John Potter "engine driver" -> accident ? -> "bricks" ? (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Wednesday, May 07, 2014, 14:43 (3847 days ago) @ Jefff

You mention bricks, are there any other mentions of brickmaking, for example, in his history ?. Where I live on the western edge of London, Hillingdon north of Heathrow, throughout the 1800s there were several brickfields - areas of the right clay etc to allow a thriving brickmaking business to feed Victorian London's huge expansion. c1870 five million bricks were made a year !, the Grand Junction canal from the Midlands(Worcester) area towards London served this important local industry, with newer canal spurs extended west towards Slough for this very purpose.
Not sure yet how relevant, but the aforementioned 1879 Kelly's Directory for the area mentions "The soil is Clayey and loamy; subsoil, rock and clay." Furthermore the Linton section lists this entry.
"Finney William, brick & tile makers, Stream Hall stone quarry" c1879, Linton

As well as the railways, John Potter's engine may have been a stationary one driving factory machinery, or maybe stone saws at a quarry, or a heavy crane, or maybe a road traction engine hauling heavy loads (stone?). Any more info you can share on his life would be most gratefully received, thanks.

To my great pleasure and surprise, here's the very first result I've got from searching the phrase "Bromyard brickmaking" on tinternet, from what looks an excellent Herefordshire website which I'll be revisiting soon.

Linton tile and brick works (Stream Hall Quarry), Bromyard
SMR Number : 30573
Grid Reference : SO 6680 5415
Parish : BROMYARD AND WINSLOW, HEREFORDSHIRE
Large 19th century brickworks adjacent to the Bromyard to Worcester road with clay pit about 3.9 ha behind it shown on the 1964 O S map. The Worcester to Bromyard railway ran alongside the works and had their own sidings. A much smaller quarry is shown in the same place on the first edition map. The brick works are shown on the first edition with a smaller brickworks to the north of the road. Neither of these brickworks are shown on the 1841 tithe map. The Linton Tileries was called Stream Hall quarry in 1879. William Finney's firm was making bricks and tiles. It became a limited company in the 20th century. Spllied tiles for the Admiralty and War Office in 1914. Had a contract with the Egyptian State Railways and tiles were sent out to them. Stream Hall in 1842 was a smallholding with house and farm buildings owned and occupied by John Fudger. By 1878 was a sandstone quarry employing many Bromyard people. It was owned by William Finney who lived on Bromyard downs. By 1879 the firm was making brick and tiles. They were made from Old Red Sandstone marls. The railway to Yearsett (3.5 miles from Bromyard) was opened in 1874 and transported bricks and tiles. In 1887 the line was extended to Bromyard and to Leominster; there were sidings at the tile works. The works secured the largest contract for paving tiles ever placed in the country by a foreign government for the Egyptian railways. It also made tiles for the Admiralty and War Office. The tile works closed in the 1970s, though small scale work continued until the 1980s. Landscaping occurred in the 1980s. The site in 2000 was being used as a Council waste site. R Lewis listed as owner/worker of Hodgebatch, Linton in the Kelly's 1891 directory. In 1968 the work employed about 50 men. It is called a tile works so presumably it no longer made bricks.
http://htt.herefordshire.gov.uk/smrSearch/Monuments/Monument_Item.aspx?ID=30573

Of course no hard evidence yet that John was involved in this business, but he was certainly in the right area at the right time. This looks like a business that thrived in Victorian times, and would certainly have offered better pay, hours and prestige than the more traditional employment of labourer at local farms and orchards.

??

As a proud mechanical engineer (or just a metal-basher to my electronics colleagues) I'm pleased to be reminded this country used to be able to make things... yes I know the Industrial Revolution was a very dangerous and unhealthy place to work and live, but it did make Britain "Great".