Jenny Lind Composition Brickworks, Carfin, North Lanarkshire

Canmore – Jenny Lind Brickworks, also known as Carfin Colliery Brickworks, A Jeffrey and Co. Ltd. (Note – SBH – I am not sure if this is true as both Jenny Lind and Carfin Colliery Brickworks may be marked separately on a 1910 map. Requires clarification).

These works made common bricks which were marked JENNY LIND, by the early to mid-1960s, the making of bricks had stopped and the site became A. Jeffrey and Co. Ltd producers of ‘Synthetic Moulding Sands, Crushed Fireclay Grog, Graded Refractory Sands’. The products were produced in crushers and wet pan mills.

The kilns have been demolished and the buildings from the brickworks period which survive are now altered to suit the present process and no trace of the brickworks can easily be recognised.

These Works are now part of Steeley Ceramics Division, Carfin.

Source 2013 – This brickworks is first depicted and named on the 1897 surveyed OS Map as ‘Jenny Lind Brickworks’ and subsequently as ‘Jenny Lind Composition Works’ by which time it was presumably milling fireclay for the local steelworks. This former brickworks has been demolished.

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22/08/1890 – Hamilton Herald –  Carfin – Trade prospects – We learn that Messrs Dixon are about to start some of their pits which have been standing idle for some considerable time. Those talked of being manned are the Big Pit adjoining the gas works and the Jenny Lind which adjoins the new brickwork owned by Messrs Millar and Park of Motherwell.

23/01/1891 – Hamilton Herald – Accident at the brickworks. On Friday afternoon, Thos Nelson (18), brickmoulder, Brushevs Row, Carfin met with an accident at the Jenny Lind Brickworks whereby he lost his 2nd and 3rd fingers at the second joint. He had put his right hand in under one of the levers to remove some clay when the lever came down inflicting the injuries stated. He should have used a flat piece of iron to remove the clay.

30/01/1892 – Death of Commissioner Archibald Millar on 29/01/1892 at Hamilton Street, Motherwell … Mr Millar was also a member of the firm of Millar and Park, Jenny Lind Brickworks Carfin.

05/02/1892 – Ayrshire Post – Ex-Bailie Millar died at his residence in Hamilton Street, Motherwell, on Friday after a painful illness of five months’ duration. The deceased gentleman, who was about 56 years of age, went from Ayrshire nearly 30 years ago and has since conducted a very prosperous business as a joiner and wood merchant. He was also a member of the firm of Millar & Park, of the Lind Brickworks, Carfin. In 1877 he was elected to the Commission Board, and three years later he was promoted to the magistracy, occupying the position of junior magistrate till his retiral in 1886. When the burgh was divided into wards in 1889 he again sought re-election and was returned for the Second Ward. Mr Millar was also a much respected elder in Dalziel Parish Church. He leaves a widow and family, for whom much sympathy is being expressed on all hands. (Lind = Jenny Lind).

1892 1896 – Invoices – Numerous. Millar and Park, Jenny Lind Brickworks, Carfin.

Below – 1897 – Jenny Lind Brickworks.

1899 – 1900 – Miller and Park, Brickmakers, Jenny Lind Works, Carfin. Office – Hamilton Street.

Below – 06/01/1899 – Motherwell Times – The N. B. Railway for Motherwell. How the bill was thrown out.

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1901 – Directory of Clayworkers – Jenny Lind Brickworks, Carfin, Motherwell.

1903 – Miller and Park, Brickmakers, Jenny Lind Works, Carfin. Office – Hamilton Street, Motherwell.

Below- 1910 – Jenny Lind Composition Works.

23/04/1915 – Motherwell Times – For sale second-hand brick in good condition. Apply Archie Crawford, Jenny Lind, Carfin.

01/06/1918 – Hamilton Advertiser – Ex Provost Robert Park passed away at Hamilton Street, Motherwell on 28/05/1912 … Along with the late Baillie Archibald Millar, he founded the Jenny Lind Brickworks at Carin.

11/05/1934 – Motherwell Times – There was some stir at Monday’s Dean of Guild Court when plans were passed for the erection of a new brickwork at Range Road by the Motherwell Brick Coy., Ltd., 29 St. Vincent Place, Glasgow, at an estimated cost of seven thousand pounds. The late John Watson made bricks in Watsonville on a small scale, and then the late Mr Archie Millar, joiner, and Mr Robert Park, builder set up a brickwork at Carfin, but the only active work of the kind now in our district is Dixon’s Brickwork at Carfin. With so many colliery dumps in and around our town, we have reason to hope that the new work may have a prosperous future before them, and be able to use up a portion of our unemployed people.

23/10/1936 – Motherwell Times – When one of Dixon’s pits was sunk it was named after Jenny Lind, the great singer known as ‘‘The Swedish Nightingale,” who visited Britain in the fifties of last century. A local brickwork also did her the honour of taking her name and millions of bricks were made with Jenny Lind stamped on each. Many of them were used in building locally and are still to be found during the demolition of old houses

Below – 1939 – Jenny Lind Composition Works.

Below – 1939 – Jenny Lind Brickworks.

28/05/1948 – Motherwell Times – A survey of the industry in the Carfin area lists the Jenny Lind Brickworks.

Mid 1960‘s -The making of bricks had stopped and the site became A. Jeffrey and Co. Ltd producers of ‘Synthetic Moulding Sands, Crushed Fireclay Grog, Graded Refractory Sands’. The products were produced in crushers and wet pan mills.

Below – c. 1975 – Photograph courtesy of David Ivey. Jenny Lind Brickworks.

1981 – The 1985 publication ‘A survey of Scottish brickmarks’ suggests that by 1981 Steetley Ceramics Division were the owners.

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