WIAS - Warwickshire Industrial Archaeology Society

Cherry Orchard Brickworks, Kenilworth

A visit to the former Cherry Orchard Brick Works, Kenilworth on Monday 15th December 2003. The site had been used for some time by a company known as Whitemoor Engineering, making metal fabrications for the likes of the Ford Motor Co. but this has now ceased. Planning consent has been granted on appeal for the construction of flats and the development is likely to commence in January. There is a very little left to see, apart from scrap items, but it is likely that all trace of the site will vanish when the flats are built. Digging the footings may possibly reveal some discarded Cherry Orchard bricks long since buried in the ground. Below are some photo's of odds and ends in situ. Apologies for the quality of the photographs.

Update 2011 - The site is now shared between a housing development called Harborne Close and Kenilworth Re-cycling Centre. No trace of the former industries remain or the items below.

At the time of the visit in 2003 the items in situ included a 'Case' mechanical digger, tracked, still salvageable, large Avery Scales, possibly left over from brick making days and a 'Pug Mill' on wheels with a tow bar bearing the name 'LINER'. Locals will also remember the BMC or Austin SWB platform backed lorry which languished for many years near the entrance and became part of the hedging. The engine was missing but it still had wheels with rubber tyres even though abandoned many years ago with only 88,000 miles on the clock!

The earlier photos taken by Richard Storey in 1977 show storage tanks close to the former railway access point, abandoned wagons and tiles on the former office roof.

The following email from John Alsop in Australia was received in August 2011;

My father, Stanley Alsop, managed Cherry Orchard in the 1950s and 60s and the family lived in the house on site. The Avery scales pictured on your web-site had nothing to do with the brickyard. My father was a very keen bee-keeper and one stock of bees was kept on the scales so that daily weight gain (or loss) could be recorded. During my vacations I worked as a night burner on the kiln ( continuous Hoffman type , I seem to remember), and quite an innovation then because it was gravity fed, oil fired.I also remember working at a small sheet metal fabricator on site for one vacation; in those days they made front mudguards for Daimler cars. I see Napton Brickworks is on your list; I holidayed there in the 1930s when my grandfather was the manager. I must admit I was more interested in the lovely fossils to be found in the blue lias in the clay pit than I was interested in the quarry tiles produced! I hope this information is helpful. Regards, John Alsop.