The
Unofficial Website
Brick Making
& Sanitary Wares
Nowadaysbricks are made in South Yorkshire at Kiveton and Barnsley.
It's over twenty years since the Maltby Metallic Brick Co. was closed down and I believe that was the last brickworks in the Rotherham area.
Brick firms also made tiles and sanitary ware - pipes, soilstacks and traps but not as as far as I know lavatories and sinks.
Brickmaking
I have been unable to find out much about the brickmaking industry in Rotherham but it must have been very considerable at one time. If you look at the old Ordnance Survey maps of Rotherham and I have copies from 1851, 1893 and 1904, there are innumerable claypits, brickfields and brickworks, particularly from the Parkgate and Rawmarsh areas out to Swinton. Many of the collieries had associated brick works eg. the Bank Pit Brickworks at New Stubbin at Rawmarsh.
I think that our garden must have been a brickfield at one time as we have unearthed all sorts of bricks from it. Most do not have the name of the manufacturer and others are marked LBC or London Brick Company. Local names include Parkgate, Stairfoot, Dinnington, Wombwell, Kilnhurst and Cudworth. We thought these might be colliery bricks made for a named pit rather than the names of specific brickworks.
Companies who existed in the area included 'EFW' or 'E.F', 'D&S Clarke, Rotherham', 'Catchpole and Co, Rotherham', 'RV', 'G. Robinson, Masbro', 'DMO id' and 'Midland Iron Company, Rotherham'. There were doubtless lots more but they've all gone.
The site of Bradgate Brickworks at Kimberworth has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest because of the type and rarity of it flora. I know that this was owned by the Watson estate but I have been able to find out nothing else. I think that this is the site labelled "North Greave Brickworks" on the 1901 map of Masbrough. This is shown just off Wortley Road and the site was part of Robert Jenkins for a while and they something else afterwards but I forget what. In May 2007 I passed by and it looks as if the area is about to be covered by a new housing development.
Sanitary Wares
So far I have been unable to find out much at all about the production of sanitary wares other than a few indications on a map such as "Brick and Sanitary Pipe Works" in Parkgate 1893.