End Of A Chapter In Brickmaking (15 November 1974)
The closure of the Jubilee brickworks at Skew Bridge brings to an end another chapter in the long story of brickmaking in North Bucks.
When I came to Bletchley in 1946, three groups of brick kiln chimneys to the south and south-west of the town were the outstanding features of the skyline. Predominant were eleven chimneys of the London Brick Co., just over the Newton Longville border which have since become 13. There were also a group of four off the Drayton Road at Water Eaton belonging to Flettons Ltd., and a further group of four at Skew Bridge belonging to Bletchley Flettons Ltd.
A few years ago there was a fall in the demand for bricks similar to the present fall and eventually the four Water Eaton chimneys fell with it. Now it looks as though the Skew Bridge chimneys may fall as well. This will leave only the Newton cluster still in being. And for the first time since 1929 Newton will resume its former role of being the only brickworks in the neighbourhood.
The Skew Bridge works have had a rather “chequered” history. They were initiated by Mr. Lamb, of “Lamb’s railway sidings” fame, in 1933, but we have to go back further for the beginning of the story.
In fact, the story can best be said to have begun in about 1890 when a Mr. Thomas Read set up a comparatively small brickworks on land on the opposite side of the Bletchley-Newton road to the present large works. He had also set up other works elsewhere and quite shortly afterwards he passed on the control of the Newton works to his son, Mr. John Thornton Read.
The enterprise began with only about a dozen employees, but it prospered. Mr. John T. Read was an energetic businessman. Hitherto, various small brickyards in Bletchley and North Bucks, most of them satisfying purely local needs, had come and gone. From the start, John Thornton Read seems to have had his eye on wider fields. At the same time he was a staunch Baptist and eventually became what is commonly called a “local worthy” for good works of a different nature.
After only a few years he was joined by Mr. Richard Andrews, of Leagrave and from then onwards the firm of Read and Andrews continued to expand in acreage, size of works and labour force. In 1919 they were joined by W.T. Lamb and Sons, builders’ merchants, and still later by Mr. Read’s son, Mr. Thomas George Read.
Then, in 1923, they became a private limited liability company, Bletchley Brick Co. Ltd.
For all this time the firm had been making their bricks in the traditional way (although, of course, with mechanical improvements as they went along). That is to say, they used only the upper, yellowish clay. But for some years they had been facing the rapidly-growing challenge of the “fletton” brick. This is made from the deeper “knotts” of Oxford clay and has the overwhelming advantage of being self-burning once it has been ignited, as well as existing to a depth of 70 feet from top to bottom in places. From 1924 the company began to change over to the new method.
In the years 1929 to 1933 a number of developments took place on the local brickmaking scene. In 1929 Flettons Ltd., of Whittlesea, came to Water Eaton and established a brickworks. Next year the Bletchley Brick Company sold out to the London Brick Company and either just before or just afterwards the move across the Bletchley-Newton road began to be made. Finally, in 1933, Mr. Lamb, of the former Bletchley Brick company, began to erect the Skew Bridge works.
He had only got about quarter-way to their completion, however, when he sold out to (the) new company, Bletchley Flettons Ltd., who finished the job. The district thus got its three separate brickworks. And brickmaking became second only to the railway in the employment of male labour.
The Skew Bridge development, however, does not seem ever to have been so successful as the other two. One factor seems to have been the need to dig much deeper to reach the Oxford clay. The works carried on until the war. Then it was decided it would be more economic to fetch clay by road from a new pit at Loughton.
This was done for a time. Then, in 1950, the LBC bought the works from Bletchley Flettons Ltd. For a reported £110,000. They named them the Jubilee Works and enabled them to out-live the Water Eaton works by several years until the present cut-back.
The Water Eaton closure, however, may not have been dictated by the usual economic reasons alone. At one period the three brickworks between them were reputed to be producing about six-and-a-half million bricks a week. For years Bletchley Urban Council, and later Milton Keynes Development Corporation, had been worried about the possible effects on development of so much brickmaking in and around that area. I should think the corporation were at least as glad to buy the Water Eaton works and re-develop the site as Flettons Ltd. were to sell.
Now another source of smoke is to be eliminated. All the same, the remaining works are still large employers of men. Houses are still needed in great numbers both nationally and in the new city itself. It will be sign of the ability to build them and of renewed prosperity all round when these works are working full tilt once more.
Meanwhile, I am sorry for the men who have been laid off. Perhaps it may be some consolation for them to know that this is still just about the best place in the country for jobs available. Indeed, I hear that as soon as news of the closure got around, the LBC received inquiries for men from other employers in the district who were short.
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It doesn’t say tgat Hanson took over and made men redundant including my Husband
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