The Colne Road Brickworks - although the yard is filled with pipes rather than bricks. A horse-powered pugmill, which was used to prepare the raw clay, is on the right and you can see part of the track made as the horse walks round and round turning the mill. It was usually a boy's job to drive the horse; a 14 year old lad, Charles Burke, was killed doing just this in Earls Colne in 1886 when he somehow got his head in the wrong place and it was crushed by the pole. It was bought in the early twentieth century by Harry Bryan Saunders and the story in his family was that the works had to close during WW1 as the fires powering the kilns would have been visible from the air and might make the town itself a target. Bricks from these brickworks were used for the four-and a-half mile wall around Braxted Park.
Good brick-earth occurs throughout Coggeshall and there were brickworks at Tilkey, Robinsbridge Road and on both sides of the Colne Road. This one is between the old Alexandra pub and the fire station site. (Photo courtesy Coggeshall Museum)
Ref 100/35
Good brick-earth occurs throughout Coggeshall and there were brickworks at Tilkey, Robinsbridge Road and on both sides of the Colne Road. This one is between the old Alexandra pub and the fire station site. (Photo courtesy Coggeshall Museum)
Ref 100/35
Also in: Church Street
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