Waste
bricks in walls
Gainsborough Road/Tuddenham Road corner wall
Spotted in one of those higgledy-piggledy mixed brick walls
round a
garden on the corner of Gainsborough Road and Tuddenham Road, Ipswich.
Many of the elements appear to be vitrified (over-fired) and/or
mis-shapen material.
‘SPECIA…
B.B…
QUALI…
MOBBERLEY &…
STOURB…’
Mobberley & Bayley, Lye, Stourbridge
Samuel Mobberley and James Porter Bayley were a trading partnership
prior to 1866 but not before 1859, at the Thorns Fireclay &
Brickworks, Kingswinford, and at the Cradley Station colliery, Cradley
Heath. They were producing Fireclay & Manufacturing / House Coal.
Also listed was a Mobberley & Perry of Merry Hill, (the same Samuel
Mobberley), in the list of Fireclay mines in South Staffordshire dated
1875. However, both Mobberley & Bayley filed for proceedings under
the bankruptcy act in May 1879, when the company was wound up in
liquidation, their creditors received 2 shillings & sixpence in the
pound. Bayley had no assets, but Mobberley had (in partnership with
Perry). Mobberley & Bayley do not appear in any trade directories
after 1882, but Mobberley & Perry appear in the 1896 directory as
owning:-
HAYES / LOWER HAYES LYE
UNDERGROUND EMP[loying] 14 ABOVE GROUND EMP[loying]
6
MERRY HILL BRIERLEY
HILL
"
"
11
"
"
"
3
THORNS
(part)
"
"
"
"
17
"
"
"
6
These were producing RED, BLUE & FIRECLAY BRICKS, GLASS RETORTS
& other refractory items from the Oldbury Marl seam.
They go on to take over the OLDNALL colliery by 1923, and BEECH TREE by
1933, Thorns being depleted by 1920. Only Beech Tree was in production
in 1947, producing Fireclay, thick coal and brooch.
Photograph
courtesy Old Bricks website
Mobberley & Perry Ltd, Stourbridge
Mobberley & Perry was at The Hayes, Lye, Stourbridge, West
Midlands. The brickworks for building bricks was on the main
Stourbridge Road in Wollacote and the Firebrick works was in Hayes
Lane. George Attwood worked the brickworks untill 1840, then
Fisher Bros. worked the brickworks until Mobberley & Perry took
over the brickworks, the works closed in the late 1960s.
[Information from the excellent website Old
Bricks - history at your feet (see Links);
thanks to David Sallery for permission to use the 'Mobberley &
Perry brick image.]
Rushmere Road/Colchester Road corner
wall
On the north-eastern corner of this roundabout, is a typical
example of such a garden wall as seen on the Gainsborough
Road/Tuddenham Road corner. While there isn't any
obvious lettering (we haven't looked on the inside of the wall), it is
interesting to look at the variety of 'wasters' from the kiln, pieces
of tile etc. use to make this patchwork contained within red brick
walling.
2020
images
The ultimate feature is frog face of the near-upright brick,
overcooked and mishapen in the kiln.
And let's just look at the way these modern, thin metal street
nameplates degrade in the weather:
Compare this with the Victorian/Edwardian cast iron plates, as
seen on Cutler Street, Dove Yard and elsewhere.
See also our page on Wherstead red bricks and Ipswich brickyards.
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