Warwickshire Industrial Archaeology Society

Home Contact Us News & Reports Programme Sales Table Useful Links

Napton Brickworks

 

Updated: 11/07/2008

                    

Menu

IA Pages
Atherstone
Birmingham Pens
Cherry Orchard
Docklands
Friese-Green
George Singer
Grendon Ice House
Hatton Locks
Kenilworth Greenway
Kenilworth Station
Lancaster Bomber
Napton Brickworks
Peugeot Ryton
Photo Gallery
President Steam Boat
Tie Plates
Warwick Castle

Information
Newsletters & Retort
News Archive
Who's Who

Links
Birmingham Patents
Odibourne Press
Railways Remembered
Various Patent Docs
Warks Time Trail

 

 
Click & get Adobe
 

and a very warm welcome to the WIAS web site

The now defunct Warwickshire Steam Engine Society used to produce a regular newsletter known as The Link-up. The one time editor  and Chairman, Peter Coulls thought some of the articles previously appearing in that newsletter may be of interest to WIAS members. These jottings were written in 1972 by the late Jim Durant, at a time when industrial steam was well in decline. The text remains unchanged, however where additional information is included, this appears in italics.

Napton Brickworks.

Sale of surplus machinery, Saturday, May 20th. Included in this sale was a steam engine by Pelham of Walsall. This was on a 20ft. bed, so a bit large for the majority of would be preservationists. Mr. Morton of Blists Hill Museum was notified, it is not known whether he was able to save it or if the torch and hammer squad moved in.

Postscript: Tuesday, 13th June. The engine is unsold. The owner Mr. Sheasby put a reserve on of £1000! There are two boilers, one now converted to a storage tank. The engine was used until about fifteen years ago and drove all the machinery, including the clay tubs by chain, the conveyors and the crushing pan. The exhaust steam was used for drying the ‘green’ bricks. Nothing wasted here.

According to George Watkins the engine was built by J.Wilkes of Pelsall Foundry, near Walsall, c1885? It was a non-condensing horizontal single cylinder engine operating at 80 psi. He suggests that the works were started in 1885 by Nelson, Watson and Co. producing traditional bricks and tiles. The engine was well built and was overloaded for many years, needing little but running repairs.

Twenty six years on the site remains largely derelict, despite several attempts to develop it. Most recently, it has been the subject of a locally contentious planning application for a craft village. This sought permission for a number of detached houses with adjacent craft workshops, the idea being to attract a community of self employed crafts people. However, general local opinion was that this was an underhand attempt to develop a housing estate in an inappropriate location, and nothing seems to have come of the proposal.

Meanwhile, fragments of the sites industrial past remain evident, most notably the clay extraction quarry on Napton Hill, now a fishery, and the house style office building at the site entrance.

This article is re-produced from the WIAS newsletter number 30, March 2008. Additional notes by Mark Abbott and photographs of the Napton steam engines by R.J. Blenkinsop supplied by courtesy of the Derek Billings collection.

 

Napton Brickworks Steam Engine

Napton Steam Engine in situ
R.J.Blenkinsop (Derek Billings Collection)

Napton Brickworks Steam Engine

Napton Steam Engine in situ
R.J.Blenkinsop (Derek Billings Collection)

Napton Brickworks Steam Engine

Napton Steam Engine in situ
R.J.Blenkinsop (Derek Billings Collection)

 

Information

WIAS Meetings
Meetings of the Society are held on the second Thursday of each month in the Pyne Room at Warwick School, Myton Road, Warwick, starting at 7.30pm. Visitors should park in the Junior School/Sports Hall Car Park.  The Sixth Form Centre is close to the car park.
(Click here to see map)

Subscriptions 2008/09
£10 per person or per couple. Cheques payable to WIAS.  An additional payment of £1 per person  at each meeting to cover the cost of refreshments.

Abebooks

FrontPage Templates

Copyright  © Warwickshire Industrial Archaeology Society 'WIAS' 2003 - 2008. All Rights Reserved.
 
Affiliated to the Association for Industrial Archaeology