Webster's Bricks

Does anyone have any memories of the brickworks which was located near Priestley's Bridge off the Stoney Stanton Road? A load of their bricks were recently fly tipped in Whitley Village. Probably still there if you want a little slice of 'Made in Coventry' history. Edit 29 May 2015: As the original image has been removed by the poster, here are two links to the bricks he mentioned: Photo 1 Photo 2

Yes, I remember Websters brickyard, almost opposite the old Prince of Wales cinema (aka The Fleapit). It was a very dangerous place with a very deep and sheer sided pool at its centre. I remember it because my older brother and his friend both aged about fourteen pinched some blasting explosive from there and took it to the bomb craters at the back of the Devonshire Arms and tried to explode it on a small fire, at first this did not work but as the other boy leaned over it it exploded in his face temporarily blinding him. I led him to the closest houses and then I am ashamed to say, ran away with the other kids. We were in big trouble after that!!! I understood at the time that the brickyard was partly owned by the comedian Norman Wisdom but cannot confirm this.

BLASTING EXPLOSIVE!!!!! :O Love it! Health & Safety would have a field day nowadays with that one! Older brothers are terrible at that age - when mine was 14 him and his mates used to nick aerosol cans and put them on a fire. Eventually people on the estate started to wonder where all their cans were going and what all the loud bangs were coming from the nearby waste ground. The police were called and rounded up all the teenagers involved and gave them a stern telling off at Fletchamstead Highway in front of their parents. Which put a stop to it. Boys and explosions eh? [To any kids reading this: DON'T TRY IT. Stick to pretend mass murder & explosions on your Xbox or PS3]

The recent thread about Courtaulds chimney prompted me to ask about Webster's chimney off Stoney Stanton Road. I lived near here for a few years and the chimney has always fascinated me. It still smoked up until approx 1996/7 and has been unused since then. Can anyone tell me when it was built or any other facts about it? Many thanks Martin.

Hi, I do not know if this will help. Type 'midland brick' in search. There seems to be a potted history about Webster's. I used to play in the quarry there as a kid, wonder I never killed myself. lol

I think you mean this site.... Midland Brick

Hello. Websters Brick Works was the last of several in the area of Foleshill. Broad St was called Brick Kiln Lane at one time. Websters had exhausted the clay from the available area. They sold the site to a scrap metal operator 1998. I need to research to say much more so will leave it at that for now. Hope that starts you off.

Many thanks for those details and the photo. I have some other photos of the chimney as I managed to get right up close to it via Webster's Park. It is badly cracked and has been repaired many times by the look of things. I believe it is due to be demolished as part of the housing development in this area, that will be a shame after all those years of standing there and minding its own business! Many thanks Martin.

I worked at Websters brickworks for 15 years and I retired from there 4 years ago. I agree that the clay did run out, but they now buy clay in from other clay pits. They still manufacture bricks there but on a smaller scale.

Welcome to our forum NormK - nice to have you on board!

Hello NormK Thank you for that info. I hope that you enjoy being part of our site here. We in Coventry sometimes tend to think of all aspects to do with all trades & forget the importance of the bricks. Quite apart from civil construction, our foundries relied on a regular supply of bricks. I believe that it was the mix of fine engineering skills & brick production that set Coventry's industrial history for more than a century from which foundation so much emerged. The site between the Stoney Stanton Rd & the Courtaulds Engineering buildings was some heck of a big hole, hey! I went on a supervised visit to the base of the quarry just before a start was made to fill it in.

Hello everyone. In the early days the Hoffman kiln was fired with coal, later they changed over to oil firing and then gas firing. The chimney smoked up until the time of gas burners. The Hoffman got in such a bad state because it is brick built and had to be continually repaired, the brick arches would sag and became dangerous, we rebuilt a lot of it over the years. This kiln is still there but not used. To replace it we built 3 steel ones which are heavily insulated to prevent the heat burning the steel away and can be fed by forklift truck with lowered masts which makes the job a lot easier because the Hoffman was all handball in and out because of the low arches. When I retired from there they produced between 20/30,000 bricks a day which ain't bad considering all the plant used is original and breaks down on a regular basis and you would not want to work there because it is serious hard graft.

Hi NormK Thank you for that. Gosh! When I started my accountancy with Courtaulds Engineering, good quality bricks cost between £9 & £17 per thousand, depending on density & so on. That dates me, hey? Thank you so much.

I practically lived over the brickworks when I was a kid, I was born in Leicester Causeway and went to Red Lane school and later Broad Street. It was a great place to pass the time, I used to wash my shoes in the canal on the way home because if my mother saw any clay on them she would know where I had been. They blasted the sandstone in those days and we would collect the thin wire after the bang to make wire animals. In the summer we would swim in the water and it was always freezing cold. Did anyone go to Red Lane school? I started there in 1947 and left Broad Street in 1956.

I was in the brickworks this morning, I generally go down to have a chat and a cuppa with the security guy who is a good friend of mine, his office is a metal clad Portacabin at the base of the chimney that the council left behind after filling both claypits which took them nearly 10 years to complete. Anyway we was looking up talking about the chimney and I noticed about 20/30ft of the copper lightning strip was missing at the bottom, I do not know how long ago it got pinched but surely these things do not work too well because that old chimney seems quite happy standing there without one.