The History Of Ashdown Brickworks

Steve Chapman, Factory Manager at Ashdown Brickworks in Turkey Road, came to talk to the club about how brick production in the 1960’s compares to those produced today.

Steve began working in the coalmines of South Africa, moving on to Redland Bricks in the Midlands, and then on to Ashdown Brickworks where he has been for 27 years.

Previously known as “Lunsford” back in 1965, the factory produced 350,000 bricks per week in coal-fired kilns. It was a very manual process with teams adding coal to keep the furnace at high temperatures and other teams out in the quarry in all weathers extracting clay.

The bricks are made either by extrusion (squeezed like toothpaste) or by moulding (similar to making sandcastles.

40 years ago the factory was rebuilt with new kilns and new technologies. The new factory also a new logo; a dinosaur, to represent the fossils found and preserved during the new build. The owners soon thought to change that because a dinosaur doesn’t represent a modern, forward thinking company!

Owners Ibstock bought the land to the south of the factory to prevent any house-building so that no residents would need to worry about noise and smoke. This land is leased to Highwoods Golf Club for their driving range.

In the development of the site, Steve told us how they had to re-house four types of bat and build new badger setts. They encouraged the badgers to move to the new site by laying trails of peanuts and molasses to entice them to move.

Ashdown has bought land and developed enough to ensure a supply of clay for at least 25 years before they have to go to their reserve supply.

The factory exports bricks around the world including Japan, Ireland and Russia. 

Thank you Steve for such an enlightening talk.