Below- 07/04/1764 – Caledonian Mercury … Mid Calder … Wanted also a person well skilled in making brick and tiles who is desired to send to the above Alexander Menzies, a note of his lowest demand per thousand for making thereof, and of the days wages demanded by him for searching for proper materials.
Source – Sourcing Scottish Redwares by George Haggarty, Derek Hall and Simon Chenery – In those areas of Britain where there were suitable clays and, generally, little useful stone available, bricks started to become popular in the mid-1400s. However, this was not the case in Scotland where there was an abundance of good building stone….
1799 – ‘Scotland Delineated or a Geographical Description of every Shire in Scotland’ Edinburgh; Bell & Bradfute & G. G. & J. Robinson London … Near Cousland are a brickworks and a pottery p. 371. (Many thanks to George Haggarty for forwarding this information).
Kilbagie Distillery Brickworks, Clackmannan, Clackmannanshire. Canmore This advert below infers that the Kilbagie Distillery may have had its own brickworks. Below – 03/10/1789 – Caledonian Mercury. . . Below – Brick kilns.
14/07/1923 – Glasgow Herald – Man was not long on the world’s stage when he commenced to work clay and impress on its plastic surface his primitive ideas. A common clay brick, even to the initiated tells its story and forms an important clue in the history of man. In Scotland, the earliest bricks made…
Notes researched and compiled by George R Haggarty. A brickwork constructed by Joseph Sandes, merchant in Leith sometime prior to the 28th. Sept.1709 2. A brickwork constructed by Gilbert Mathieson Merchant in Edinburgh, and former Baillie of Leith c. 1727; later owned by John Kyle and subsequently by Trinity House. TRINITY HOUSE…
Below – 1778 – Pittigrews Tileworks, Havana Street, Glasgow. Below – c. 1807 – There is no reference to the Tileworks but Miss Pettigrew still owns the land which is now dissected by Duke Street (named in 1795?)
Researching through the old newspapers there are several references to brickworks being located in the South Leith Links area of Edinburgh around the late 18th century. The locations are often vague and difficult to pinpoint. All such references are detailed below. It is appreciated they may not all refer to the exact same location. Indeed…
Low Cocklaw Brick and Tile Works are 100 yards on the English side of the border situated near Edrington Castle Farm in Scotland. (Note – SBH – I am referencing this tileworks as the claypit is right on the Scottish Border and they would have undoubtedly had Scottish customers). Interestingly the ScotlandPlaces website and the…
1776 – 1847 – William Weston Young (1776–1847) Quaker Entrepreneur of Bristol and Glamorganshire; artist, botanist, wreck-raiser, surveyor, potter, and inventor of the firebrick. (Silica fire brick ?) William Weston Young, born 20 April 1776, Lewin’s Mead, Bristol, England, into a devout Quaker family, the third son of Edward Young, a Bristolian merchant and Sarah (Sally) Young (née Weston). He…
1799 – William Muir and Co, brick and tyle makers, Calton, Glasgow.
