricks and fuel together and covering with turf, but simple kilns followed - a single ‘clamp’ of a brick arch covered with turf being one of the earliest, followed by round brick kilns. These were not fast enough, however, and various other styles were developed to give a continuous process. Another innovation to speed up brickmaking was the development of machine extrusion of the clay, which had only to be cut into brick sized lengths.

The “Fletton” process was invented in Fletton, Peterborough in 1891. Fletton bricks are made from Lower Oxford clays: this type of clay has certain qualities of stiffness which enable it to be “stamped” into the shape of a brick under high pressure. As such, the process uses clay “straight from the ground” with no processing and no added water. The “green” or unfired bricks are therefore placed in the kilns with no pre-drying. In addition the clay, having high carbon content, is able to provide most of the heat needed to burn the bricks – only 25% being supplied externally. The process is also particularly easy to automate because the bricks produced are all of precise size and shape.

For these reasons, bricks made using the Fletton process are particularly cheap to produce. However, this cheapness is at the expense of the external appearance of the brick, and its ability to withstand great external stresses.

The Dosthorpe Website is produced and managed by
Adele Gardner.