Mansfield's Forgotten Places.

If you were to ask people where was Mansfield’s Brick Works ?  My guess would be that only a few people would know. Although it was defunct when I was young, the Kilns and the pond were still there.

The Brick Works were at the end of ” Moor Lane ” and spread down to the railway lines at the top of Bradder Street.

Ten Row

At the Brick Works side of the railway lines stood a row of stone houses, These stone houses were called  ” Ten Row” and faced the railway lines.  Between the houses and the railway lines there was a stone wall about four feet in height. I remember seeing these houses being demolished, must have been around 1939, long after the Brick Works were closed.It is quite possible they were there for the Brick workers

Victoria Terrace

Victoria Terrace,( My Aunt lived at number 6 ).  The houses of Victoria Terrace stood sort of back to front,  their back yards, with coal houses and toilets at the rear along side the Brick Works. Along the back of the terraced houses there was an unmade road between the Kilns  and the outhouses, this road was a continuation of the Back Lane to Bradder Street, which crossed over the railway lines and took you past the tops of Cambridge Street, Princess Street, Victoria Street, and Moor Street, along Moor Lane, past Moor Lane school and on to Sutton Road.

St Aidens Church

Between the top of Princess Street, and Victoria Street, at the top of an embankment stood Saint Aidens Church. The church was made of timber and corrugated iron sheeting. Mr Oliver was the vicar.

At the front of Victoria Terrace houses they had long narrow gardens that overlooked the hay-field. All the gardens were well stocked and cared for with all kinds of fruit and vegetables.

Smelly Pigs

At the beginning of Victoria Terrace was an Off-Licence run by Mr and Mrs Blower. Just a couple of times I caught my dad having tot of whiskey in there for 2d. He never went into a pub! When you walked onto the hayfield along side of Mr Blowers garden, one had to hold their nose as Mr Blower kept pigs in a sty.

At the other end of Victoria Terrace was a club which I would think did very well when the Brick Works were working.

Brick Yard Pond

The Brick Work kilns continued at the side of the club and up to the brickyard pond. As a youngster I used to play and crawl through some of the derelict kilns. And I’m afraid the brickyard pond did claim a few lives.

It was eventually filled in and cleared in the late 1940’s .

Comments about this page

  • A friend whose family lived in Intake Avenue, her father was Mason the builder, they built much of High Oakham Hill, in fact lived there. Also a foundry was on what is now Weston Avenue, and a bowling green was about there too, another friend’s relatives had the house built on the corner of Sutton Rd. Sheep Bridge Lane, and another former friend’s aunt had the Bleak House Club, The Hermitage was lived in by I believe George Vallance, and houses built near it following it being sold etc. J Frame mentioned earlier lived on High Oakham Hill.

    By Mark Wilson (30/06/2019)
  • The land on which Washington Drive estate stands was indeed formerly occupied by an Iron Foundry / Engineering Works. Access to the offices of the company was via an entrance at the junction of Hermitage Ave & Western Ave, the works itself was down a drive at the Mansfield end of Western Ave. There’s a new property built now, four houses in on the left from Mansfield. They also, in the early days, had their own railway siding. I visited a few times in the early 70’s whilst employed by Taylor and Brown Typewriters. There were three companies on site, Meadow Foundry Co Ltd., Sanderson & Robinson (Engineers) Ltd., and Korting Bros (1917) Ltd. I seem to recall trouble making in the local paper with the residents on Western Ave and Hermitage Ave., complaining about heavy lorries using their streets to get to the works!

    By Berisford Jones (23/02/2013)
  • Hi Chris and Simon. On the left of Hermitage Lane before the first bridge from Sutton Road, were, and still is a row of houses. I don’t think they had numbers, but house names. After the houses there was a company by the name of J.O.Frames Ltd, for many years they were Hosiery Manufacturers. employing many staff. The factory had quite a big piece of the land, before they too went out of business. The other company occupying the rest of the land was the Layne Brothers (Builders ) Supplies.

    By alan curtis (14/02/2013)
  • Just off Hermitage Lane, Mansfield, lies a small housing estate of about 60-80 houses.It’s about 20 years old. Nobody seems to know its history. What was here before the houses. I’ve heard it may have been a large engineering works or possibly a foundry. Does anyone know or even better, where I might discover any pictures?

    By Chris Madden (13/02/2013)
  • Alan, do you know what the area was to the left of Hermitage lane going down from Sutton Road end just before going under the railway bridge. Its now a new housing estate on Washington drive. It was mentioned to me that it may have been an old railway engineering works, but unsure. Or was it just one of the many brickworks.Do you know ?

    By Simon Leivers (12/02/2013)
  • That is correct the little Church was called St Chads I believe. It was right next some offices ,or something like that, which was surrounded by a barbed wire fence along the Sutton Rd side and Moor Lane side. At the corner was the local Post Office box. I do not recall seeing it when I walked along Moor Lane back in 2008, I think there are bungalows now, and some more where the old factory was at the top end of Moor Street.. where I lived.

