Webster's Bricks

Hello Philip, that's a nice collection of bricks, thanks for posting. It reminds me of our conversation about coloured bricks on the Webster chimney. Looks like it could do with a bit of re-pointing! Martin.

Hi & thank you. I have sent Hayden a copy of your pic. I so wish he would come on here. Not only a display of colours, but also a display of various brick paterns, both blocks & stretchers. The bonding mix in chimneys was of importance too, with rigid cement at the base, then gradually easing to mortar mixes, which allow movement in wind as the height increases. It is a fascinating subject, on which my knowledge comes from working with civil engineers. I have hardly laid a brick in my life.

Some years ago the brickworks were going to have the chimney (pictured) taken down, the steeplejack arrived and put his ladders up and I was amazed how quick they done this, anyway he had a walk round the top came down had a chat with the management and went away, obviously the price was too high so it still stands today and you can see in the photo it's in very bad condition. It's a shame I hadn't got a camera with me, he could have taken some good shots from up there.

An update. The developers are making a start next May, and are going to build office blocks along the scrapyard side in an attempt to hide it from the rest of the new development. Will keep you posted when I hear of a date when the chimney is coming down.

Just discovered this fascinating thread, and quite surprised they were still making bricks in Coventry until quite recently. Superb set of photos highlighted by Midland Red at Websters. Very good historical record. I've lived in Fife for 40 years, another former coal mining area with numerous local brickworks. All gone now. When I built a garage in the mid 1970s, I got my bricks locally for about £24 per 1000. My neighbour who was also building a garage, came from Aberdeen and was looking for the cheapest bricks available. He found a another maker also close by who did them for £22 per 1000, however they were a bit bent (you get what you pay for), so he spent a lot more time than me trying to get the courses level. By the 1980s, there was only one brick works left in Fife about 25 miles from here. I got a lorry load of 6000 loose bricks from them for a project. There are now no brick works, and I believe there are none in Scotland at all, or maybe one. However, just down the road from here there's quite a large plant making concrete building blocks. A bit like the photo Philip showed above, I made a collection of bricks by the different local makers and it's now in the heritage centre. We live in a the house built in the 1870s by the owner of a local brickworks in Dunfermline, which I've restored over the years. Love the way this site has recorded so much local history in Coventry.

If anyone is really interested in bricks there is a collection from Stanley's of Nuneaton at the Coton Heritage Centre, Nuneaton.

Hi Heritage, Hi all There is a Stanley brick in my photo of Haydens collection of bricks. Bricks should be a very sad memory for me, because who would have ever thought that a little investment into bricks would go sour, but it did. The price dropped like a brick! The thing is I am still here & can smile. That was in the seventies. It was just as well that my loss there was more than made up for with "Double-Diamond", which worked wonders! It tasted better too.

What amazes me Philip is the Managing Director still deals in bricks, by way of someone else makes them for him, although the quality is not as good, he must be making money or else he would not do it

This is a shot of the somewhat flooded claypit, I took this from a framed picture hanging on the wall in the office at the brickworks

Hi. The buildings just seen at the top were part of Courtaulds & the foundations were always sinking into the ground, producing very odd shaped buildings.

I found this old newspaper clipping pinned to the notice board today at the brickworks, it shows that there were more chimneys on the site than you can see now. This one looks like it was standing where the scrapyard is now

Thanks for posting this, Norm - fascinating, especially the air raid sirens

I worked for R M Wilson Builders Ltd of Coombe Street, they used bricks from Webster's. One delivery driver in particular was a Jamaican man whose name was Harold, a very jovial man. We looked forward to his deliveries, we always had a good laugh when we unloaded his lorry, by hand in those days, no cranes or pallets, 3000 bricks per load. He made what was a very boring task quite pleasurable

Update on the redevelopment of the brickworks site, the scrapyard next door have agreed to relocate to Exhall (by the motorway bridge). so they are reverting back to the original plan of incorporating the scrapyard land into the redevelopment. Work will start in June 2015

NormK, does that mean that J & H B Jackson are going up to Shepherd's yard?