Scotland's Brick Manufacturing Industry

Found at Eaglecairn, Haddington and donated by Nick Basden. Thomas Thornton & Sons at the Abercorn Brickworks, High Street, Portobello. . . . .

Canmore The Niddrie Brickworks, near Edinburgh, was a large common brickworks built in 1924 to supply bricks for house building by the Niddrie & Benhar Coal Co. It had three large Hoffman continuous kilns, and latterly, a modern shuttle kiln. The works closed in 1991 and were demolished. 04/04/1878 – Falkirk Herald – On Saturday…

Found by Ann Currie in the Cockburnspath, Berwickshire area. This is a hart top. It would have had a metal grating on top. It would be set in the ground and a downpipe would drop into it taking rainwater away from a roof. The bottom would fit into a trap prior to the pipework to…

Canmore At Portobello, close to the mouth of the Braid Burn (Figgate Burn), brick clay has been worked since 1765. The oldest pits have long been abandoned. Not far from their sites others have been opened from time to time, worked for a time and then closed. These pits are all grouped together within an…

. Annals of Duddingston and Portobello – 1898 Below – 25/02/1775 – Caledonian Mercury – The corn mill at Frigate Bridge is advertised for sale. Apply to Mr Jameson, the proprietor at the brick and tyle works. Below – 11/11/1782 – Caledonian Mercury – Lands and Tenements of Portobello and a house in Nicholson Street…

. . . . . Below – The Village of Figget (Portobello) 1783.  William Baird’s Annals of Duddingston & Portobello (1898) .. About the year 1763, a new settlement began to be formed in the parish at the mouth of the Figgate Burn, consequent upon the finding of a valuable bed of clay, and the starting…

Below – 21/09/1812 – Caledonian Mercury – Fire brick and Clay Joppa. To consumers of fire brick and fire clay – The public are informed, they can now be supplied with these articles from the brickwork at Joppa, three miles from Edinburgh, on the London road.  The brick has already been submitted to the severest tests….

Found Old Niddrie brickworks, Cleikimin, Edinburgh. Scott Turner – Turner’s Limited, Abercorn brick and tile works, Portobello. Turners Ltd Coal & Quarry Masters & brick manufacturers, 130 George Street, Edinburgh. TA Freestone. This might read “S Turners” but the initial S could be a mark left by the screws holding the plate / stamp together. ….

Found Newcraighall, Edinburgh Abercorn Brickworks, Portobello, Midlothian. . . . .  

Found in Jedburgh, Scottish Border. George Ingram, Westbank Brick and Tile Works, Portobello. . .   . . Below – The same stamp on a red clay example found by Ian Suddaby in Leith, Edinburgh. The frog is slightly narrower too.