    By Mike Frost (06/09/2012)
  • This comment has been copied from the Scout page as it is also relevant to this page -    The Editors St Aidans Church is on the top of Victoria St, The Mansfield Stone and Brickworks is on the opposite side of the road along with Victoria Terrace. Between Sibthorpe St and Field Mill there were Quarries The Old Lord Byron pub is shown just after the viaduct and on the other side of the Maun.I remember seeing it in the late 1940s. it looked as it could fall down any minute.

    By Tom Shead (04/09/2012)
  • Just to go back to Tom’s comment above Ref. St. Aidens Church at the top of New Victoria St. Mansfield. This church was a small corrugated iron church which stood at the top of the banking of the Brickyard . The Vicar’s name in the 1930’s was Father Oliver…At one time I was a Choir Boy.. When I came back home from service in the forces in 1953. the Church had been demolished and a new one built on Moor Lane at the junction with Sutton Road and opposite Moor Lane School.

    By Alan Curtis (04/09/2012)
  • Correction!! The Brick works is shown on the 1913 map, I thought the site was a farmhouse on the left side before the Ladybrook Lane junction on the level area. There is a faint W for works which I missed. The area for the works is small compared with the Hermitage brickworks at the Hermitage/Sutton Rd junction which shows a vast area. How many people realise their houses are built on an industrial site? Sherwood Colliery Brickworks were owned by the Colliery owners. The bricks were very hard, anyone who worked in the building trade will tell you it was hard work drilling or chopping out Sherwood bricks, they were made from clay and pit waste I believe.

    By Tom Shead (03/07/2012)
  • The nearest I ever got to Bradder Street was Field Mill so never knew a brickyard existed. But there was another one adjacent to Sherwood Colliery. Bricks made in Mansfield were quite renowned, were they the Same companies?

    By Malcolm Raynor (29/06/2012)
  • Looking at the 1913 Mansfield map the Quarry Lane/ Hermitage Lane area was littered with Quarries and Brickworks. The Hermitage Lane/ Sutton Road junction, the R/H side going to the railway bridge was where the Hermitage Brickworks was located and went down to the Railway line and took up a large area. Brick Kiln Lane came about because of the presence of Clay in the Fishpond Farm area but no evidence of the kilns in 1913.

    By Tom Shead (27/06/2012)
  • More thoughts about the brickyard pond. The story of the pond was told as such – to the top left of the Brickyard, going toward Moor Lane, there used to be another stone quarry next to the Brickworks.The story passed down was that whilst quarrying for the stone, which was reputed to be the best in the area, the depth of the quarry was quite deep, the quarrymen who were drilling/boring/blowing up/ or cutting for the stone, breached an underground spring of wate . The water soon filled the excavation and the quarry had to be abandoned. This during my time was proven by on three sides of the pond there were huge blocks of stone edging the pond, and the side nearest to the Brickworks was the side of the pond that was used to tip waste, that eventually filled in the pond. All kinds of waste were used to fill the pond in, which did include old oil drums, the oil formed a thick coating that floated on top of the water, and as previously said, the pond did claim a few lives.. It was a blessing when it was finally filled in and covered.

    By alan curtis (23/06/2012)
  • Alan: you again raise some fond memories. I recall the “beeroff” we used to get a “note” from our parents for several bottles of shandy, then after purchasing went into the old rail cars to consume it. I recall there was 2 ponds on the far side of the “tip” we called one the “coco” pond due to its colour. The other was a bit larger and the water was clearer, this would be in 1959-1961 range and even from around 1950 onwards. Fell in that pond a number of times. Recall the gypsies very clearly. I had a couple of friends who lived in the area of the Brickyard, 1 was a fellow named Colin Flowers, we were in Moor Lane and High Oakham and there was a girl but cannot recall her name. In 1959 I had moved to the top end of Moor Street right where the road to the Brick Yard met with Moor Lane. Mike Frost

    By Mike Frost (22/05/2012)
  • At least once a year in the Brickyard, there were Gypsies who moved onto the site….They came in their horse drawn, green covered and hand painted caravans…They would park their caravans on the lower ground of the brickyard near to the top of Princess Street, and at the bottom of the embankment of St. Aiden’s church….They tethered their horses away from the vans on long tethers to enable them to roam, but not move away too far….The Gypsies were real Romany folk…..There were 4 or 5 Caravans, and folk would give them a wide birth when having to pass them…I became quite friendly with a young lad about my age, who showed me inside the caravan which gave me a very good insight into how they lived….They made much out of nothing….And to make a living they made beads, they also would take a small branch and shave it down to make a flower head, then dip it in some colouring, and when dry,they took them round selling them door to door…Telling you it would bring you good luck if you bought from them.. The same Gypsies came every year….

    By alan curtis (06/04/2012)

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