Brickmaking

In Dorset during the 19th Century a profusion of brickyards existed, each supplying a small area, perhaps a village or two or a small town. The majority have now disappeared almost without trace.

Broadmayne had a flourishing brick industry for some two or three hundred years. The former brickworks in Watergates Lane have been the subject of a study by Donald Young, published in the proceedings of The Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, from which most of the following account has been taken.

In the photograph can be seen the moulding frames; also the long barrows for carrying newly-made bricks to the racks in the background, and the heap of clay dug during the previous night.

The first documentary evidence of a brickworks on the Watergates Lane site at Broadmayne is the Inclosure Map of 1811 which shows possibly five kilns. Prior to this a conveyance of 1762, and the West Knighton parish records for 1724, refer to brickmakers in the area, whilst there are a number of 18th century buildings in Dorchester which are constructed of the characteristic Broadmayne speckled bricks. The earliest of these is probably No. 52 High West Street, which dates from the first quarter of the 18th Century. No. 6 High East Street and No. 3 Trinity Street date from the second quarter, Wollaston House and Barclay's Bank from around 1775-1790. There are also a number of early buildings in the locality of the brickfield. One of the earliest is West Knighton Farmhouse built in 1690. This is constructed from the typical local product. The Old Forge in Main Street is also built in Broadmayne brick. The industry experienced a boom starting around 1895, due mainly to the expansion of Dorchester, and by 1900 four separate kilns were working. The demand was so great during the Edwardian period that the bricks were taken straight from the kilns, still warm, to the building sites. Such was the quality of the bricks that when a Broadmayne brick house was demolished, there would be advertisements offering its bricks for sale. Even as second-hand bricks they were much sought after. The output of bricks was around 200,000 per kiln per year (25,000 bricks per firing, with approximately eight firings a year). In the boom years the yards gave employment to 20 – 25 people, and many spent the whole of their working lives there. A slump came, however, with the First World War and by 1920, according to the Trades Directory, only one yard was still open, owned by Webb Major of Dorchester. This one continued production until 1939. Soon after the outbreak of the Second World War, the final load of bricks was made and stacked in the kiln. Firing was forbidden because of blackout regulations, so the loaded kiln was covered and left until after the war, when the roof was removed and some bricks taken out, presumably on the assumption that they were fired, and the remainder left exposed to the elements. In 1966 it was possible, below the mass of shapeless clay, to find and extract several whole bricks for inspection.

The industry at Broadmayne, which at its peak was rather larger than most, struggled on until the start of World War II, retaining its individuality to the end, but any obvious traces of it have now almost disappeared. The site of the brickyards, along the north side of Watergates Lane, formerly known as ‘The Brickyard’ or ‘Brickyard Lane’ now gives very little indication of its former activity. Of the kilns themselves, the remains of one still exists, in ruins and overgrown. The pits are now largely covered with trees and undergrowth which obscure their size and help them to merge into the natural landscape. One can easily walk the whole length of the lane without realising the industrial nature of the area. Several of the older houses along Watergates Lane were built or rebuilt with the local bricks; in one case a proportion of sub-standard bricks had been incorporated, giving a permanent record of what was and what was not considered marketable. Right up to 1940, the Broadmayne works continued to use production techniques and firing processes that had been common during the 17th Century. Consequently the products, although very good, were expensive, and the increasing competition from Chickerell and elsewhere priced them off the market. Attempts were made to reduce costs without sacrificing quality, but with little success. During the 1920s and possibly earlier, the trade was run in conjunction with timber felling and hauling. The horses employed for coal and brick-carrying also hauled the timber. The work was carried on during the winter in conjunction with the clay digging. There were many occasions when the wagons sank to the axle-trees in mud, and had to be unloaded and two teams of horses used to move an empty wagon.

Local inhabitants recall a second yard working in a small way for at least part of this period. This would appear to be a yard at the eastern end of the village where there was a ‘Scotch’ kiln at ‘Conygar’, a large Victorian House built in 1898, the site of which included this brickyard. The kiln cannot be seen from the road. Its estimated capacity was 35,000 bricks and the products appeared to have been the typical Broadmayne speckled bricks. Land drain pipes may have been made as well. The kiln was partly demolished and converted into a cow-stall with loft over, a shed and pig-sty. Two small water-filled claypits remain nearby and the area between them and the kiln was used for moulding and drying. The site is now part of ‘Endigey’ - a small-holding owned by Mrs Ann Williams. One intriguing aspect is that relating to the Old Manor Farm House – now No. 5 Main Street, in the oldest part of Broadmayne. For a village which produced very high quality bricks for well over 200 years, it is totally out of keeping to find this building, covered in bricks only half an inch thick. On close inspection however, it can be seen that they are actually tiles stuck on in the 19th Century to protect the original stonework from the elements. The house is tiled on the front only - the original stonework remains to the rear and its side elevations are now rendered.

This account of brickmaking in Broadmayne is taken from the work of Donald Young. Mr Young was a nuclear power engineer and lived in Broadmayne for most of the period from 1960 until his death in 1980. His Obituary in the Proceedings of The Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society describes Don Young as ‘a distinguished local historian’ and ‘a pioneer industrial archaeologist in the county’. His first local history project was the transcription of the parish records of Broadmayne and West Knighton. It was here that he came across the earliest known reference (1724) to brickmaking in Broadmayne. As well as publishing (1967) his researches on Broadmayne, he published (1971) the results of his work on brickmaking in Dorset and, in 1974, he reported on the excavations of the Iron Age settlement at Broadmead (see page 116 ). His interests extended widely over the field of industrial archaeology including agriculture, water mills, lime-burning, pottery, textiles, bootmaking, quarrying, and cement. He also compiled a comprehensive list of industrial buildings in the county.

Farming
Thatching
The Old Bakery and other businesses