London Brick Company at Stewartby - Then & Now ft

I visit the home of the London Brick Company in Bedfordshire with Steven of Down the line rail (KZbin). This immense brickworks closed around 2006 and although the chimneys and other structures have been demolished, some structures still remain. So come join me and Steven as we explore the site and discover some history about the place in where the bricks have been made to build many of our homes and buildings.
Don't forget to like and subscribe to Steven's Channel Down The Line Rail.
• Abandoned Railways - T...
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[@railwayhonza]

Epic video. I’ve been to the brickworks before the chimneys were demolished and trains at Stewartby was my first trainspotting video.

[@PurpleVision23]

Yh I suppose this is your stomping ground s

[@Downthelinerail]

Love it!!! I’m thrilled you enjoyed our time in Stewartby.

[@PurpleVision23]

Thrilled is an understatement 😁

[@tommymolloy5697]

Only coming to this just now .. i worked there from 1979 to 1992. I was a "Kiln Burner", responsible for burning the bricks, controlling the drying and firing temperatures and producing the finished article. Love the enthusiasm you have. And smiled at some of the naiveté. The numbers on the bricks have nothing to do with Kiln numbers. When they were being pressed there was no definite knowledge of which kiln they would be set in. You ask what a facing machine is. Some bricks would be plain with no facing. Others would have different colour facing. So Cheviot would be red facings, there would be a whiteish/grey facing (brindle), a yellow facing, etc. The facing on the brick determined the colour of the house or other building made with the bricks. The facing material came in powdered form and was pressed onto the green clay brick during production. You suggest that the big lights in a shed were to help dry out the bricks. I can assure you that as the bricks came off the presses and were stacked - by hand into a defined structure to fit the kiln - they were picked up by a forklift truck and put in a kiln and this is were they were dried out. The lights were simply to give light. You refere to hoppers as cement hoppers. There was no cement involved in the production of Oxford clay fletton bricks. The clay dug out of the ground would be formed into tiny granuals. It is these granuals, like gravel, that would come down into the hoppers. These granuals eould then be pressed to form the shape of a brick. Break any brick open and you can still see how these granuals form the structure of the brick. When you show the drone footage looking along the railway track, the remnants of the kiln on the right hand side of the track with the structure of the lower part of the chambers still visible is CK 1. (Carr Kiln 1) A little further into the distance justva bit more to the right is CK 3. CK 2 was a little further to the right just out of shot and was tge biggest brick kiln in the world with 80 chambers each holding, if memory serves me right, 80,000 bricks. All of the kilns on the other side of the railway track were Hoffman Kilns (HK 18, 19, 20, etc.) Theyverre all smaller than the Carr Kilns. When I was made redundant in 92 there were 500 million bricks stacked, unsold. It will be of little surprise tonlearn that last year (2023) the UK imported 500 million bricks, much of them from Pakistan were colleagues of mine were sent to train workers in LBC run factories over there innthe 1970's. Mad world. Hope this is useful.

[@eastmidlandstrainspotter2014]

Awesome Awesome video purple 💜

[@PurpleVision23]

Thank you Michael

[@jaybee4888]

Hi Purple Thanks for sharing this video, my father spend almost 30 years working at the Stewartby Brick Works as a Blocker (stacking the bricks once they came out of the kilns and had cooled) before he retired in 2005. Sadly he passed away this summer but I'm sure he would have been loved to share his experiences with you.

[@SMILEVIDEOTRAINS]

glad you went. nice to see.

[@PurpleVision23]

I wish I got to see it back in the day. Thanks for commenting and finding the time to watch

[@garrywatters1140]

I was an apprentice diesel mechanic at the Newton longville works back in the late seventies and early eighties. Used to go to Stewartby every six months to bolster our training. Vehicle electrics, the diesel pump room etc. Happy days indeed.

[@PurpleVision23]

Ah awesome. I love it when someone like yourself comes through. Thank you, you made me smile

[@ianfred8150]

I remember when the brickworks were open, when working on the track at Stewartby BR staff were allowed to use the works canteen. It was a wonderful proper old school works canteen, wish it was still there.

[@PurpleVision23]

Awesome sauce. So it was like a little partnership with the BR staff. Lovely bit of unity but I suppose without the railways, Stewartby would not have become the place that I was. Thanks for the insight. Top man

[@robbiewallis1344]

Dad used to work there as a driver 70's early 80s then moved up to Peterborough works. I still remember him smuggling me to work one day

[@PurpleVision23]

I bet you had a blast. I hear it's about to become a Universal Studios Theme park 😆

[@keithbeddoe305]

Hi purple x Steven👋My uncle did his 5yr apprenticeship in those sheds to become an engineer with Stewartby brick Co. I an still remember walking on top of the kilns when they were at full heat baking the bricks. there was an inspection hole you could look down (scarey 😱)

[@PurpleVision23]

Oh wow lovely connection

[@raylooney7070]

There's a short rail walk near to the stewartby platform purple.... Runs adjacent to the mainline.

[@PurpleVision23]

From Stewartby towards Bedford or Bletchley Keith?

[@raylooney7070]

@@PurpleVision23 towards Millbrook purple

[@ianfred8150]

Although Forders Sidings are closed off, the S&C leading into Forders are still listed as Network Rail assets and are still patrolled and maintained by Network Rail. So they're not giving up on Forders just yet.

[@PurpleVision23]

Good. I hope it's included with the Government's level up Britain program. We can only hope I suppose

[@bigmacntings7451]

fantastic video. My house is built from stewartby brick!. it is absolute top quality stuff, much much much more durable than the rubbish you get these days. This type of brick clay when hard fired is a real bitch to drill through though! it was made to last.

[@cziasai]

One word... "Asbestos". I looked into a sheds once and saw smashed sheets everywhere - inside and out. I would say, with an educated guess, that thats the reason the sheds are still standing. Enjoying the video a lot.👍

[@robertcaves3797]

You called them trucks, Don’t know what they were called.but there were hundreds of them being winched from the clay pits to the brick works, remember there were more brick works loved watching then as a kid ,ok would like to see them again.

[@PurpleVision23]

I don't know what they were called. Some kind of tipler hopper. Yh we explore the site of Flettons bricks and I have found my local clay pits. I love that industrial revolution period. Harsh times but look what was achieved. It really amazes me

[@larx4074]

Terrific explore Purple. Not sure if you've seen this before, the linked KZbin video shows Ransomes & Rapier Draglines and Face Shovels at various quarries; you'll see the brand-new Stanton Walking Dragline at Finedon Top Lodge Quarry of the Wellingborough Ironworks, the 5360 Face Shovel at Buccleuch Quarry, Finedon and towards the end of the video, the London Brick clay quarry at Stewartby, with the 2'-11" gauge railway with a Sentinel steam loco hauling the wagons, with lots of brick-kiln chimneys in the background. The other ironstone quarries are at Buckminster. Here is the link, enjoy: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oX6lfaqlhrqln8k

[@PurpleVision23]

Thanks epic