Bursledon Brickworks Museum — BrandWiki

Bursledon Brickworks Museum

Overview

Bursledon Brickworks Industrial Museum

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–)
location	Swanwick, Hampshire, England
address	Coal Park Lane / Swanwick Lane
location town	Southampton
location country	England
coordinates	50.8858°N, -1.2908°W
owner	Hampshire Buildings Preservation Trust
floor count	2
awards	Solent Protection Society 2004 Conservation Award‡R1R‡ Tourism South East / Beautiful South Business Awards: Best Community Tourism Business 2014‡R2R‡ 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
pushpin map	Hampshire
map caption	Location in Hampshire
altitude	11 metres
building type	Museum
architectural style	Victorian
website	www.bursledonbrickworks.org.uk

The Brickworks Museum, also known as Bursledon Brickworks, is a volunteer-run museum in Swanwick, Hampshire, England. It is purportedly the UK's sole surviving Victorian steam-driven brickworks.[3][4]

The brick kiln, chimney, drying sheds, and the boiler and engine house at the south section of the brickworks are listed Grade II* as a group on the National Heritage List for England.[5]

History

Hooper & Ashby

Bursledon Brickworks were built in 1897 by Robert and Edward Ashby. The Ashby family were partners in Hooper & Ashby, a Southampton-based builders' merchants. Both the Ashbys and the Hoopers were Quakers, from

The brickworks

The new brickworks were innovative for their time. They used a large brick-making machine made by Bennett & Sayer from Derby. They were a firm that specialised in making large clay handling machinery. The machine the Ashby brothers bought was of the type known as a stiff clay extruder. The manufacturers claimed it was capable of making 40,000 bricks a day. The machine was run by a steam engine manufactured by John Wood & Sons from Wigan.

Once the bricks were made they were dried in large drying sheds. These were heated via underfloor pipes and the bricks took a set time to dry. The design of the drying sheds was patented by the company. When they had dried completely the bricks were then taken down to the kiln.

The kiln was a Staffordshire-type, continuous kiln (based on a Hoffmann kiln) with twelve chambers. Each chamber could hold up to 26,000 bricks at a time. The kiln was always burning with the chambers going from cold to over 1,000*C every 15 days or so.

In 1903, the brickworks changed its name to The Bursledon Brick Co. Limited or (B.B.C. Ltd.). This coincided with the extension of the southern complex and the addition of another complete works to the north. This was further extended in 1935 with the addition of a third unit. With the extra capacity, the brickworks was producing in excess of 20 million bricks a year. They were one of the main producers of bricks in the region.[7]

After the Second World War, the family business was amalgamated with the Sussex and Dorking Brick Company and in 1959 became Redland Holdings Ltd.

The workers

The men who worked in the brickworks mostly lived nearby. Most of them worked as labourers either digging the clay, making the bricks or tending the kiln. All of these jobs were physically demanding. They worked in gangs and were paid according to how many bricks they contributed towards each day. The pace they set was fast as they were keen to earn as much as possible. The pay was good in comparison with other labouring jobs in the area. There was competition from the local market gardens (growing the strawberries for London) and the various boatyards on the River Hamble. Neither of these paid as well as the Brickworks did - as long as you could keep up the pace.

The clay gang dug the clay from the clay pits. This work was dependent on the weather. If it was too wet or dry they wouldn't be able to dig as much clay as usual. Their pay could vary from 10s to 30s a week. The clay was taken to the machine using narrow gauge railway wagons. These were hauled up an inclined plane to the top of the brick-making machine.

The machine gang were responsible for getting the bricks from the machine and into the drying sheds. They used wooden barrows to do this, pushing 40 bricks at a time. They ran approximately 15 miles a day with their barrows up and down the long corridors that divided the drying sheds. It as hot work as the drying sheds operated at around 25*C.

When the bricks were dry the kiln gang took over and their job was to take the bricks on barrows (50 at a time now) down to the kiln and stack the kiln chambers. This was the hardest job as the kiln chambers were still very hot and filled with the fumes from the coal burning. They earned more than anyone else on site but it was hard work.

Sport

Museum

Charity status

The Bursledon Brickworks Trust which ran from July 1997 – February 2007 was replaced by the Bursledon Brickworks Museum Trust in November 2016.[11] The museum has charitable status.

Grants

In 2012, the Heritage Lottery Fund granted Hampshire Buildings Preservation Trust funding of £666,300[12] to create the museum. The museum opened in 2014. It is now fully accredited and open to the public three days a week from April through to October.

In 2023 Historic England awarded the museum £246,000 to fund the replacement of the asbestos roof over the site's brick kiln.[13]

Collections

The largest part of the collection is the museum itself. It still has all its original buildings and working machinery. Since its inception the collection has broadened and is now has one of the largest collections of bricks and brick-making artefacts in the UK.

The working machine is kept in working condition and is steamed up once a month for special events. The original boilers no longer work and steam is generated via a modern boiler.[14][15]

In 2022 the museum obtained permission from Fareham Borough Council to replace the asbestos roof over the brick kiln.[16]

Steam, buses and railways

The Southampton and District Transport Heritage Trust keep a collection of heritage buses on the site. They help the museum by providing a bus service for some of the events during the year. Likewise, Southampton Historic Steam and Engineering Society are based on the museum site. They create two large steam based events each year with visiting traction engines.

The museum has both a narrow-gauge railway and a miniature railway on site. The narrow-gauge runs as part of larger museum events. A diesel shunter and rolling stock is used to demonstrate how the railway once operated. The miniature railway also runs at events and offers rides for children.

Entrance to and from the site

The brickworks has two entrances; the first is on Swanwick Lane, and the second on Coal Park Lane. The Swanwick Lane entrance has access to a car park for use by the general public. It is also where coaches drop off passengers. The rear entrance on Coal Park Lane is for use by staff and volunteers at the site; it is also used for deliveries.