In 1841 Fletton was a small village in the north of the old county of Huntingdonshire, now in Cambridgeshire. With a population of 256, Fletton was a community that relied on agriculture. On 2 June 1845 the East Station, in the north of the parish, opened and Fletton began to change. Listed on the census for 1851 there were just three heads of households employed in the brickyards. By 1911, due to the migration caused by the inter-related industries of the railways and the developing brickyards, Fletton’s population had grown to 4,742. James Bristow, a brickyard owner, was now lord of the manor and the 1911 census recorded 215 heads of households as working in the brickyards, which represented 23.1 per cent of all heads of households.

By the end of the 19th century bricks were the construction material of choice across the length and breadth of England as those able to purchase their own home desired a brick-built house. Many of us will have ancestors who were involved in the manufacture of bricks, or who were employed in trades that grew up alongside the brickworks or were part of the brick worker community.

Yet, unlike some industries such as the railways, there are very few records that deal with the trade directly and those that do exist are often difficult to locate and interpret. This is, in part, due to the way that the brickyards developed. The early brickyards were small seasonal affairs established by itinerant brickmakers on site next to houses that were being built. As brickworks became permanent, they required huge and unsustainable investment. They were therefore liable to closure, takeover and merger. In the process, records were lost or became consumed by larger companies. However, by using a wide range of sources these brick communities can be brought back to life.

In this case the community in question is Fletton, which was at the centre of this brickmaking revolution.

Fletton and the brickyards
The pivotal moment in the history of brickmaking in Fletton came in 1881 when Nathaniel and George Hempsted purchased part of the Fletton Lodge Estate from James McCallum Craig. They were engineers and they could see the potential of the Lower Oxford clay. This had a low water content, only 18 per cent, so bricks made from it did not require drying before firing and with a 10 per cent fuel-oil content the bricks fired with only the addition of a small amount of coal dust, and it became known as ‘the clay that burned’.

Unfortunately, brickworks are expensive to run and with finances secured on mortgages the Hempsted brothers were declared bankrupt in 1884. Just three years later John Cathles Hill, a speculative builder from Hornsey, visited Fletton to purchase bricks. He visited Hardy’s yard and saw the sense in owning his own brickyard. John purchased the yard and founded the London Brick Company, which would come to dominate brickmaking by the 1920s. John not only expanded the brickworks, but he also created a community for his workers, and in effect became the ‘maker of modern Fletton’.

Sources
Directories are a good source to start your research into an area. They were produced for each district to advertise businesses and record the residences of private individuals. They also provide, at the beginning of each village or town, a brief history of the place. By comparing successive directories you can build up a picture of how an area has developed over time. The first extract from the Post Office directory of 1877 lists no brickmakers in Fletton, but it does provide a wealth of background information including: population 1,662, the area of Fletton was 780 acres, that there was a school and that the letters arrived at 6.45pm. In contrast, by 1903 you can see the growth in the brickmaking industry as there are seven brickmakers recorded, including J.C. Hill’s London Brick Company. The population of this part of Fletton has increased to 1,863 and as can be seen in the directory the provision of schooling has expanded likewise.

Prospectuses and auction catalogues
Brickworks were frequently sold or mortgaged to raise funds. Prospectuses and auction catalogues were produced with the purchaser in mind. As prospective purchasers were not always local, they contain information not only about the property being sold but the local area as well. Prospectuses and auction catalogues can be found in specialist and local archives. Usefully for the researcher, they were also reproduced in newspapers.

A prospectus tells us that the sale of the Fletton Lodge Estate, purchased by the Hempsted brothers, was to be held at the Angel Hotel, Peterborough on 23 June 1877. It also reveals that the estate comprised of 403 acres being sold in five lots, was conveniently located ‘on the turnpike road’ and it was good ‘building land’.

Another prospectus, placed in Truth, on 5 October 1882, for the North London Freehold Land and House Company Ltd, reveals that just a few months after purchasing the Fletton brickfields the brothers were in financial difficulties. As speculative builders their land and business purchases were based on mortgages and the prospectus reveals the extent of their debt. The brothers had an audacious plan to raise capital of £500,000, a cool £33 million in today’s terms. The company would purchase the varied enterprises that the brothers were involved in and raise additional capital by selling shares. The value of the Fletton Brickfields was given as £73,580, which equates to £4.8 million today. It further stated that ‘excellent profits’ were envisaged due to the continued ‘growth of trade particularly in the North London District’. It also reveals that the burden had been shared by family. Their father Robert Hempsted, Nathaniel’s father-in-law George Dickinson Snr and brother-in-law George Dickinson Jnr were all listed as officers of the company.

