Bit of history pulled from another report as I couldn't find much on the web!
History
Surveyors started at the Swillington site in 1958, and it seems building of the plant started in 1962 finishing sometime in late 1965 with production starting in 1966. It was built and operated by George Armitage and Sons PLC, who had been making quality bricks since 1824. The Swillington Works was built after the clay at the George Armitage and Sons site in Woodlesford was exhausted.
The clay pit was red burning so they had to import clay from other quarries, including their main works at Wakefield, to obtain the variety of colour they required. The site was originally built to produce around 30,000 bricks a day, but by 1982 was capable of 100,000. It seems average brick production in its final years was around 450,000 a week, with sales around 350,000 (they would transfer some to other sites) until the housing slump in 2007 when sales dropped down to around 250,000 bricks a week.
The current kiln was built in 1972 and is a German LINGI, it has the capacity to fit in 46 cars. They manufactured a wide range of bricks including facings, paviors, engineering and acid resistant. They provided all 1,000,000 bricks to build Barton Square, the second phase of the Trafford Centre, Manchester.
In 1988 it was taken over by Marshall's and the change from a family run business seemed to upset a lot of the work force. They seemed happier when the brickworks was acquired by Hanson Aggregates (not sure when), I'm sure we're all familiar with them, but there's some history here, but after a drop of 40% in sales after the deterioration of the building industry they closed the works with a loss of 45 jobs in October 2008.
Our visit:
After a couple of attempts at this place we finally found a entrance and managed to get there just after security had clocked off! absolutely tonnes of interesting stuff in the place security have done a good job keeping the pikeys away! There is a rather cool looking quarry with the bluest water I have ever seen but lost the pictures of that
On with the pictures!
secca office :P
So many red buttons in this place!
Pictures are only from my iPhone sorry if the quality is bad! thanks for looking!
History
Surveyors started at the Swillington site in 1958, and it seems building of the plant started in 1962 finishing sometime in late 1965 with production starting in 1966. It was built and operated by George Armitage and Sons PLC, who had been making quality bricks since 1824. The Swillington Works was built after the clay at the George Armitage and Sons site in Woodlesford was exhausted.
The clay pit was red burning so they had to import clay from other quarries, including their main works at Wakefield, to obtain the variety of colour they required. The site was originally built to produce around 30,000 bricks a day, but by 1982 was capable of 100,000. It seems average brick production in its final years was around 450,000 a week, with sales around 350,000 (they would transfer some to other sites) until the housing slump in 2007 when sales dropped down to around 250,000 bricks a week.
The current kiln was built in 1972 and is a German LINGI, it has the capacity to fit in 46 cars. They manufactured a wide range of bricks including facings, paviors, engineering and acid resistant. They provided all 1,000,000 bricks to build Barton Square, the second phase of the Trafford Centre, Manchester.
In 1988 it was taken over by Marshall's and the change from a family run business seemed to upset a lot of the work force. They seemed happier when the brickworks was acquired by Hanson Aggregates (not sure when), I'm sure we're all familiar with them, but there's some history here, but after a drop of 40% in sales after the deterioration of the building industry they closed the works with a loss of 45 jobs in October 2008.
Our visit:
After a couple of attempts at this place we finally found a entrance and managed to get there just after security had clocked off! absolutely tonnes of interesting stuff in the place security have done a good job keeping the pikeys away! There is a rather cool looking quarry with the bluest water I have ever seen but lost the pictures of that
On with the pictures!
secca office :P
So many red buttons in this place!
Pictures are only from my iPhone sorry if the quality is bad! thanks for looking!
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