Bursledon Brickworks Museum facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Bursledon Brickworks Industrial Museum |
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| Former names | Hooper & Ashby (1897–1903) The Bursledon Brick Co. Limited (1903–1959) The Sussex & Dorking Brick Company (year unknown) Redland Holdings Ltd. (1959–1974) Bursledon Brickworks Conservation Centre (1995/96–2000s) Bursledon Brickworks Industrial Museum (2012–2017) The Brickworks Museum (2017–) |
| General information | |
| Type | Museum |
| Architectural style | Victorian |
| Location | Swanwick, Hampshire, England |
| Address | Coal Park Lane / Swanwick Lane |
| Town or city | Southampton |
| Country | England |
| Coordinates | 50°53′09″N 1°17′27″W / 50.8858°N 1.2908°W |
| Elevation | 11 metres |
| Owner | Hampshire Buildings Preservation Trust |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 2 |
| Awards and prizes | Solent Protection Society 2004 Conservation Award Tourism South East / Beautiful South Business Awards: Best Community Tourism Business 2014 Small Visitor Attraction of the Year (Bronze) 2014, 2017 (Silver) IMECH Industrial Heritage Award TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence 2015, 2016 Fareham In Bloom: Business Parks and Commercial Landscape (Silver) 2018 Wildlife Garden (Silver Gilt) 2018 |
The Brickworks Museum, also known as Bursledon Brickworks, is a museum run by volunteers. It is located in the village of Swanwick, Hampshire, England. People believe it is the last Victorian-era brick factory in the UK that still uses steam power.
Some parts of the brickworks, like the kiln, chimney, drying sheds, and engine house, are very important. They are listed as Grade II* buildings on the National Heritage List for England. This means they are special historical buildings that must be protected.
Contents
History of the Brickworks
Starting the Business
Bursledon Brickworks was built in 1897 by Robert and Edward Ashby. They were partners in a company called Hooper & Ashby. This company sold building materials in Southampton. The Ashby family and the Hooper family were Quakers.
Edward Hooper started the first business in the 1850s. He was an engineer and architect. Later, his brother Charles joined him, and they began making bricks. They sold these bricks under the name Hooper & Co. Edward saw a chance to grow the business. He started selling all kinds of building materials, including their own bricks.
The business did very well because Southampton was growing fast. In 1860, Edward married Harriet Ashby. Her brother, Edmund, joined the company a year later. The business was then renamed Hooper & Ashby. It became very successful, with stores all along the south coast of England.
The Ashby Family Takes Over
By 1885, Edward Hooper had passed away. The Ashby family then ran both the brick-making and building materials businesses. They saw a big demand for bricks in the area. So, they opened a new brickyard in Chandlers Ford. Here, they focused on making many machine-made bricks.
This plan worked well until they started running out of clay. They then looked for a new location. They found a perfect spot at Lower Swanwick, right by the River Hamble. This area had lots of "brick earth." This was a special mix of silty clay from the river and sand from the sea. It was perfect for making bricks. In 1897, the new brickworks were built and started making bricks.
How the Brickworks Operated
The new brickworks were very modern for their time. They used a large brick-making machine made by Bennett & Sayer. This company was known for making big machines that handled clay. The Ashby brothers bought a "stiff clay extruder." This machine could make 40,000 bricks every day! A powerful steam engine, built by John Wood & Sons, ran the machine.
After the bricks were made, they needed to dry. They were moved to large drying sheds. These sheds had heated pipes under the floor. The bricks took a certain amount of time to dry completely. The company even had a special design for these drying sheds.
Once dry, the bricks went to the kiln. This was a special type of kiln called a Staffordshire continuous kiln. It had twelve separate rooms, or chambers. Each chamber could hold up to 26,000 bricks at once. The kiln was always burning. The chambers would go from cold to over 1,000 degrees Celsius in about 15 days.
