A flourishing brickworks was carried on at Brickyard Farm in the 19th century. They made pipes as well as bricks. The pipes were made by hand, but steam was used for making the bricks.
Bricks were also made at Greyfield. Maynard Terrace was built with Clutton bricks.
Information from Mary Miles Chair of the Somerset Industrial Archaeological Society
Yard 3 (ST637600) (Clutton Hill Brickworks)
Clutton Hill Brickworks
Harrison Harrod & Co Directory 1859 “Holbrook, James and Holbrook, Frederick”.
Kelly’s Directory 1861, 1866, 1872, 1883 “Holbrook, James & Sons and Holbrook, Frederick”
Kelly’s Directory 1889 “Holbrook, James & Sons and Holbrook, James”.
Map evidence:
Tithe map 1838, owner Earl of Warwick, occupier James Holbrook, plots 469 (House brickyard etc) and 470 (Home Mead).
1886 OS 6” (sheet 20NW) “Clutton Hill Brick works” with “Gravel Pit” and (?) tramway to buildings. Extension west since Tithe info. 1904 OS 25” (sheet 20.1) negative, pits not indicated, only cottages – no buildings. “Brickyard Farm”.
Named as Blackbury Brick & Tiles Works (1822 document). (Source Parsons 2009, p5 – the title of the book was not noted)
Yard 1 (ST639588) Clutton Brickworks (Greyfield Colliery Brickworks)
Greyfield Colliery Brickworks
The Demolition of Greyfield Colliery Brickworks Chimney (Post 1909)
Photograph – Clutton History Group.
Brick with shallow frog stamped “GREGORY CLUTTON”. Made at Greyfield Colliery site c1902, based on purchase of brickworks by Tom Gregory. (source: Parsons 2009, p5) Kelly’s 1902 Directory refers to “Tom Keeling”. (This brick was found just north of Clutton to the west of Nap Hill. The index card lists it as being in Brian’s personal collection.
Listed proprietors of this works was Greyfield Colliery Co Ltd in Kelly’s 1910 and 1914. Kelly’s 1906 as “Clutton Brickworks Co”.
“At the pithead, narrow-gauge line, spanned the sidings to reach the dirt tips, and also served the Cuckoo drift and the colliery brickworks.” “Around 1906 the GWR agreed to construct a junction for a siding to serve the brickworks; though it was duly competed, the siding did not see much use, since the brickworks closed about 1909” (Source for both Down & Warrington, 1971, p77. A map of the colliery c1900 on p75 names as Greyfield Brickworks and identifies brick kilns and brick presses. The 1904 OS 25” map [sheet 20.5] is very similar.)
Adjacent to the Greyfield colliery site, there were three kilns and a moulding shed. There was access via the colliery siding to Clutton station. Tom Gregory bought the brickworks in 1902 and it is thought they closed by 1909”. (Five Arches Journal Issue No. 66 2009).
Yard 2 (ST626596) (Where Gregory Brick was found)
OS Map 1947 to 1965
The Old Brickworks Chimney
Photograph –Clutton History Group.
A small brickworks was established by the site of the shaft but this failed and was closed soon after 1929, (Source Down & Warrington, 1971, p81. Two shafts are shown on the map on p79.)
Brick found on the site of Clutton Brickworks adjacent to the old railway line
but was probably manufactured at Greyfield Colliery Brickworks
Photograph Gill Hazell
Source - Five Arches, Issue 75. Ramble Around Clutton by Lena Church.
By walking fifty yards along the old railway track, northwards, we are able to see within the trees, a shaky looking brick chimney which indicates the site of a very short lived brickworks. It started in 1921 after the closure of the coal mine (Burchells Pit) with equipment bought from Old Welton Brickworks, but a poorly constructed kiln, added to other problems, brought its closure in 1929.