Handmade 'special' brick
At Prestongrange Brickworks bricks and tiles of any shape or size were manufactured by hand by skilled brickmakers working to customers’ specifications. Fireclay ’specials’ were made for specific situations in kiln or firebox linings.
This brick is ‘wedge’-shaped and was designed to be used to form an arch. One face is stamped PRESTON GRANGE and one edge surface is a rich purple colour (salt glaze and kiln residues). The ground colour is pale yellow with dark stippling.
Bricks were made at Prestongrange from the early nineteenth century. After 1872 the works were expanded and progressively mechanised and switched to using shale (blaes) and fireclay from the nearby colliery. By the nineteen fifties almost all of the colliery’s output was absorbed by the brickworks.
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