In 1903, the brickworks changed its name to The Bursledon Brick Co. Limited (B.B.C. Ltd.). Around this time, they added more buildings to the south and another complete brick-making area to the north. In 1935, they added a third unit. With all this extra space, the brickworks made over 20 million bricks each year. They were one of the biggest brick makers in the region.
The Workers' Lives
Most of the men who worked at the brickworks lived nearby. They usually worked as labourers. Their jobs included digging clay, making bricks, or looking after the kiln. All these jobs were very hard physically.
The workers were paid based on how many bricks they helped make each day. They worked very fast to earn as much money as possible. The pay was good compared to other jobs nearby. There were other jobs like working in market gardens (growing strawberries) or in boatyards on the River Hamble. But the brickworks paid better, as long as you could keep up with the fast pace.
The "clay gang" dug the clay from the pits. Their work depended on the weather. If it was too wet or too dry, they couldn't dig as much clay. Their pay could change a lot. The clay was moved to the brick-making machine using small railway wagons. These wagons were pulled up a slope to the top of the machine.
The "machine gang" took the bricks from the machine to the drying sheds. They used wooden wheelbarrows, carrying 40 bricks at a time. They would run about 15 miles a day, pushing their barrows up and down the long drying sheds. It was hot work, as the drying sheds were around 25 degrees Celsius.
When the bricks were dry, the "kiln gang" took over. Their job was to take the bricks (50 at a time now) to the kiln. They had to stack them inside the hot kiln chambers. This was the hardest job. The kiln chambers were very hot and full of smoke from the burning coal. The kiln gang earned the most money on site, but it was incredibly tough work.
Closing Down
The brickworks finally closed in 1974. Luckily, the Hampshire Buildings Preservation Trust saved the site from being torn down. The southern part of Bursledon Brickworks, which includes the brick kiln, chimney, drying sheds, boiler, and engine house, is a protected Grade II* listed site. The northern part was demolished. The land was bought by National Air Traffic Services (NATS). NATS runs important air traffic control centers nearby. They have also helped fund the Swanwick Lakes Wildlife Reserve project.
The Museum Today
Becoming a Charity
The Bursledon Brickworks Trust used to run the museum. It was replaced by the Bursledon Brickworks Museum Trust in 2016. The museum is now a charity. This means it is run for public benefit and doesn't make a profit.
Lottery Funding
In 2012, the Heritage Lottery Fund gave the Hampshire Buildings Preservation Trust a grant of £666,300. This money helped create the museum. The museum officially opened in 2014. It is now fully recognized as a museum and is open to visitors three days a week from April to October.
What You Can See
The biggest part of the museum's collection is the brickworks itself! It still has all its original buildings and working machines. Over the last twenty years, the museum has collected many more items. It now has one of the largest collections of bricks and brick-making tools in the UK.
The main brick-making machine is kept in working order. It is "steamed up" once a month for special events. The original boilers no longer work, so a modern boiler creates the steam needed.
Steam, Buses, and Railways
The Southampton and District Transport Heritage Trust keeps a collection of old buses at the museum. They help the museum by offering bus rides during some events. Also, the Southampton Historic Steam and Engineering Society is based at the museum. They organize two big steam events each year, with old steam engines visiting.
The museum also has two types of railways: a narrow-gauge railway and a miniature railway. The narrow-gauge railway runs during larger museum events. A diesel train and wagons show how the railway used to work. The miniature railway also runs at events and offers fun rides for children.
On TV and Radio
In July 2015, BBC Radio Solent presenter Nick Girdler visited the brickworks. He helped show off a new brick sculpture called the Twisted Shard. This amazing structure took five months to build. It was designed by Joe Taylor, a brick expert and artist from Woolston, Southampton. He worked with Michelmersh Brick Holdings and some students from Southampton City College to build it.
Later that year, the brickworks was shown in a BBC documentary. It was featured in the last five minutes of VE Day: First Days of Peace. In January 2017, Bursledon Brickworks was also shown for five minutes on the BBC One TV show Antiques Road Trip.
Images for kids
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Coal Park Lane entrance in February 2017
