Clockhouse Brickworks, Surrey March 2015

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DiggerDen

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Brick production dates back to 1933 when a rich seam of Weald Clay had been discovered. In 1945 the company was sold to the London Brick Company. Production increased, in part to the housing boom of the 50’s, and during the 60’s the site was rebuilt to cope with the increased demand. The London Brick Company was acquired by Hanson PLC in the 1980’s. In 2000, Clock House was said to be Hanson Brick’s main soft mud production site, producing around 42 million bricks per year. Due to the global financial crisis of 2008, the building industry suffered a severe decline and the nationwide demand for bricks plummeted and in 2009 it was announced that the plant was to close. The site currently remains empty and awaits redevelopment.

In 1992, the brick pit became a Site of Special Scientific Interest under the Geological Conservation Rule because of the many palaeoenvironments observed in the Weald Clay. There are many fossils of insects and reptiles dating back to our tropical past.

This was my first industrial explore, completely different atmosphere to my others but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Gerry ( husband ) and Dave ( friend ) accompanied me and were there to help me get my leg over :lol:

The production site is huge with loads to see. I liked the yellow, blue and green colours of the machinery inside, plus the blue with corroded brown outside.
The inside of the kilns were eerie lit up by our torches, with the atmosphere of a horror movie. Hope you enjoy the photos - a combination of all 3 of us.

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The rocket shot

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Cool corrosion.

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Spooky kilns.

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Dave's piece de resistance to finish.

Thanks for looking.
 
Mmm Pic 9 shows a yellow Hudson type V-skip. There must have been a narrow gauge railway there at some point.
 
Amazing! Many thanks for some great pictures. The history was very much appreciated.... I have never thought about where bricks come from, till now!!!
 
marieke;303727. I have never thought about where bricks come from said:
What, you were never told about the 'Brick Fairy' as a child? I always say it was the 'BF' that started me off in this insane hobby - as a ten or eleven year old I collected bricks! The ones that were stamped with the names of all the old local brickyards, of which there were many during the late 19th C in the area we lived in. Most are stamped with the place name of the location where the clay pit and brick kilns were located. In many cases the name on an old brick will lead you to some reminders of the old industry, even today. Sadly when London Brick started to spread its tentacles, these old magical names vanished for ever - except when they re-appear on the odd demolition site.

Should have stated that what started the ten year old collecting chunks of fired clay, was literally tripping over a brick on the local waste ground that had my surname stamped into the frog. How was I to know then that it was nothing special - just a brickworks in an outlying suburb of Leeds. I seem to remember that brick collecting was the one childhood hobby Dad never complained about - the collection soon finding a place as path edging in a slowly reclaimed back garden. A subsequent diversion into collecting the skeleton's of very death animals was banished to the washhouse!
 
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Nice, looks little changed from last year. Security have given up with their "scarecrow" it seems.

@Caiman - there's no trace of a rail system now, but there's a clay pit close by and most pre-war brickworks used narrow gauge systems to shift the clay from stockpile to the clay mills. The skip is possibly a relic, as it's sitting beside their "specials" kiln and filled with crap like old packaging plastic…
 

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