The London Brick Company

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The London Brick Company
Type	Private (subsidiary of Hanson plc)
Founded	1900
Headquarters	Stewartby, Bedfordshire, England, UK
Industry	Brickmaking
Products	Bricks and paviors
Parent	Hanson plc
Website	http://www.hanson.co.uk/

The London Brick Company is reputed to be the largest brick makers in the United Kingdom. Although now part of Hanson plc London Brick is still in existence. It has been estimated that a quarter of all brick built houses in Britain are built from London brick ^[1].

[edit] History

The London Brick Company was established in 1899 by John Cathles Hill, and incorporated in 1900 by Sir Malcolm Stewart in the Marston Vale, The Company grew out of the Peterborough and Fletton Brick works. The London Brick Company started making London bricks in the 1920s and demand peaked in the 1950s and 1960s with the rebuilding after World War II.

At the time of its creation in 1898/99 The London Brick works at Peterborough had the largest Hoffman Kiln in the world, capable of holding 1,000,000 bricks at a time.

It has been estimated that the production of London bricks hit a peak of 16 million per day. During the 1950's a lack of local workforce forced the company to look overseas. Many of the Italian families in Bedfordshire came over to England at that time to work in the brickworks of the Marston Vale ^[2].

Towards the end of the 1960s demand for bricks fell and the company had to look to other means of making profits. London Brick Land Fill was formed and began the tipping of household and industrial refuse into the old clay pits that littered the area.

In the 1970s The London Brick Company bought out several competitors including Marston Valley Brick Company and Redland Brick Ltd. But the decline in demand for bricks forced the first set of redundancies at the company in 1974. Some of the works were closed and the rest were modernised. The closure of the Ridgmont pit in 1983 enabled the company to stay profitable, with 1,100 workers being made redundant, however, the company was then taken over by Hanson in 1984.

Wootton Pillinge was renamed Stewartby in 1937 in recognition of the Stewart family who had been instrumental in developing the brickworks. The Stewartby brickworks closed in March 2008 ending years of production. The site is still home to the headquarters of Hanson's brick division.

At the height of the industry’s production there were 167 (one hundred and sixty seven!) brick chimneys in the Marston Vale.

In the 1970’s Bedfordshire produced 20% of England’s bricks.

The factories used Lower Oxford Clay, which is made up of 5% seaweed, formed 150 million years ago when it was on the sea bed. This removed the need to add coal to the fire, as the organic material burned.

The company name lives on and the Hanson website states that there are currently 34 different types of London Brick being produced in their range today, many of which are still made in Stewartby.