As an example of what local information can be found in prospectuses, we can turn to the New Peterborough Brick Company Prospectus 1897. The prospectus includes a map which shows not just the location of the New Peterborough Brick Company, but the location of many of the brickyards in the Fletton area. In addition, there is also a map of the proposed brick workers’ cottages, in the nearby village of Farcet, and a photograph of the existing impressive brickworks.

bricks: a timeline

Newspapers
Both national and local newspapers are invaluable when looking for information about businesses and individuals. It is a good idea to browse publications from other districts as it’s amazing how far afield local events were reported.

Advertisements were often placed in newspapers for employment vacancies. The extract reveals that in 1879 James McCallum Craig required a foreman at his Fletton works. It is perhaps indicative of the time that the applicant needed to be ‘sober, honest and industrious’.

Notices of bankruptcy, liquidations and dissolution of partnerships can all be found reported extensively in the newspaper. The Hempsted brothers’ affairs were publicised from Grantham, where there was notice of an auction of their liquidated stock and machinery, to Exeter, where there was a report of the London Bankruptcy Court. Among other things the extract from the Grantham Journal tells us that the brickyard was over nine acres in size, that the brick earth was ‘practically inexhaustible’ and the sale included ‘the whole of the plant and machinery’. The second extract, from the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, reveals the liabilities of the Hempsted brothers were £200,000 and their assets should realise ‘a large surplus’.

Unfortunately, in an industry such as brickmaking, involving much physical labour, the reporting of accidents was all too frequent. These accident reports are a mine of information, especially regarding the working conditions of the time. But be warned these accounts can be extremely graphic. An extract from the Peterborough Advertiser tells us of a young lad, Webb, who had to have his right hand amputated after using it ‘while endeavouring to save himself’. A report in the Lincolnshire Free Press on Tuesday 27 July 1897 reports a fatality at J.C. Hill’s London Brickyard where George Staples fell into the grinding pan and was ‘ground into powder, never to be recovered’. Following a fatality there is an inquest and these are also reported in the local newspapers. The inquest for George Staples appeared in the Hunts Post on Saturday 7 August 1897 and we can learn that the manager Mr Adams was prepared to ‘carry out the recommendations the Inspector made’.

Inland Revenue Valuation Survey 1910 to 1915
The Inland Revenue Valuation Survey or Land Valuation Survey was the first comprehensive national survey of land and property ownership since the Domesday survey of 1086. The survey resulted in the production of maps or plans and field books. They give an indication of land ownership on the eve of the Great War. These documents are held in local archives and unfortunately are generally not indexed, but they are well worth looking at for the depth of information they hold; also, many of these records are now being digitised and made searchable only at TheGenealogist – see here for details of the growing coverage.

An extract of the survey shows that on Queens Road, Old Fletton numbers 57 to 69 were owned by J. Rowe, Executor for Cranfield & Wheeler of St. Ives, and Reuben Thurley. At the bottom an entry for land lists the London Brick Company as owner. In the first column the occupiers are listed. In the far right the size of the property, gross annual value of property and the rateable value are listed. All of these properties were actually owned by the London Brick Company as J. Rowe and Reuben Thurley were in actual fact J.C. Hill’s agents.

When J.C. Hill purchased the brickyard in Fletton in 1888 not only was he interested in producing bricks, he also wanted to build a community for his workers. By consulting the field book, you can see the extent of the property he owned and who was renting the property from him and subsequently working in the London Brick yards. The majority of the land, in Fletton, was owned by the London Brick Company, which would buy up land and farm it until such time as it was able to use it for brickmaking.

Trade journals
Every trade has its trade journals and brickmaking is no exception. These journals can be contemporary or modern, national or local, produced by the industry or an individual brick company. They can give a unique insight into thoughts and attitudes of the time, working conditions and technological advances. Phorpres News, the London Brick Company journal, ran an article in April 1948 where an employee, Sam Hart, recalled his 50 years in their employment: ‘it was nothing unusual to see the whole family on production – father would be mixing up the clay in a pugmill, one of the older sons making the bricks, the mother wheeling them to the hacks, and the younger children setting them on the hacks to dry.’

The British Clayworker was a journal established by J.C. Hill to express the interests of all brickmakers. A treasure trove of information, the journal reports on wide-ranging topics from social gatherings to items for sale and working practice. For an example, an extract shows a new brickmaking machine invented by Adam Adams, J.C. Hill’s brickyard manger, which would undoubtedly increase the rate of brick production.

This has only been a small exploration of the sources available to the researcher and yet an insight can quickly be gained into the brick industry and the tight knit community which grew up around the brickyard. There are many other sources, such as probate registers, inquest reports, wills, maps, census records, photographs, share certificates, Parliamentary Papers, local council minute books and rent rolls, which can all contain valuable information. So please explore your local archives – I am sure you will be amazed at what you will find to help you bring your brickmaking ancestor and their community to life.