|
|
||
|
But which brickworks, was it Loftus? Following a comment from Tony Lynn this is now believed to be a pre-cast concrete works, but where? We are also told by Eric Johnson of a Thomas Eaton who in 1891 was a manufacturer of tiles and bricks in Loftus, but obviously on a smaller scale than shown in this image. The search continues. (photo courtesy of Neil Suckling, thanks to Tony Lynn and Eric Jonson for the update.)
Taken in 1933 this shows the brick wheel and the work force on the steel works. The purpose of the brick wheel was to make bricks from molten blast furnace slag, many of these bricks can be found in most back alleys. Eic Jonson supplies the following brief description of brickmaking: ”the slag was brought from the furnaces in slag ladles adapted with a tap hole. a chute was placed between this and led down to the wheel moulds. the making of slag bricks was a very labour intensive operation, once started was continuous, hard hot work. the wheel was a steel circular construction, with the steel moulds round the perimeter they had a hinged bottom held with a catch. this can be all be seen in the photo. the wheel was driven by a geared electric motor with hand operated backup. as the slag ran down the chute into the moulds, the wheel rotated, the filled moulds cooled down and at a point near the kilns, the catch was struck the hinged bottom opened the hot brick fell to the ground. It was picked up with the large “gripes”. some of the men can be seen holding in photo, carried to the kilns and stacked inside, when full the kiln was closed. as the kiln was already hot from the previous batch the working conditions for the men can be imagined.” Second man front right is Harry Dack from Carlin How anyone know any more of the men here? (photo courtesy of Derick Pearson and updates from Robert Proctor and Eric Johnson)
A good image of the engine house at Lingdale mine. The brick kiln (and associated brick wheel) was part of an attempt to make the mine profitable (especially during slack times). It wasn’t particularly successful, but probably contributed enough to prevent total closure of the mine. Lingdale mine was the deepest mine in the Cleveland system and also at the poorest yield, there being a large band of shale splitting the seam in two. This resulted in the huge shale heap which took forever to dispose of! Lingdale village was described as almost derelict in the late Victorian era, the difficulty of winning the stone meaning that the mine was closed more often than in production.
This looks like a photograph of a finishing shop – a place where clay or ceramic objects are cleaned up and checked for defects. I could suggest a date of 1903 – judging by the plaque being held to view at the nearest workbench, but that could be a red herring. I say clay or ceramic because most of the objects in the image look like ceramic pipework, chimney pots and urns. Behind the little table in the foreground can be seen some small moulds – like boxes in two halves. Now we all know that Bank Top in Loftus was built on boulder clay – was there a brickworks there? The reason it looks rather gloomy is that it was shot in natural light – no flash. |
||
|
Copyright © 2012 Loftus Digital Village - All Rights Reserved |
||
Recent Comments