Visited with The Stig and KM Punk
John Ellis was a member of the Leicester quaker Ellis family who were involved in many aspects of Leicestershire's industrial development in the 19th century. Originally a farmer in Beaumont Leys, he played a major part in the instigation of the Leicester & Swannington Railway in 1832 which was one of the first railways in England and was constructed by the famous railway engineer George Stephenson. It was built to transport coal from the North Leicestershire coalfields to Leicester, and John sold the coal from a canal-side depot at West Bridge. The canal also brought lime from the county's major lime-fields at Breedon and Barrow upon Soar.
This trade increased enormously when the Midland Counties Railway running through Barrow was opened in 1840.
By the mid-1840's John Ellis & Sons was renting land in Barrow to extract and burn limestone in their own kilns. By 1866 there were more than 30 kilns on the site. Most of the lime was taken from delphs east of the railway line which were linked by a 3ft-gauge tramway to the kilns; the tramway was replaced by a standard gauge track in the 1920's. By the 1870's the company also had lime extraction and burning operations covering 25 acres at Kilby Bridge near Wigston.
In 1920, John Ellis & Sons was merged with the Mountsorrel Granite Company, although the two continued to be run independently. An additional 50 acres of land was purchased at Barrow on either side of the railway to expand the concrete products operations. The head office building still stands on the west side of the Road.
At the time of the Second World War, the company turned much of its manufacturing activity over to the war effort air-raid shelters, pit props, compressed boards for army huts. After the war, products such as prefabricated houses to replace those destroyed by bombing were made. In 1955, over 55 thousand tons of concrete products were despatched from Barrow. The company was acquired by Redland in 1960 but the manufacture of concrete products continued at the Barrow works. Redland was taken over by Lafarge Aggregates in 1997.
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John Ellis was a member of the Leicester quaker Ellis family who were involved in many aspects of Leicestershire's industrial development in the 19th century. Originally a farmer in Beaumont Leys, he played a major part in the instigation of the Leicester & Swannington Railway in 1832 which was one of the first railways in England and was constructed by the famous railway engineer George Stephenson. It was built to transport coal from the North Leicestershire coalfields to Leicester, and John sold the coal from a canal-side depot at West Bridge. The canal also brought lime from the county's major lime-fields at Breedon and Barrow upon Soar.
This trade increased enormously when the Midland Counties Railway running through Barrow was opened in 1840.
By the mid-1840's John Ellis & Sons was renting land in Barrow to extract and burn limestone in their own kilns. By 1866 there were more than 30 kilns on the site. Most of the lime was taken from delphs east of the railway line which were linked by a 3ft-gauge tramway to the kilns; the tramway was replaced by a standard gauge track in the 1920's. By the 1870's the company also had lime extraction and burning operations covering 25 acres at Kilby Bridge near Wigston.
In 1920, John Ellis & Sons was merged with the Mountsorrel Granite Company, although the two continued to be run independently. An additional 50 acres of land was purchased at Barrow on either side of the railway to expand the concrete products operations. The head office building still stands on the west side of the Road.
At the time of the Second World War, the company turned much of its manufacturing activity over to the war effort air-raid shelters, pit props, compressed boards for army huts. After the war, products such as prefabricated houses to replace those destroyed by bombing were made. In 1955, over 55 thousand tons of concrete products were despatched from Barrow. The company was acquired by Redland in 1960 but the manufacture of concrete products continued at the Barrow works. Redland was taken over by Lafarge Aggregates in 1997.
Thanks for looking
