North East Wales bricks

"Old Bricks - history at your feet"

Other North East Wales bricks

Alyn Brick Tile & Terracota, Coed Talon

Aston Hall Coal & Brick Company

This works was near Hawarden in Flintshire.

Photographed on the seashore at Crosby, Merseyside.

Brymbo

This is a refractory brick from the now demolished Brymbo steelworks near Wrexham.

Colomendy, Mold

The site of this works in Flintshire has not, as yet, been positively identified.

Erith, Leeswood

Erith is a town in North Kent and it seems an odd choice of name for a Welsh brickworks. However the name is descended from an earlier phase in Leeswood's history. Before oil could reliably be pumped from the ground, it was obtained from coal and the coal in this area had a very high oil content. For a brief period in the latter half of the 19th century, the immediate area was exploited for this rich resource and the principal company involved was the London, Erith and Leeswood Mineral Oil Company which diversified into brickmaking. The brick business lasted a lot longer than the oil business and the works finally ceased production in the 1970's.

Ffrwd Iron Works

The Ffrwd Ironworks was one of those vast Victorian enterprises that has now disappeared almost without trace. Hidden in a steep sided valley near Wrexham are the remains of an ironworks, several collieries, coke ovens and a brickworks. The complex was served by competing branchlines of the Great Western Railway and Wrexham, Mold and Connahs Quay Railway. In its early days, the works even constructed a canal to link up with a proposed extension of the Shropshire Union. The canal was abandoned, without ever being used, by 1800 - but traces of it can still be seen. Due to a trade depression, the whole complex had disappeared by the early days of the 20th century.