“Without doubt, the completion of the NMR [North Midland Railway] line and the establishment of George Stephenson’s company in 1837 had a profound effect upon Clay Cross. The transformation [was] from an agrarian based economy to an industrial based one…”
Cliff Williams. Driving the Clay Cross Tunnel, 1984.
In his book, Cliff tells us that a prodigious number of bricks were needed to build the Clay Cross Tunnel, and in the summers of 1837, 1838 and 1839 more than 15 million bricks were made by hand for the project. But this was not the only need for bricks. The men, and their families, employed in building the tunnel and railway needed to be housed, and in 1838 East and West Tunnel Row were built, with more and more buildings erected over the following years, as the coal mining boom began in our district.
There were many brickyards in North East Derbyshire to supply the building boom, and early trade directories record a number of brick-makers in Tupton, including one at New Tupton belonging to Mr Charles Oxley, and another in the township owned by by Mr Richard Medcalf and Mr Thomas Slack. Here I give my (not very complete) notes for one particular site next to Clay Cross Station in Tupton township.
By the 1870s a builder named Henry Green had acquired parcels of land in Hepthorne Lane. When he sold off this building land in 1873, one of the lots was described as ‘a plot of land containing admeasurement 2126 square yards or thereabouts, with brick kiln, clay mill, and pond thereon now in the possession of the said Green’, was this was the station brickyard?
The brickyard near the station was then managed by Mr Reuben Bannister, who had come to the district in the 1840s to work for the Clay Cross Company as a brick-maker. Mr Bannister was also a prominent local Methodist preacher. In 1861 he lived at Broadleys in Clay Cross, and was listed on the census as a brick-maker master, employing 2 men, 3 labourers and 3 boys. White’s Directory of 1862 lists him as a brick, tile and drainpipe maker of Danesmoor, and Harrod’s Directory of 1870 lists him as the manager of a ‘Brick, Tile and Drainpipe Works, near Clay Cross Station’.
The stock at the brickyard near the station was advertised for sale in 1875, this time with Mr Bannister as the proprietor ‘declining the business’. But Mr Bannister was still living at the brickyard house in 1881, and listed as a brick and tile maker.
On the 1891 census Mr Bannister’s home at the brickyard was named ‘Springfield House’. His great-nephew, Mr George Enoch Bannister Knighton also lived at a house nearby, and worked as a brick burner. Shortly after this, Mr Bannister retired from the business and passed it over to Mr Knighton.
In September 1900, Mr Reuben Bannister, now about 78 years old, was knocked down and run over by some trucks in sidings near the station. He was taken to hospital, and one of his legs was amputated, but he died from his injuries (Derbyshire Courier 29 September & 6 October 1900).
Mr George Knighton continued to manage the brickyard and lived at Springfield House for some years, though by 1919 the brickyard was owned by the Clay Cross Company. Mr Knighton had moved to Brimington, where he died in 1929.
In 1919 Clay Cross Company were fined for employing women to work at the brickyard after 9pm. One newspaper described the company as ‘fifty years behind the times’ for doing so (Derby Daily Telegraph 13 December 1919).
Another blog on brick-making in our district can be found here:https://brimingtonandtaptonhistory.org.uk/2021/05/03/brimington-brickmaking-in-the-spotlight/
And for the brick enthusiasts there is https://eastmidlandsnamedbricks.blogspot.com/2015/10/east-derbyshire-brickworks.html – where you will find pictures of some more Clay Cross bricks.
North Wingfield 
You must be logged in to post a comment.