Cattybrook Brickpit

Cattybrook Brickpit (grid reference ST594835) is a 2.2-hectare (5.4-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest near the village of Almondsbury, South Gloucestershire, notified in 1989. It began as a clay pit and brickworks.

Cattybrook Brickpit
Site of Special Scientific Interest
Area of SearchAvon
Grid referenceST594835
InterestGeological
Area2.2 hectares (5.4 acres)
Notification1989
Location mapEnglish Nature

The Cattybrook Brick Company was established in 1864.[1] In 1903 Cattybrook also acquired the nearby Shortwood Brickworks.[1] From 1972, they were taken over by the Ibstock Group.[1][2]

The brickworks are located immediately to the North of the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway, then under construction through the Severn Tunnel. By the end of 1883, the tunnel's enormous demand for bricks with which to line the tunnel was taking 100,000 bricks per month from Cattybrook. This was only a small proportion of the tunnel's need though and three other brickworks were supplying the tunnel, 1,200,000 per month in total.[3] After completion of the tunnel, these brickworks and their masons were unemployed, leading to an over-supply of cheap bricks in the area and the first speculative housing developments in the new railway villages such as Rogiet and Pilning.

The bricks were also used to construct Maidenhead Viaduct.

See also

References
  1. Doughty, Martin; Ward, Owen (1975). "Shortwood Brickworks" (PDF). J. BIAS. Bristol Industrial Archaeological Society. 8.
  2. "A brief history of Ibstock Brick…".
  3. Walker, Thomas A. (2004) [1888]. The Severn Tunnel. Stroud: Nonsuch Publishing. p. 116. ISBN 1-84588-000-5.

Sources


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